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Schools seek increase for maintenance, supplements

By Lynn Hotaling and Lisa Majors-Duff
Local school officials went to commissioners with outstretched hands Tuesday (June 13) but received no assurances of additional funding for education in next year's budget.

The requests for more money came during a budget work session between school and county leaders and centered around school system maintenance requirements and a supplement for county teachers. Funding for the schools under the county's proposed budget is inadequate to provide proper maintenance for school facilities, said both Superintendent Frank Burrell and board member Ray Trine.

"School facilities should be repaired to the same standard as when the buildings were new, and we haven't had the money to do that," said Burrell.

The schools' overall allocation in Jackson County's proposed budget, some $4,204,782, is too low, said Trine. It only provides $328,000 more than the school system received last year, and, of that, some $200,000 must be spent on state-mandated increases in salaries and benefits, he said. In reality, only an additional $127,000 will be available to the schools, Trine said.

"When we don't get money, we always rob maintenance," he said. Many of the problems that are currently being addressed in the planned $6.5 million renovation of Smoky Mountain High are the direct result of deferred maintenance, Trine said. "It's a shame to let these facilities fall into disrepair. It's fiscally irresponsible."

New teachers will not be interested in jobs in Jackson County as long as it is one of only nine systems in North Carolina that doesn't offer a local supplement, Burrell said. At a recent job fair in Asheville few prospective teachers visited the Jackson County booth, Burrell said, though candidates were lined up to talk to Buncombe County. In his opinion, the lack of interest was due to the school system's lack of a local supplement, the superintendent said. Burrell then challenged commissioners to find some money to put toward an increase for teachers. He told commissioners that if they could find $100 per teacher, he would challenge the school board to match that contribution.

A number of teachers, mostly from Cullowhee Valley, were present to show their support for a supplement. SMHS art teacher Ray Menze thanked the school board for backing a supplement and asked commissioners to pick up the challenge made by Burrell.

School board members repeatedly expressed their appreciation to county commissioners for money county leaders have borrowed for school construction. Board member James Roper said school board members are "lucky to have as commissioners three educators (Chairman Jay Denton, Stacy Buchanan and Franz Whitmire) who actually know the needs of the schools." The evening's only controversy involved a $233,000 line item expenditure Chairman Denton placed in the county's proposed budget specifically to upgrade computer labs in elementary schools. Burrell, who was not consulted before the appropriation was proposed, requested that the superintendent of schools be included in any future school-related decisions.

School board member Roper asked why that money wasn't included in the schools' general allocation so it could be spent at the discretion of school board members.

Denton took full responsibility for the technology line item and said that he deliberately consulted only with the school system's technology department of Larry Tucker and John Turpin.

"I didn't want the superintendent's take on it, I wanted theirs," Denton said. "I was looking for a way to push a technology program through and make sure the money would only be spent on the kids.

"The public wants to know how we spend money - we have to sell these ideas," Denton said. "I prepared something I thought I could sell to the public."

Denton emphasized the computer money is in the draft budget but may not be in the final budget, which must be approved by a majority of the board of commissioners. Other additional money he assigned to the school system in the proposed budget is $127,000 for maintenance for new school facilities that will open next year.

"This is more than the board (of commissioners) asked me to include," Denton said. "I'm hoping the rest of the board will go along and approve these two items."

Burrell expressed appreciation for the proposed $127,000 and said that without that money it would be hard for the school system to open its new facilities without making "major cuts" elsewhere.

Denton reminded school officials that 60 percent of the county's debt payment in the next fiscal year will go toward schools.

"We've gone out on a limb," he said. "We're making progress."

Proof of that progress was offered by Commissioner Buchanan, who produced a ranking published by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, which says Jackson County was 43rd in the state for its per pupil expenditures and capital outlay. These figures, he pointed out, were generated in 1998. New figures for 2000, which would include building projects at four county schools, should rank Jackson even higher, he said.

After school officials left the meeting, commissioners continued their discussion on the budget. One member of the board, Conrad Burrell, suggested the county accept the superintendent's challenge of $100 per teacher, but three other members opposed the move at this time.

"I feel like I've bled for education," said Commissioner Roberta Crawford, who said she would vote against the entire proposed budget if a teacher supplement were included. "If we just throw that money out there, then we end up rewarding the teachers who don't deserve it."

Commissioner Franz Whitmire agreed with Crawford, saying he also opposed the "shotgun approach" of a teacher supplement.

Denton pointed out that teachers are slated to receive a 6.4 percent increase in salaries from the state. "I have to think about the county employees, who are getting a 5 percent increase," he said, "and all the other employees out there who deserve more money."

A public hearing on the county budget has been set for Thursday, June 22, at 7 p.m. in Courtroom One of the Justice Center. The commissioners will meet again Friday, June 23, at 9 a.m. and could adopt a budget at that time.

State law mandates the county have an approved budget in place before July 1. Denton said he would like to see the budget passed by June 26 in order to base the county's July 1 payroll on the new budget.

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