The Durham County Board of Commissioners is on track for a final vote Monday on its $1 billion 2025-26 budget. And of all the line items (see: 43 new vehicles for the sheriff, 12 new EMS personnel), the county’s public school system is set to be its single highest expenditure.
The Durham Public Schools (DPS) board of education had asked the county to fund a $222 million operating budget, which would be about a $16 million increase from last year. The county manager, in her draft budget, countered with a $10 million increase.
Anything and everything is subject to change in the week before final approval (last year, DPS requested a roughly $27.7 million increase, the then-county manager countered with a $13 million increase, and the commission eventually met the board at $27 million).
But the school board is already planning for the worst while hoping for the best. In a recent meeting, Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Teetor walked the board through a budget exercise that showed how the district may cut back some plans if it does not get the full increase it sought.
Here’s where the board’s asks may stand if the county doesn’t meet the full request:
Nonnegotiable: $6.3 million in continuation costs
DPS, like the rest of us, is dealing with a world that continues to get more and more expensive (the district, for example, anticipates a $220,000 increase in its utility bills). DPS needs an additional $6.3 million to maintain operations, so a majority of the increase from the county (whether $10 million or $16 million) would go to literally just staying open for another year.
While keeping the lights on is certainly a low bar, Durham isn’t alone in facing school funding challenges this year. Orange County’s manager initially presented a proposal that would not even meet the county’s school districts’ continuation needs. Wake County’s allocation to its schools will increase by $40 million next year, but will still fall short of the school system’s stated need by about $20 million.
Nonnegotiable: $2 million more to charter schools
Under North Carolina law, districts are required to transfer “an amount equal to the per pupil share” of public school funding to charter schools (i.e., the dollars follow the student). So the county can’t increase funding for DPS without doing the same for charter schools. Of DPS’s roughly $700 million total budget last year (including local, federal, and state funds), about $43 million of local taxpayer money passed through to charter schools along with 8,200 students.
Likely fully funded: $1.1 million for additional exceptional children support
The school board indicated that they would likely commit $1.1 million to exceptional children services as planned regardless of the county’s final amount.
The state provides additional per-student funding for students with special needs, but only for up to 13 percent of the total district enrollment. Teetor told the county commission at a work session last week that about 16.4 percent of DPS students would qualify for that funding. Ideally, he said, the state would provide $5.5 million, but until that happens, DPS will ask the county to foot the bill.
“We maybe don’t need to come in front of you looking for $5.5 million for that, but [we can] try to stagger that over time and slowly close that gap and continue to monitor how the state may or may not adjust,” Teetor said.
Likely in, but reduced: Bus driver supplements
The board’s initial budget request proposed $377,436 to fund $200 monthly supplements for bus drivers. While the board indicated they would still favor the original amount, Teetor indicated that district administration may recommend $150 supplements instead.
At the county commission’s May 27 public hearing on the budget, DPS veteran bus driver Retha Daniel-Ruth asked the commission to fully fund the $16 million requested increase, which would include the $200 monthly supplements.
“We have suffered budget cuts. We have suffered reallocations of our money. We have suffered disrespect from our administration,” Daniel-Ruth told the commission. “I do extra duty as much as possible, not because I want to, but because my household budget demands it. Many days I work continually from 6:15 a.m. until 7 p.m. at night.”
She added that students will sometimes tell her that they want to be bus drivers for DPS when they grow up.
“I would love to tell them to work for DPS, but sometimes I can’t because of what I’m going through right now.”
Likely in, but reduced: Local pay supplement increase for teachers
The board’s initial request asked for $2.3 million to increase the local salary supplement it gives teachers each year by about $700 per teacher. With a smaller increase from the county, board members would consider a smaller supplement, possibly around $300.
Durham gives among the highest supplements in the state (about $10,000), surpassed only by neighboring Wake and Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools. That supplement helps Durham attract and retain talented educators because the state’s starting teacher pay is a less-than appealing roughly $40,000.
Likely in, but it’s complicated: Master’s pay
Before 2013, the state government provided additional pay to educators with master’s degrees. Wake and Durham are the only counties that have decided to bring that extra pay back in recent years at a cost to local taxpayers.
Who exactly qualifies for that pay has been the subject of much consternation for the school board. Last year’s budget only allowed for master’s pay for 170 educators, while the proposed $16 million increase from the district would allow DPS to provide master’s pay to all eligible certified staff, including 358 teachers and 11 social workers.
The board looked recently at the cost of expanding master’s pay to all eligible certified staff, but at lower amounts if DPS only receives the $10 million increase. The board seemed interested in expanding it to all eligible staff at five percent of the employee’s base pay, while the administration eyed four percent.
Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].