Here are the latest Board of Supervisors Actions

Teacher raises and tracking school spending in categories

The Board of Supervisors held two meetings this week regarding the overall County budget and tax rates.  The Wednesday June 12 work session resulted in proposed cuts to the County and school budgets, smaller potential tax increases and raises for all County staff (including teachers).

Wednesday’s discussions highlighted a 0.04 or 0.05 cent Real Estate Property tax increase (down from 8 cents), reaching into the $9 million reserve fund for at least $3,200,000, and sharpening the pencils for the County and school.  At the end of the Wednesday work session, the supervisors provided the school board with a funding figure of $21,529,064, which represents a decrease of $623,956 from the requested amount of $22,153,020.  The anticipated county contribution to the School Board budget would increase from $14,268,416 (in 2023-24) to $14,855,244 in 2024-25.  The additional County contribution of $586,828 was specific to providing Teacher salary increases and benefit costs.  The school board held a meeting this morning, June 14, to identify what cuts are needed and distribute the funding across the categories.

Thursday’s Regular Board of Supervisors meeting saw a vote to retain the school funding in categories for this year.  The meeting also included an interim report from the forensic audit team. 

The forensic auditors shared that County and school staff have been very supportive and cooperative, all staff are very knowledgeable, no fraud has been found so far.  The interim audit report did note areas where improvements could be made.  Two observations highlighted for the school are that prior to 2023, the school did not have funding controls in place to avoid “uncontrolled and unidentified activities” and that “system controls are warnings, not actual controls”.  The interim report will be linked here as soon as it is available on the county site. 

NCSBWatch would like to thank the Board of Supervisors for their diligence balancing the county and School Board budget requests while considering the effect on all Northumberland County residents.  Thank You Gentlemen!

James W. Brann          Vice-Chairman, District 1       [email protected]

Richard F. Haynie       Chairman, District 2               [email protected]

James M. Long           Supervisor, District 3              [email protected]

A.C. Fisher, Jr.            Supervisor, District 4              [email protected]

“Chip” Williams, IV   Supervisor, District 5              [email protected]