Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools will likely not get the full extent of their proposed budgets for the upcoming school year. Orange County recently shared how despite a 5% increase to per-pupil spending, the recommended county budget is about $2 million below the combined requests from its two school districts.
Both school boards presented their proposed continuation and expansion budgets to the commissioners on April 30, highlighting a lack of federal and state support. At the joint meeting, CHCCS Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Scott shared how the latter is one of the biggest funding challenges for both districts going into the 2026-2027 school year.
“I think it’s probably important to restate that we are now in April of the first of two budget years in the state of North Carolina where we were supposed to have a biennial budget,” Scott said. “We still do not have a budget from the General Assembly. I’ve been doing this a long time and it’s very, very difficult to plan for the following year when you don’t have a budget at this point in the year.”
CHCCS’s estimated $3.7 million continuation budget request includes a 4% increase in staff salaries and supplements and increases to health insurance and retirement benefits. The district’s proposed $3.7 million expansion budget features increases to certified and classified staff supplements, as well as establishing a recurring fund investment for online instructional curriculums.
Due to declining enrollment trends, Scott also shared how CHCCS is also anticipating an almost $2 million reduction in state funding for the next school year. To mitigate the impact, he said the district is looking to better align staffing to class sizes and eliminate 25 positions to offset the expected funding cut, in addition to potentially closing one of its elementary schools.
Reallocating resources and staff is just one “budget lever,” to help the district navigate what Superintendent Rodney Trice described as a “tough budget situation” for Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
“We’ve revisited our organizational structure, our resource allocation or how we deploy funding and our staffing. We’ve looked at operational efficiencies, especially when it comes to position and facilities.
“But we’re not doing this just to cut,” Trice continued. “Because our community expects more from us. They’re not going to just accept cuts. We have to be able to innovate and reposition ourselves.”
Similarly, OCS is expecting a $1.7 million cut in state funding due to a downward trend in student enrollment, and its chief financial officer Rhonda Rath shared the district’s budget priorities for local funding.
“Our focus remains to recruit and retain a high quality workforce and also to grow our students,” Rath said. “And to make sure that we allocate the resources that are given to us to best meet the needs of all of the students that show up to Orange County Schools.”
The district’s proposed continuation budget of nearly $2 million includes a 4% salary increase to health and retirement benefits. OCS’s $1.9 million expansion request focuses on supplement increases for classified and certified staff, as well as raising bus driver pay to align with CHCCS’.
The commissioners applauded both districts on their presentations amid what many acknowledged as a difficult budget situation. Commissioner Amy Fowler described the financial realities beyond the local level as “panic-inducing” for the county and school districts alike, stating how the board wants to do what it can to help students thrive.
“But as we do our hard work, I think we should also continue to advocate at the state and federal level,” Fowler added. “Because they really need to turn things around to really set the ship right.”
The 2026-27 Orange County Board of Commissioners. (Photo via the Orange County government.)
An update on capital investment projects highlighted concerns about balancing the need for adequate buildings with any tax increases the work could require as a result. The county’s recommended budget, later presented on May 5, accounts for a $3 million increase in pay-go funds for the K-12 bond projects, like major facility renovations and the upcoming replacement of Carrboro Elementary School. While that recommended budget deemed minimizing tax pressures as a priority, it also proposes a property tax rate increase of 3.75 cents.
Overall, CHCCS Board of Education Member Vicky Feaster Fornville said she thinks the county and the school districts need to jointly find a way to accomplish “more with less.” She stated how the housing crisis, social services, and schools are all strained in one local budget, with every item impacting the other and causing particular harm to vulnerable communities.
“We have lost a lot of students,” Fornville said. “Not necessarily to private schools or charter schools just because that’s what their parents chose to do. It’s to longtime residents who could no longer stay in their home county where their families have been for generations and they had to move to counties over just to afford the rent.”
BOCC Board Chair Jean Hamilton said the county is “between a rock and a hard place” trying to balance those pressures, noting also a challenging national political, economic, and social environment.
“I hope, just like we have to understand the pressures you’re under, that you also understand the pressures we’re under, and that we’re all trying to do our best and we will stumble,” Hamilton said. “When we lay something out here now — when we have this joint meeting — it’s an opportunity to say, ‘Here, we’re thinking about this stuff.’ Nothing’s been [decided]…but we have about a month in which to try to figure out how we’re going to fund this county.”
Community members can learn about and speak to the county’s budget needs at information sessions on May 14, 20, and 21. The county aims to adopt the school budgets on June 16 alongside the rest of Orange County’s budget for the fiscal year.
To view the full Orange County Board of Commissioners meeting from April 30, click here.
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