Board of Education signs resolution to demand increase in teacher salary, invest more in early childhood education

HAMLET — Superintendent Dr. Joe Ferrell brought forth a resolution to the Richmond County Board of Education that recommends that the NC General Assembly make significant investments in teacher salary and early childhood education investments in the 2023-25 biennial budget.

There is pending legislation in the General Assembly that plans on expanding the private school voucher program, the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides tax-payer funding to low to moderate income students to attend a private school. That bill would expand voucher programs to all students regardless of family income.

“Expanding the private school voucher program in this extreme way will result in steep cuts to our public schools,” Ferrell said.

RCS would lose $1.3 million, more than 3% of their state budget, if this legislation advances. Ferrell said the state could lose over $200 million in funding for public schools. Ferrell said this resolution would also request that there is an 18% salary increase over two years to make North Carolina first in the southeast in teacher pay.

“North Carolina’s public schools are in jeopardy due to dangerous Republican legislation that would siphon funds away from the classroom and make our teacher shortage worse,” said Governor Roy Cooper earlier this month. “As they learn about this, local school board members and superintendents from rural and urban areas are beginning to call on legislators to do the right thing and invest in public schools.”

Columnist John Hood argues that pro and anti-voucher advocates need to lower their expectations in a May 2023 article.

“The leaders of North Carolina’s school districts aren’t just going to stand around and wait for new or expanding private schools to recruit their students away. They’re going to try to enhance their services to protect their enrollments,” Hood writes. “Moreover, we already know from decades of empirical research that when public elementary and secondary schools are subject to increased competition from private alternatives, they improve. They hire better teachers. Their students score higher on reading and math tests. They graduate at higher rates.”

“Our public schools need significant increases in funding to provide competitive pay to successfully recruit and retain qualified teachers,” Ferrell said, adding this resolution is being brought forth to a majority of school districts across the state. “We also need investments in early childhood education to set young children on a path to success in school.”

Ferrell said that North Carolina public schools are facing a teacher shortage crisis with more than 5,000 vacancies across the state.

All board members present at the meeting signed the resolution.

Chairman Wiley Mabe said this pending legislation in the General Assembly will take away Richmond County’s low wealth classification, and will base funding on a undetermined-at-this-time poverty rate. Mabe agreed that this will be “detrimental” to the school system’s budget.

“If they do away with our tier status and don’t work with us, it will hurt really bad,” Mabe said, encouraging people to contact Sen. Dave Craven and Rep. Ben Moss about this legislation. “We will have to cut major programs…-They’re robbing our children, that’s what’s happening.”

Dress code policy

The school board officially adopted the new dress code policy, and eliminated language regarding graphics on clothing.

Board member Cory Satterfield said he liked that this policy was “community-led” and addressed some of the negative comments that he’s seen on social media.

“I want to say thank you to the community for doing this, and for the people who don’t like it, they should have come and be a part of the situation that lasted several months,” Satterfield said.

Each school district in the county hosted an information session for parents and families about the then-uniform policy, and multiple surveys were shared with families over the last year.

“I hope this don’t bite us in the butt,” said board member Jerry Ethridge. “I just know how it was teaching in the school when we had our no uniform days. It was chaotic. I hope it doesn’t cause that to happen in our school system.”

Board member Ronald Tillman agreed that a lot of work has gone into this updated policy, and believes it addresses many of the concerns that parents had.

Attendance

Board members suspended their typical-30 day review policy to update language regarding unexcused tardies and early check-outs, which don’t affect a students overall number of absences. It also added language about a certificate of excellence for students with perfect attendance.

“Thank y’all, to the school system, for continually sending out the attendance policy. I don’t know who would not understand or know the attendance policy, especially for high school students of how you have to go to school in order to get credits to graduate high school,” Satterfield said. “To me as part of the board, I will never, you know, go against an administrator that did what he/she was supposed to do and let parents know that you missed to much school. Parents — we need some help.”

Appointments, promotions

Wiley Mabe and Bobbie Sue Ormsby were reappointed chair and vice-chair of the Richmond County Board of Education respectively. The only dissenting votes during the process were by board member Scotty Baldwin and Satterfield. During the nominating process, Baldwin recommended Satterfield for chair, and Satterfield recommended Baldwin for vice-chair.

Dr. Julian Carter was named the associate superintendent of Richmond County Schools and given a contract for a term beginning July 1, 2023 and ending June 30, 2026.

Dr. Kate Smith was named the assistant superintendent of Richmond County Schools and given a contract for the aforementioned time period.