Gaston Board of Commissioners and board of education discuss 2024-25 budget

The Gaston County Board of Education recently held a meeting with the County Board of Commissioners to go over the proposed education budget for the 2024-25 school year.

The district is requesting nearly $4 million for ongoing expenditures, $3 million for teacher salary supplements, and $6.7 million for capital expenditures from the county for the coming school year.

According to the district’s Chief Finance Officer Gary Hoskins, funding from the county goes toward salary supplements for teachers, principals and assistant principals, maintenance and custodial personnel, supplies, student technology, utilities and insurance, school resource officers, athletics and arts programs, and charter school allotments.

Ongoing Expenses

District costs like replacing student technology, utility expenses and state-mandated increases in employer paid benefits and compensation fall into the category of ongoing expenses, Hoskins said.

In this category, the district is requesting nearly $4 million, half of which will go toward replacing Chromebooks for students.

A total of 7,200 students going into second, sixth, and ninth grades will receive new Chromebooks if the budget is passed as proposed.

This cost was covered by COVID-related funding for the last three years, but that will not be the case in the coming year, which Hoskins shared at a school board meeting in March.

Board of Education representative for the Gastonia Township Dot Guthrie expressed during last week’s meeting that Chromebooks today are an essential element of student learning.

Another ongoing expense that is expected to increase this year is the utility bill.

Duke Energy is increasing its rates by 8.3%, and that increase will impact Gaston County Schools, according to Hoskins.

Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Chad Brown proposed a sit-down with Duke Energy to discuss ways to offset the increase across the district.

Brown suggested potentially establishing mutually beneficial partnerships with Duke that could include solar power in the county or offering a new battery space.

The county also must account for a state-mandated increase in employer-paid benefits for employees of Gaston County Schools and potentially match a 3% pay increase for locally paid employees that state-paid school employees will receive this year.

New Expenditures

In addition to the ongoing expenditures, the county is requesting $3 million toward teacher salary supplements for the coming year.

At the March meeting, the district discussed in detail how Gaston County teacher salary supplements compare to surrounding counties.

When compared to surrounding counties, Gaston comes in just above Cleveland and Rowan-Salisbury counties, but below Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Catawba and other counties.

When it comes to similarly sized districts, Gaston County comes in last with the lowest average teacher salary supplement when compared to counties like Buncombe, Johnston, Cabarrus, Onslow and Union.

Despite nine years of increases in funding for teacher salary supplements, Hoskins said it might not be enough.

At the March meeting he said, “Like I said, the county has done a lot over the last 10 years… The state average has moved up $2,431 so we’re getting further and further behind. Even Cleveland County, which is below us, they’re moving at a faster rate than we are.”

In December 2023, the district sent out a survey to district leadership, school administrators, teachers, parents and the public.

According to Hoskins, the results showed that the top priority of stakeholders for the 2024-25 school year is teacher salary supplements.

Commissioners are concerned about the increase in light of the projected utility and benefit increases.

Gastonia Township Commissioner Tom Keigher said, “It’s not that we don’t want to help… I do wish we could do more, but I know we’re doing what we can.”

He added that Gaston County has extra need in public health and social services, and as a result must focus extra resources in those areas.

Keigher also said other counties of a similar size, like Buncombe county, receive a significant amount of tourism income that Gaston does not.

The commissioners said they would be interested to see how much money from tourism is allocated toward schools in counties like Buncombe.

“We don’t have a lot of wiggle room,” Keigher said.

Board of Education Chairman Jeff Ramsey said the increases have now become a matter of keeping good teachers as surrounding districts are poaching Gaston’s instructors with higher salary supplements.

Capital outlay expenses

According to Hoskins, many schools in Gaston County are more than 40 years old, meaning they require extra spending in upkeep.

The district is requesting $6.7 million to fund these capital outlay expenses.

Conclusion

The board will likely not vote on the proposed budget until early summer.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Gaston leaders discuss the budget for 2024-25 school year