Last night, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education voted 4-3 to approve a plan to correct a five million dollar budget deficit at the expense of personnel cuts.
The Reduction in Force plan proposed to the Board by the Office of the Superintendent seeks to correct a nearly $5.3 million dollar budget deficit created by an enrollment decrease and inflationary pressures. Vickie Feaster Fornvile, Barbara Fedders and Rani Dasi voted against the plan.
In the past five years, student enrollment in CHCCS schools has dropped by over 1,000 students.
The district’s Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Scott said the district receives around $8,000 per student from the state. Less students in the school district means less money coming from the state, Scott said.
The Plan
The Reduction in Force Plan has three tiers.
The first tier is a corrective action budget plan, intended to reduce costs. This part of the plan is expected to save an estimated $2.4 million for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
The second tier of the RIF plan eliminates 24 full-time central office and support jobs. Of the 24 eliminated jobs, 13 of the positions were vacant, according to the plan.
In July, the district administration stopped looking to fill school-based vacancies that could be filled by central office employees to provide them with reallocation opportunities in anticipation of the plan passing.
