CMS adds more money for teacher raises, less for maintenance in newly approved budget

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education voted unanimously to approve Superintendent Crystal Hill’s 2024-25 budget Tuesday night.

The district will ask for less money from the county than it originally planned, but teachers and other staff will still see a pay bump.

The district’s total operating budget comes in at a little under $2.1 billion, including $653 million from Mecklenburg County. That’s an increase of around $56 million from this year’s county allocation of $597 million.

A significant portion of the increase — around $42.4 million — will go toward what the district says are recurring needs and will be baked into future budgets. That includes raising teacher supplements and maintaining day-to-day operations. For example, the district estimates the cost of operating its facilities will increase by $2.7 million in higher utility costs alone.

Initially, the district estimated it would need around $35 million from the county for recurring operating costs, but district leaders said Tuesday they believe the state will give teachers a larger raise than initially predicted. That means CMS could have to shell out more money for raises. While the state determines standardized teacher salaries, it does not fully fund every teacher salary in CMS, leaving the district to fund the difference using county dollars.

“With new information and with the issuance of the governor’s budget, we believe teachers and instructional support staff will likely see a pay increase of around 4.5%,” CMS Chief Financial Officer Kelly Kluttz told the board.

That increase in the state teacher salary is 1.5% higher than Hill and her team originally predicted and would cost the district an additional $3.4 million.

The district is also asking the county for $4 million to increase its lowest paid workers’ salaries to $20 an hour. That includes non-teaching roles like cafeteria workers, custodians and bus drivers.

CMS remains the 3rd biggest employer in Mecklenburg County, behind Atrium Health and Wells Fargo.

Less money requested elsewhere

While the budget approved Tuesday calls for a bigger county appropriation for teacher pay, it calls for a smaller amount of total money from the county than the plan proposed April 9 — by about $10 million. The budget Hill originally presented had a total ask of around $663 million from Mecklenburg County.

District leaders said they were able to cut down on one-time costs by reallocating funds.

The district plans to tackle millions of dollars in deferred maintenance at 30 of its campuses. That’s in addition to the 30 other campuses addressed by the $2.5 billion bond referendum passed last year. While it originally planned to ask the county for around $19 million for those projects, it lowered that ask to $10 million Tuesday. CMS has around $11.7 million in savings from the bond it passed in 2017 and will repurpose those funds toward the 30 campuses in need of repair.

Those maintenance projects include things like repair and replacement of HVAC systems, roofing and building exteriors.

“We were able to work together with our county and agreed to be able to put those savings towards our facilities,” Kluttz said.

The total 2017 bond was nearly $1 billion, so even with the $11.7 million dollars saved, the district landed within 1.25% of cost estimates for the projects in that bond package, according to Kluttz.

“We didn’t overestimate,” Kluttz said. “We did a really good job of keeping in-line with the original projections of the 2017 bond.”

Board members had very little discussion before approving the superintendent’s amended budget but applauded her team for being able to cut total costs from the first plan.

“Hundreds of stakeholders have participated in engagement sessions during the budget development process,” Hill told the board. She said her amendments were “based on feedback and new information.”

Mecklenburg County commissioners will decide whether to approve the district’s budget request in May. The new fiscal year begins July 1.

Hill says she is optimistic the county will fully fund the district’s request.

“There is nothing on our list that we’re taking to the county that we don’t think is absolutely critical,” Hill told reporters Wednesday. “I’m very confident they will approve our request.”

In the event the county doesn’t approve the full request, Hill says the district will need to reexamine its operating budget and “make some really hard decisions.”

What else happened

Hill and her staff also presented an update on their 2024-2029 strategic plan for CMS. They said the plan’s focus will be high-quality instruction, student and community engagement and teacher recruitment and retention.

The final strategic plan will launch in June.

The board also unanimously approved the superintendent’s calendar recommendation for the 2025-2026 school year, which can be found here.