BY KARISSA MILLER
The Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education members got a first look at the district’s budget priorities for the 2024-2025 school year on Monday night.
During the Committee of the Whole meeting, I-SS Chief Finance Officer Adam Steele presented a proposed $62.1 million local current expense budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The draft budget represents a 14.25 percent increase over the previous budget of $54 million. Steele outlined some of the revenue challenges facing the district, including contending with loss of federal ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds.
“We will be losing the ESSER funds that have been available since 2020. In 2023-24, we had $10.3 million remaining that we are using before the September 2024 deadline. We anticipate having the ESSER money spent in June or July,” he said.
Steele mentioned that 21.5 teaching positions and 21 nurses that were being paid out of ESSER funds will now be returned to the local budget. The cost to retain those positions next year is around $3.1 million.
Another challenge, Steele explained, is the many unknowns with the state budget. This will impact the local budget, he added.
Steele told the board that the state’s two-year biennium budget calls for:
• A 3-percent salary increase,
• A reduction in the retirement rate from 25.02-percent to 24.04-percent and
• An increase in health insurance from $7,557 to $8,095.
“We built in a 4-percent raise in the local proposed budget based on our last two years of salary increases. We anticipate starting to hear some budget numbers in late April or early May,” he said.
He briefly spoke about enrollment figures or Average Daily Membership (ADM), which helps determine local funding.
“We currently do not know our projected ADM, so we used our current ADM to build the budget,” Steele explained.
The district’s current enrollment is about 20,530 students.
Lastly, Steele explained that he anticipates seeing a reduction in federal funds because of the budget impasse and the loss of ESSER funds.
Steele said that the formal request to the County Commissioners is due on March 6. However, the district has requested to send their request on March 11 after the Board of Education meeting.
Under this budget proposal, the major additions include:
• $1,356,125 for 21.5 teacher positions moved back from ESSERs
• $1,834,300 for 21 nurse positions moved from ESSERs
• $325,187 for Instructional Support positions
• $306,000 for contracted substitutes
• $167,634 increase in noncertified teachers being paid certified pay
• $144,368 for two ESL teachers (for added growing population)
• $165,000 in Yellow Bus Transportation costs
• $89,000 for advertising
• $87,000 for security costs
• $181,711 for utilities
• $760,138 in charter school costs
• $133,305 in contracted custodian and maintenance
• $443,000 in raises and benefit costs
• Total additions: $5,992,768
Budget reductions include eliminating the teacher attendance supplement and planning period stipend for a total of $942,188.