news-record.com

The school board will likely discuss making additional budget cuts tonight to free up a little over $1 million so they can fund 5.5 custodian positions that became vacant in May as well as paying for a 1 percent raise for folks hired through the classifieds, i.e. custodians, maintenance personnel secretaries.

Green recommended cutting the custodian positions.

Those employees have complained they haven’t gotten a raise in five years, while others in the district have gotten raises. District officals say they last got a raise in 2009.

Spearheaded by board member Darlene Garrett, the effort has support from Paul Daniels and Deena Hayes.

The hitch is the board will have to cut more from the budget to do it. Garrett and Daniels argue more could be trimmed from the travel budget, money used by school folks including administrators to go to conferences and the like. Called paid vacations by many, officials argue they come home with valuable info and connections.

Garrett and Daniels also want to cut the entire office of chief administrative officer. Green recommends cutting the salary of the top job – left empty by now Durham Superintendent Eric Becoats – and eliminating the second in command in the office. Garrett and Daniels have suggested cutting the office altogether and the idea has support from several other members by my count. There were lots of questions about what exactly Becoats was doing. Green made him the point man on rolling out all his strategic plan initiatives.

I’m not sure of exact dollars amounts. I requested the info yesterday but got nada. It’s become frustratingly common for the school district not supply public info likely to be discussed by the board before the board gets to discuss it. Pretty much a blatant disregard for state law but that’s a rant for another time.

But aside from finding the dough, the board will have to decide if the cash is a bonus or raise. A raise is just that and so the district would have to come up with that cash next year and so on. A bonus is a one-time deal but apparently it isn’t easy to do for legal reasons. It’s not been explained to me why that is.

So, dear reader, what should the board do with your money?