Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston is calling for the Guilford County Board of Commissioners to give nearly $6 million of county money to Guilford County Schools in the middle of the budget year in order to raise school bus driver pay, address other salary concerns and fund more repairs in the schools.
At the Board of Commissioners Thursday, Nov. 21 meeting, Alston announced he would make the motion at the next meeting in early December.
Alston called for the move right after the commissioners discovered that the county would only be paying about $2.2 million for required new voting machines – though the county had allocated $8 million for that purpose earlier due to the high previous estimates of that cost.
At the Nov. 21 meeting, some speakers from the floor raked the commissioners over the coals for what those speakers claimed is a lack of adequate county funding of the schools in recent years.
In recent weeks, teachers, parents and school board members have been calling attention to low bus driver pay in the system and to heater problems in some classrooms during the onset of cold weather.
Alston said this week that his motion would also include money for raises for other low-paid school system “classified” employees, such as lunchroom workers.
“We should give that money to the schools,” Alston said. “We can’t say we don’t have the money. We had budgeted $8 million, but we only had to spend $2.2 million. So that’s another 5.8 million that we can put into the school system.”
Alston added that recent events – a threat of a bus driver strike and maintenance issues leading to some cold classrooms – make it clear that money is needed by the school system.”
Commissioner Carolyn Coleman also likes the idea.
“I will say amen to that,” she said at the Nov. 21 meeting after Alston proposed the idea.
Commissioner Jeff Phillips said it is a mistake to view “taxpayer money that’s not spent as found money,” as Alston seems to do. He also reiterated a point made by Commissioner Justin Conrad at the meeting. The State of North Carolina has yet to adopt a 2019-2020 budget, so Guilford County doesn’t even have a clear view of what kind of financial support it’s getting from the state this fiscal year.
“That’s a significant uncertainty,” Phillips said.
Absolutely NOT. Not another penny until Contreras discloses her expenditures. She is currently willfully ignoring public records requests for outside contracts. She cannot be trusted. Transparency on where your money is going or not one more penny until you do.
I would hardly call that money a “windfall.” Seems about right that the extremists on the Board are all in the tank for baseline budgeting and think that spending less is a “savings” or a surplus…
Kudos to Skip Alston for suggesting the county’s windfall should be used for bus drivers and salary concerns. As a GCS classified employee with 25+ years, I have worked two jobs to supplement my income over the years. People do not understands how hard school office employees, custodians, departmental staff, bus drivers etc. work.
We deserve better pay!
I hate to be curt but you could always find a better job…I was a state employee for over 10 years before I left for the private sector to make a lot more. I did all you are saying and worked a second job to make ends meet…With eroding benefits and paltry pay raises (if any)…I left for greener grass…Do you honestly think that bus driver’s getting a raise has anything to do with amount of money the county gives the schools? Did the superintendent get a raise or a bonus this year? That’s a rhetorical because we all know she did even though the schools are failing and the state is threatening to take them over…Go ask the highest paid teacher in 2018, Frank Shearin, who is a Navy Junior ROTC instructor and is paid $83,684; and the highest paid non-ROTC teacher, Brenda Cox, with a salary of $78,035 why they make so much…
The money should go to school employees and to County employees whose health insurance costs were increased because of “budget concerns”. This is not “extra money” the County came across by accidentally finding it in their closet, it’s money the taxpayers paid to be used in appropriate ways to fund government programs. The County saw fit to give incentives to private business interests while asking government employees to take on the burden of higher costs for their health care and cost of living. It’s time for them to fund the employees’ pay raises, health care and benefits to meet today’s increased costs.
How about paying down some our debt? A novel idea in socialist-land.