As Buncombe 2023 budget year looms, schools employees continue calls for better pay

ASHEVILLE - On the last day of school and at the penultimate budget meeting before the 2023 fiscal year starts, Buncombe County Schools employees June 7 told elected leaders and county staff how important it is that their pay go up before the system loses more employees.

Buncombe's next budget remains largely unchanged since County Manager Avril Pinder proposed it to commissioners May 19. As of June 7, the proposed budget 2023 sits at more than $399.3 million.

That includes an increased allotment for Buncombe County Schools, where funding will help provide raises for many, including non-certified or "classified" staff, many of whom work full time and haven't received significant raises in more than a decade.

Andrew Boone, a mechanic at BCS, spoke at the Buncombe County Board of Commissioner's meeting and stressed the importance of getting raises in wallets immediately rather than over a multi-year period.

More: What did Buncombe County Schools employees earn in 2021? Why some say they need more

"We want it now, all of it now," Boone said. "Until I see it in my wallet, it doesn't exist. Telling me that it's eventually going to be there is a platitude, and we are sick of platitudes."

Overall, BCS has asked for more than $97 million for fiscal year 2023. Buncombe is proposing $81.8 million, an 11.9% increase from the fiscal year 2022 amended budget.

The ask and the proposed offer are some of the highest from BCS in recent years and reflect major shifts resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and significant, state-level decisions, some of which have yet to be finalized.

Accordingly, Buncombe's proposed $81.8 million for BCS includes offset -- for a potential state budget "shortfall" -- to fund many positions at least $15 an hour.

Salary database: What Buncombe County Schools employs made in 2021 gross pay

Teachers and school employees spoke for about 40 minutes, imploring commissioners to do whatever was in their power to make sure pay increases happened and happened soon.

More: With focus on school pay needs, employee raises, Buncombe pitches nearly $400M budget

Boone said he had prepared a speech for commissioners, but didn't refer to it during his time.

"They covered it, everything I was going to say," he said of the colleagues who spoke before him, "Because their strife, is my strife. We're all going through the same thing."

Other speakers included classified position employees like Kathleen Lawlor, a school nutrition manager who said she was representing BCS school nutrition workers.

She's worked at BCS since October 2002.

"We are charged with fueling the students to learn by giving them nutritious meals, a warm smile, a friendly face in the morning to start their day and in the middle of the day when they have their lunch break," she said.

"We have faced incredible worker shortages. We are running on nearly skeleton crews in some districts and some schools, and it's getting harder to retain employees. I hear people that want to stay, who want to keep working for the county, but they can't. They have to work two, three jobs just to make it."

More: Buncombe Schools salaries so low, district facing an employee-loss 'tsunami,' study says

Other employees and teachers in recent interviews with the Citizen Times have expressed deep concerns that, unless the county, BCS administration and the state legislator can make the necessary budget decisions, schools will continue to bleed teachers, classified staff members and even administrators.

Melanie Allen is a technology technician who has spoken out at multiple county meetings. She's been at the school for the past 26 years in various roles.

"I want you to hear the pleas of my co-workers," she said. "For all the non-certified staff we're struggling, we're trying. We feel like nobody cares. We do our jobs. We've been doing our jobs for years. And morale is low."

She said employees have been told that the pay issues would be "fixed" but little progress has been made.

During early discussion about BCS' 2023 budget allotment from county government, commissioners noted that school administration had not asked for help with raises from county government in more than a decade, according to a May 10 discussion among BCS Superintendent Tony Baldwin, BCS Chief Finance Officer Tina Thorpe and County Commissioner Amanda Edwards.

But Baldwin has emphasized the need, too, echoing the sentiment of many employees.

"I'm going into my 14th year as superintendent," Baldwin told commissioners May 10. "This is the biggest ask I've come up here for. I'll also tell you, in my career, I've never seen a time when it's needed more."

Both administrator's and some school employees are urging commissioners to look at North Carolina's model for funding schools and what they say is a lack of consideration for some districts.

Outgoing president of the Buncombe County Association of Educators and teacher Paula Dinga called the general assembly's decisions "insults," though she noted local delegates were "almost completely excluded."

She said the state, which has mandated a $15-per-hour minimum for classified employees but left it up to local governments to fund that requirement, needs to fully fund its schools.

More: Citing budget woes, staffing issues, Asheville, Buncombe schools request budget boosts

"We have to look to you to do what we need for our children and staff," Dinga said. "These are the children whose parents are our neighbors and our co-workers, whose faces we can put names to in our daily lives."

Though the budget will likely support the increase to $15 an hour for classified staff, questions about whether or not that pay will come with supplement from the school system or whether it will be increased in the coming years are still outstanding.

A recent HIL Consultants study that cost BCS more than $30,000 found not only were classified employees being underpaid compared to similar N.C. school districts, it also recommended the school find a way to increase pay in the very near future.

According to the Living Income Standard for 2022 study from the North Carolina Budget and Tax center, the amount needed to meet the standard in Buncombe is $53,430 for a household of one adult and one child.

That adult would need to make $25.75 an hour to meet the living income standard, the study found.

Andrew Jones is Buncombe County government and health care reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at @arjonesreports on Facebook and Twitter, 828-226-6203 or arjones@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Buncombe County Schools employees push for better pay