Cleveland County Board of Education discusses staffing cuts, budget concerns

Cleveland County Board of Education could be facing tough staffing and other budget decisions next year as funding doesn't keep pace with rising costs.

During last week's board meeting, Superintendent Stephen Fisher gave a detailed budget presentation.

Board member Joel Shores gave a finance and personnel committee report and said cash flow had decreased by $2 million over the past four years which had a significant impact on the budget.

"About $3.9 million in additional funding is needed for us to break even," he said.

Fisher said a 2024-2025 budget proposal will be brought before the board to be approved, and that approved budget will then go to Cleveland County commissioners by May 18. Commissioners will also have to approve that budget before it can be in operation by July 1 at the start of the new budget year.

"This is not the budget, this is a budget update," Fisher said. "We felt like it was important to bring this conversation tonight and update you with information as we finalize our budget proposal."

He said he wanted to highlight a couple of important things, including cash flow versus the cost of doing business.

"As you know, the cost of doing business is increasing," he said. "If you went to the store and you're getting 10 items for $10 and you were doing that in 2019, today you're going to need more than $10 or get less than 10 items... and that is just the reality in which we live."

He said either cash flow must increase, or they would have to do with less.

Fisher said one of the factors that drives funding is average daily membership and during COVID-19, enrollment dipped across the state. Since then, Cleveland County Schools have had a slight increase in average daily membership, but he said it's still not quite at pre-COVID levels.

Fisher explained the school systems funding history and said the local funds, through county appropriation, has remained essentially flat over the past decade and hovers right around $10 million.

He said other funding sources have also remained relatively flat.

"Our costs are increasing, but cash flow is, at best, very consistent over time," Fisher said. "In that time we've seen salaries increase, whether bus driver salary, teacher salaries, everybody's retirement, matching benefits have increased not to mention just the price of doing business in terms of ordering trash bags, paying electrical bills, doing all these things that we've seen increase since then."

He said while the school system appreciates local funding and local consistency, as costs increase, it creates the challenges the school system currently faces.

He spoke about the three budget proposals that will go to commissioners and said the first one would increase operational appropriation by $4.5 million and local capital by $700,000.

The second would increase appropriation by $4 million and local capital by $700,000 and the third would increase local appropriation by $3 million and local capital by $700,000.

If county commissioners don't approve the first budget proposal, the school system will have to make cuts, he said.

"Our staff continues to work on budget proposals," Fisher said, "The next finance personnel meeting is May 3. We'll have a draft for the committee at that time. We'll have a superintendents proposed budget to present to the board at our next meeting in May."

Board member Walter Spurling asked how teacher raises are funded.

Fisher said they come from a variety of sources with a certain amount of teacher positions allotted and funded by the state as well as other federal and state sources. There are also locally funded positions because Fisher said the state doesn't adequately staff and fund small school districts.

In addition to salaries, the district has to pay for benefits, including retirement, insurance and more.

"That's why we'll cut a position and add responsibilities to another position and give that person a pay raise," Fisher said. "It's less expensive than hiring another employee. If you reduce the number of employees, you reduce other factors."

One of the expenses discussed by the board were teacher supplements. Board Chairman Robert Queen said supplements were recently increased.

"The supplements that we talk about that go out late in the year and in the spring, all those teacher supplements which are a nine and a quarter, we pay all of that across the whole board, whether its an allocated spot or local spot or federal spot, we pay the local supplement and all that comes out of local dollars," Queen said. "That's why that supplement is so expensive for the district."

Fisher said over the past four years, the district went from a teacher supplement of 5.75% to a supplement of almost 10%.

Shores called the budget "very complicated."

He said in order to reduce class sizes, they hire more teachers, which then have to be paid for out of the local budget.

"If we did what the state wanted us to do, our class sizes wouldn't be as small," he said.

Shores said looking after teachers has always been a priority of his, and he wants teachers to be paid competitively.

"In 2020, we were averaging $250,000 in power bills. It's $516,000 now. It's went up more than 100% in four years," he said. "Guess where the power bill gets paid? Local funds. People don't understand the position we're in as a board. We're wanting to keep teachers. We're wanting to keep class sizes small. The state controls what we pay except for the supplements."

Fisher said in the proposed 2024-25 budget, the teacher supplement would increase from 9.25% to 10%.

"That 10% supplement will cost us right around $8.5 million," he said. "That's an approximate number."

Fisher said the district is already finding ways to cut costs.

"We've started some of those cuts by not hiring people," he said.

When an administrative assistant recently retired, he said they didn't fill that position.

"We look at staffing and see where can we cut staffing," he said. "Some of it does come from classroom teachers. We look at appropriation model, and we look at enrollment. What is student enrollment, what does state appropriate you at?"

He said grades kindergarten through third are locked in, but they would be tweaking their funding model to see where they might be overfunding according to the state ratio, and they plan to cut some positions from the high schools. They also will be cutting tutors across the district and looking at special funds, such as Title I and Title II and how to maximize those and do less.

Fisher said if the county decides to adopt the number one budget proposal of $4.5 million, they would not have to make cuts.

Board member Ron Humphries said the county commissioners had previously made a promise to Cleveland County Schools to fund them in the top 40, which is essentially the top third, across the state.

"They agreed to it, and we agreed to it. So that counts as a promise," he said, "I'm just laying some ground work."

Spurling said if the school system doesn't get funded through the option one budget, the school ststem will have to either pay people less or get rid of salaries through attrition.

"As a board, as a school system, we don't have a lot of choices," he said.

Fisher said the school system has to continue to pay teachers well.

"Good talent comes at a price," he said. "We are barely, barely keeping up. We're barely keeping up across the board."

Reporter Rebecca Sitzes can be reached at rsitzes@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Cleveland County Board of Education discusses budget concerns