CMS asks county for $37 million budget increase, even as COVID-19 may mean less revenue
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is asking the county for an additional $37 million in funding for the 2020-21 academic year budget, in a proposal approved by the school board Tuesday.
The request for more support comes as the county has told the school district that it should expect to receive flat funding relative to the previous year, citing declines in revenue due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has shut down much of the country.
Superintendent Earnest Winston’s proposed budget includes four main focus areas in its request for additional money from the county. They include modernizing the district’s systems; raising pay and benefits for employees; accommodating student growth; and expanding student support services.
“Our budget has always been a statement of priorities,” Winston said. “This budget reflects our commitment to educate every child well. Public education will help us build a more just and equitable community. Public education needs and deserves public investment.”
If granted by the county, the budget would allow CMS to increase pay by an average of 2.1 percent for teachers and 1 percent for non-certified staff. It would also support the district’s efforts to pay more competitive rates for its hourly staff, raising the minimum wage to $14.11 an hour.
An additional $3.4 million would go towards hiring counselors, psychologists and other student support staff, while $1.9 million would go towards staffing and support for special education.
The district is also asking for an additional $500,000 for a new compliance office and legal support.
How the budget is created
Each year, CMS faces a complex set of calculations as it puts forth a budget request. North Carolina public school districts do not have the power to levy taxes and are dependent on state and county governments for their funding each year.
CMS is required by statute to present its budget request to the county by May 15, but Mecklenburg County will not finalize its budget until late May. The state legislature may not create the budget until August. This past year, a stalemate over the state budget in Raleigh led to the school district operating without a district budget until the middle of the academic calendar.
“These deadlines are not something we can change,” Winston said. “We have to build a budget based on our best estimate.”
At a March meeting about the budget proposal, Winston said the county had signaled to the school district that it should expect flat funding. But board chair Elyse Dashew pointed out that flat funding would effectively mean budget cuts, as more than $22 million of the $37 million request will go towards initiatives the district is required to implement, such as funding for charter schools and class size mandates.
Some of those mandates have changed in the past few weeks, but board member Margaret Marshall said much of what the district is anticipating now will continue to change as the General Assembly makes decisions. She said while she wished CMS had more information, the district is required to move first in the budget process.
“I had frankly wanted to delay this a bit because there’s so much we don’t know,” she said. “But we have to start from somewhere.”
Sean Strain was the only board member who voted against the proposal. He criticized the budget, saying it’s not representative of the district’s needs, which he said are much greater than what the proposal asked for. He said it also doesn’t reflect the economic reality of the COVID-19 shutdown, which would mean significantly less money in revenue and thus funding from the county.
“We’re asking for an additional eight percent in the context of the county telling us we should expect flat funding,” Strain said. “All that’s happened in the months since then is that the economy has tanked.”