Superintendent’s 2024–25 proposal would raise Stokes County Schools’ current expense by about 7.9%; ESSER shifts explain much of the change

District finance staff and the superintendent reviewed the proposed 2024–25 current expense budget and answered board members’ questions about staffing, grants and line-item changes.

Miss Moore reviewed the superintendent’s proposed current expense plan, which she characterized as a 7.89% increase over the 2023–24 budget and said much of that change reflects positions previously paid from federal ESSER funds that are being moved back into the local budget. Miss Moore told the board the district is budgeting a fund-balance draw to balance the budget and that salaries and benefits make up roughly 58.6% of the plan. She also said the board-maintained supplement for employees remains at 5% and that the state was projecting a modest change in hospitalization costs that could affect the final numbers.

Superintendent Dr. Rice and staff detailed the positions returning from ESSER (examples cited included a social worker, several technicians and a director of academic and emotional support) and said those personnel shifts account for most of the dollar increase; excluding those ESSER-to-local changes, staff said the remaining increase totaled roughly $200,000 for new maintenance and other adjustments.

Board members pressed for detail on several items: how charter-school billings are calculated (monthly, by ADM with PowerSchool verifications); a projected decrease in a resource-officer grant ($43,000–$44,000) that staff proposed to cover with at-risk state carryover rather than a local cut; and an anomalous spike in electricity bills at Poplar Springs, which staff said they are investigating with Duke Energy.

Dr. Rice told the board the superintendent’s recommended budget will be transmitted to county commissioners for their review and that the district must provide materials by May 15 for the county’s budgeting calendar. The board agreed to continue deliberations and to bring additional questions forward in subsequent meetings and during a planned facilities tour.