The Orange County Board of Education met Monday night to discuss the Fiscal Year 2026 local operating budget and bond referendum projects.
What’s new?
- Chief Finance Officer Rhonda Rath presented the Fiscal Year 2026 Superintendent’s Recommended Budget.
- She said the district’s priorities in creating the budget were to recruit and retain a high quality workforce, encourage student proficiency and growth and to allocate resources to best meet student and staff needs.
- Rath said 50 percent of the budget comes from the state, 41 percent from local operating expenses, 6 percent from federal grants and 3 percent is restricted, which is funding that can only be used for specific purposes. Roughly 70 percent of the budget supports school personnel salaries.
- While the board does not know what the N.C. General Assembly will decide about mandated teacher salary increases for the next fiscal year, she said the board is planning for a 3 percent salary increase across the district, as well as between a $500 to $1,000 increase in health insurance premiums and an increase of around 7 percent for retirement premiums.
- “We want our teachers to get the best increases from the General Assembly in salary and compensation,” Rath said. “We want that for all of our staff.”
- To continue operations as structured, she said the district would need an additional $1.8 million from the Orange County Board of County Commissioners.
- The FY 2026 expansion requests outlined in the budget include increases in teacher local supplements, supplements for lowest paid staff who are only receiving seven percent and bus driver hourly wages.
- Rath recommended the district increase its bus driver pay scale to match Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. To do that, she said the district would need over an additional $300,000 from the BOCC.
- “I think it's a really important argument that our bus driver pay should align with our sister district, whose transportation infrastructure we actually support and maintain,” board member Carrie Doyle said.
- The school board will host a public hearing about the budget on April 7.
- Orange County Schools Chief Operations Officer Fredrick Davis presented an update on the status of the 2024 bond referendums.
- Davis said Orange County voters unanimously approved the $300 million bond which allocates $125 million to OCS over the next 10 years. He said the bond projects include one new replacement elementary school, improvements to Orange Middle School and other additions and renovations to support learning outcomes.
- Managing Principal at KEi Architects Marcus Thomas presented the three options for using the bond funding.
- The first option is the construction of a new K-5 school that would involve on-site replacement at Central Elementary School.
- The second option is building a new K-5 school adjacent to Gravelly Hill Middle School.
- This option would involve redistricting for the 2028-29 school year.
- The last option is a new K-8 school and an on-site replacement at Orange Middle School.
- “What makes this option attractive is that we have enough space on site to build a new K-8 without disrupting the current schools,” Thomas said. “So Orange Middle School would be able to stay in operation, Orange High School would be able to stay in operation while we build a new K-8 adjacent to the middle school.”
- He said after the K-8 is constructed, they are proposing to demolish Orange Middle School and use that land to build athletic fields.
- “What makes this option attractive is that we have enough space on site to build a new K-8 without disrupting the current schools,” Thomas said. “So Orange Middle School would be able to stay in operation, Orange High School would be able to stay in operation while we build a new K-8 adjacent to the middle school.”
- Multiple board members expressed concern over how the K-8 proposal would affect traffic control.
- “Having worked traffic at Orange Middle — and you’ve heard this before — I do see major traffic concerns, especially with it being a K-8,” board Vice Chair André Richmond said. “There’s going to be a lot of parents wanting to see their children off to school, driving them to school, so, even now, we see a lot of traffic off of Holman Drive.”
- Davis said there will be a community display of the multiple plans beginning April 7 until April 9 and the board will make a final decision on May 5.
What’s next?
- The board will hold its next meeting on April 7 at the Whitted Human Services Building in Hillsborough.
