The new positions are part of the $5.8-million local budget the Kannapolis City Board of Education will bring before Rowan and Cabarrus county commissioners in a few weeks. The state pays for most instructional positions based on the number of students in each local system.

With 6 percent growth this year and another 4 percent projected for next year, the system will start school this fall with 18 more state-paid teachers than it began with this school year, said Dr. Annie Pickett, personnel and administrative services director.

Still, that’s too few to meet the system’s needs.

“If you only take the teachers the state gives you, then you’re not going to be able to have the class sizes or programs you need,” Superintendent Dr. Ed Tyson said. “So most local systems do add teachers.”

The $5.8-million local portion of Kannapolis schools’ current expense budget represents a 15-percent increase from this year’s local budget.

The Kannapolis school board voted 3-0 to adopt the budget Monday. Board members Millie Hall and Bob Query were absent.

The state pays most current expenses for school systems, with county government paying the rest. Kannapolis, which lies in both counties, will ask Cabarrus County for $3.7 million and Rowan for $1.1 million. The rest of the $5.8 million comes from other sources, such as fines and forfeitures designated for schools.

Kannapolis won’t know how much they’ll get in state and federal dollars until June, said Will Crabtree, the system’s finance officer. This year’s total budget, including federal, state and local money, is around $24.7 million.

With local money, the board wants to add two classroom teachers, a third teacher for non-English-speaking students, a second elementary technology teacher and the school system’s first social worker.

“I think almost all school systems have social workers and we don’t,” board member Danita Rickard said. “And that’s a definite need.”

Said Ellen Boyd, the school system’s public information officer: “There are so many students that have so many needs outside the classroom — family needs, home needs,” she said. “The social worker could try to help them get the help they need through other agencies in the community.”

The system has two English as a Second Language teachers, who work in all seven schools and face a growing student load. Students who need language assistance grew to 255 this year, from 182 last year.

The elementary technology teachers work in all five of the system’s elementary schools training teachers and students in a computer curriculum that begins in kindergarten.

The budget also adds two locally-funded classroom teachers, bringing the total to eight, with an average salary of $25,000. The school system pays the least experienced teachers out of its budget, while the state pays salaries for the rest.

One of the largest expenses in the locally-funded budget is $1.6 million for operations, such as electric, gas, water and telephone service.

Among the larger items in the budget is $701,500 for local teacher supplements, a 31 percent increase from this year’s supplement budget.

The system also will present a $3.2-million capital budget to Cabarrus and Rowan commissioners, with items such as building renovations, asbestos removal and technology upgrades.

In other business, the board:

• Voted to hire Dr. Kathy Putnam-Whaley to head the exceptional children’s programs. Whaley, currently a vice principal at Monroe Middle School in Union County, starts May 1 at a salary of $55,188.
• Agreed on a plan to curb enrollment at Shady Brook Elementary School, the system’s oldest school in use and its smallest, with a classroom capacity of 345 students. The school’s enrollment has been 354 this year.

The school system will decline new requests for students who live outside Shady Brook’s attendance zone to attend there.