The cost of meals in public schools could climb slightly next year to raise the pay cafeteria workers receive.
And — to attract and keep the best teachers here — some instructors could get a $500 bonus for accepting jobs in Rowan-Salisbury Schools.
A budget proposed Wednesday also would boost annual pay supplements for teachers by $100 so that they meet the state average.
“One of the major goals that we have established this year is to hire, train and retain the best personnel possible,” said Dr. Wiley Doby, who became superintendent of Rowan-Salisbury Schools in January.
“I feel that this new teacher signing bonus will help us achieve that,” Doby said. “There is a real teacher shortage, not in the number of current vacancies, but there is a shortage in the pool of applications.”
“I think it will be wonderful for recruiting,” said Dr. Danny Thomas, the school system’s personnel director.
Teacher recruitment and turnover is a problem in much of North Carolina.
The Rowan-Salisbury school system has raised its stakes in hiring teachers in recent years. Last year it sent recruiters on more trips — and farther away — than ever before. Their more than 40 stops included Wisconsin, Indiana and other states.
Last year beginning teachers in Rowan-Salisbury schools received a $600 advance and supplements to their state-paid salaries — plus reimbursement for relocation expenses and graduate courses. But larger school systems still win because they typically offer larger local supplements and starting bonuses of $1,000 or more, Thomas has said.
The proposed $500 signing bonus and higher supplement should make Rowan-Salisbury Schools more competitive, he said.
Wednesday afternoon school system officials discussed a budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 that the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education has yet to approve. They will seek $25.7 million from the Rowan County government for day-to-day operations, up from $24.3 this year.
The tentative budget — a committee will discuss it again on May 7 — would raise the cost of meals in public schools. Increases would range from a nickel for breakfasts in elementary schools to 15 cents for lunches in middle and high schools. That would boost pay for cafeteria employees.
Dipping heavily into the school system’s savings, the budget would create many new positions, such as two more full-time teachers for students who are learning English as a second language. The school system employs 17 full-time teachers for children of foreign descent this year and three more on a part-time basis.
The number of students enrolled in Rowan-Salisbury schools who are learning English as a second language has more than doubled in the past four years, from 566 to 1,214.
The proposed budget would pay for writing facilitators — one for high schools and one for middle schools. Last year the school system hired Jane Fallis. She visits elementary schools and works with children to help them improve writing skills.
In the past four years, only about 50 percent of all fourth-graders in Rowan-Salisbury Schools have demonstrated that they can write at grade level. In that same span the rest of the southern Piedmont and the state has climbed from 50 to roughly 60 percent.
The tentative budget also would take over the cost of 12 part-time reading tutors in elementary schools that the Robertson Foundation has funded during the past three years.
As policy makers in state and local governments look for ways to cut costs due to a cooling economy, local school officials remain optimistic that the Rowan County Board of Commissioners will continue a three-year funding commitment. The fiscal year starting July 1 marks the final year that commissioners had pledged to meet the state average in per-student appropriations. On top of the projected $25.7 million that would cost, commissioners have committed to providing another $375,000 for classroom supplies next year.
But before the per-pupil funding agreement would continue next year, the school system has committed to prove that local test scores meet or exceed state average.
“It is our top priority,” commissioners Chairman Steve Blount said. “We will cut everything else before we cut that.”
“It’s going to be a real, real tough year this year, especially for us to keep our three-year commitment,” County Manager Tim Russell said.
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