By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
This budget season’s back-and-forth is not just another year of budget negotiations, Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools Superintendent Neil Pedersen told parents at a budget meeting on Tuesday.
Pedersen outlined a number of potential budget cuts the schools could face if the district does not receive its requested budget, and stressed the importance of a tax rate increase.
“When we look at the magnitude of the shortfall this year, there’s no way to make reductions that don’t impact the children,†Pedersen said.
The Board of County Commissioners has said it hopes to limit this year’s tax increase to equal the amount of debt-service payment increases – about 3.5 cents on the tax rate – to provide tax relief to county residents. The county has increased the tax rate about six cents in each of the last two years.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education has requested a $7.3 million budget increase from the county. According to Pedersen, about $5 million of that request would fund state-mandated salary increases, new school openings and enrollment growth throughout the district.
Without an increase in the special district tax or the county per-pupil rate, school revenue would increase about $1.5 million, creating a shortfall of approximately $5.7 million, Pedersen said. To limit the shortfall, the school budget committee prepared a list of potential cuts that would reduce the budget request to $5.2 million.
“Even with that pretty conservative approach, without getting anything new that we’ve asked for, no enhancement to programs, we’d still be about 3.7 million short,†Pedersen said.
The school budget committee also identified about $5.7 million in budget cuts, which include new programs as well as current programs, positions and salaries.
One budget cut would reduce the number of teacher assistants by 50 positions across the district to save about $1.5 million. The majority of those positions would be cut from elementary schools, with about five less teacher assistants per elementary school.
With 23 teacher assistant vacancies, about 27 teacher assistants would lose their jobs.
Another potential budget reduction would freeze local salary supplements for certified staff and administrators at this year’s levels to save about $400,000. If local supplements were frozen, a teacher with 10 years experience would earn $281 less annually than if the supplements increased normally.
“It would be better for everybody to take a smaller hit so we don’t lose staff members and the services that they provide,†Pedersen said.
Other potential cuts include eliminating funding for the dual-language program and the gifted-education program, as well as funding for athletics other than coaches’ stipends.
To limit the elimination of programs and services, Pedersen said the schools have identified areas to save funds through efficiency.
Pedersen said that if both the county and district tax were increased and the schools continued to find savings, “I think that we could get fairly close to being able to continue what we have today.â€
However, he added, “I think that there’s probably very little on that list [of new programs] that we’d be able to do.â€