GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — Guilford County Schools (GCS) is asking for $970 million for its 2024-2025 budget. Superintendent Whitney Oakley presented the budget proposal to the Board of Education on Tuesday.
GCS said the recommendation includes more than $23 million to increase teacher supplements, raise salaries, and continue safety and tutoring initiatives.
"GCS and districts across the country are preparing to make tough financial decisions as we enter the final few months of ESSER funding," Dr. Oakley said. "And while that funding has allowed us to make significant progress, we still have a long way to go to recover from the learning loss our students experienced during the pandemic."
GCS used money from the 2023-2024 budget to conduct a pay study across the district, which led to an increase in pay for employees with more years of experience.
The district said the next phase of the study includes:
- Paying School Nutrition employees on the same grades as other classified employees
- Creating consistent differences between steps across all salary grades
- Reducing the number of salary grades to create meaningful distinctions between jobs of varying scope and impact
- Raising pay rates to be more comparable to market values
Currently, GCS is below the competitive rate of teacher pay. The district said it wants to change that.
GCS is not apart of a selection of districts that receive state funds that add towards teacher supplements. To make up for it, the district is recommending a $10 million dollar increase to the local teacher supplements.
"With efficiency in mind, this budget will bring GCS closer to providing a living wage for classified staff and ensure we continue to provide the support for students they need to recover from pandemic learning loss," Dr. Oakley said.
The district also said it wants to raise the pay rate for school nutrition staff workers. Right now, those staff members make $15.86 an hour and managers make about three dollars more. The district is requesting $8.6 million dollars not only raise pay for those workers but create a salary schedule for employees.
"Meaningful differences between grades and steps," Dr. Oakley said, "If you've been in a position as a manager for 20 years, you're not making something similar to someone has been in the position for four to six months," Dr. Oakley said.
This week Guilford County Association of Educators brought a petition with over 2,300 signatures listing demands related to pay. President Joanna Pendleton said the majority of those demands were met in the budget proposal. She hoped county leaders agree to the districts request for funds.
"We are very pleased with our local elected leaders response to our campaign, We know that there's more work to do because for major funding," Pendleton said.
Federal funding is estimated at over $91M, and state funds are projected to be over $480M, pending final approval from the North Carolina General Assembly.
The next step is to present the proposal to county commissioners in May.
If approved by the Board of County Commissioners, the district's 2024-2025 local current expense fund would be over $300M.
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