The Orange County Commissioners recently met with the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools boards to review proposed budgets for the upcoming school year. The boards not only discussed funding priorities for the schools, but also the potential impacts of federal and state funding cuts on staff and students.
At the April 29 meeting, both school boards presented a proposed continuation budget that would work to sustain its ongoing operations, as well as an expansion budget, or what the schools would restore or implement with additional local funds.
CHCCS’s estimated $3.2 million continuation budget for the 2025-2026 school year includes a three percent salary and wage increase, benefit increases to cover rising healthcare and employer matching contributions, and a three percent inflationary adjustment. The district’s proposed expansion budget focuses on increasing local staff supplements, reinstating masters level pay and teacher assistants, and establishing a sustainable fund for instructional resources like new curriculums.
Orange County Schools also estimated a three percent salary and wage increase in its proposed continuation budget. Requesting $1.8 million in total to sustain ongoing operations, the budget also accounts for employer required benefit increases and a three percent inflationary increase.
OCS’ $2.3 million expansion budget focuses on increasing certified and classified local staff supplements and increasing bus driver hourly pay to match CHCCS’s rate. Lagging behind in all those areas, Orange County Schools Chief Financial Officer Rhonda Rath said they are losing teachers and staff to neighboring districts.
“We have a lot of people whose day-to-day job is to not drive a bus that are stepping up to drive a bus to make sure our kids get to school,” Rath said. “And we’re very appreciative of that, but they also have another job that they would like to get done as well.”
While acknowledging how fully reaching the expansion budgets is unlikely, the Chair of the Orange County Commissioners Jamezetta Bedford said it is still important for both the board and the community to know what schools would prioritize in the case of additional funds.
Commissioner Earl McKee expressed a desire to be upfront about his concerns for the expansion budgets.
“I see nothing in here that’s not good,” McKee said. “I don’t see anything that wouldn’t benefit the school system or the students. This $7 million increase gives me extreme heartburn because many of our residents are going to receive a moderate or massive tax increase just because of reevaluation.”
The 2025-26 Orange County Board of Commissioners. (Photo via the Orange County government.)
McKee said he is fearful of how tax increases could disproportionately impact the community’s lower wealth populations. But CHCCS Board of Education Member Rani Dasi said local students and families also feel an impact when the county cannot provide teachers, staff, and students with basic needs.
“I want to balance what this conversation is with the reality that we have the responsibility to develop the future generation,” Dasi said. “We have folks who are very invested in education, and it’s a hard choice to make. We don’t want to push community members out, but we also don’t want to harm our students.”
The meeting also focused on how potential federal and state funding cuts could impact the schools. CHCCS Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Scott explained how one of the largest uses of federal funds by both districts is for school nutrition services, like free and reduced lunches. He said the potential cuts could also prompt the elimination of instructional programs that support multilingual learners, special education, and economically disadvantaged students.
“Our federal budget is five percent, six percent of our entire operating budget,” Scott said. “If we’re able to receive any significant reductions within federal funds, it is most likely and almost inevitably going to result in a reduction of the ability to have staff on site.”
“And then,” he added, “it will really become a question of which of those populations do we really need to serve and at what expense of what other programs locally are we going to have to use those funds and reallocate to address our most vulnerable populations.”
Citing how the county is also facing potential federal funding cuts, jeopardizing local affordable housing initiatives and county social service positions, Orange County Commissioner and Vice Chair Jean Hamilton said moving forward will be a difficult balancing act for the board.
“We want to provide services for the most vulnerable people in our community. We want to invest in our children. We want to do it all,” Hamilton said. “And we’re aware, especially in this environment, that we can’t just raise taxes to do it. And we can’t just magically bring in a big corporate company that would bail us out. So we’re where we are and we know it’s going to be hard. But I know we have to look at everything.”
Community members can speak to the various school budget needs at public hearings on May 13 and 29. The county will officially adopt the school budgets on June 17 alongside the rest of Orange County’s budget for the fiscal year.
To view the full Board of Orange County Commissioners meeting from April 29, click here.
Featured photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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Orange County Commissioners Consider School Budget Requests Alongside Potential Federal Funding Cuts, Tax Increases Chapelboro.com.
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