The Cumberland County School Board approved a revised budget Tuesday night to propose to the Cumberland County Budget Committee.
The budget originally faced a $4 million deficit. Cumberland County Schools Chief Operations Officer Kim Bray said the newly approved budget still sits some $2.9 million in the red, but could be balanced.
“The $3.1 million for the capital projects is currently included in that total at the bottom,” Bray said. “I just want to make sure everybody understands that, but that $2.9 million deficit, if the county gives us the $3.1 million, will go away. That negative will become a slight positive.”
Interim Director of Schools Rebecca Farley said the budget will contain a semi-balanced teacher pay scale and a chief financial officer position. Farley said the budget is $4.8 million less than what the board originally proposed.
“This is a tight budget, but we can make it work,” Farley said.
Farley said supervisors will not be getting a two percent pay increase as they will be placed on the teacher pay scale.
Board Member Nicholas Davis questioned why the tennis court project was not included in the budget. Board Member Shannon Stout said the school board already has a workaround for the time being.
“They are having community discussions with the city and county to see if there might be some partnership where we can work together on building tennis courts versus the school being responsible for building them, but there are alternatives in place for the tennis team where they can practice and can play.”
The school board will present the revised budget to the county budget committee on June 17 at 4:30pm.
