Knox County Schools budget news: Teacher salaries and meal prices are going up
Knox County Board of Education unanimously approved its $700.5 million budget for the next fiscal year, which includes money earmarked for increases to teacher salaries and benefits.
The budget has an increase of 3.1% over the current budget, with $19.7 million for teacher salary and benefit increases. The pay hikes are on top of last year's investment to bring teacher salaries in line with neighboring districts.
The district's next steps for teacher salaries will be to stay current with market rates by doing annual increases on a schedule, including all eligible employees this year. Another adjustment will be made in the next budget cycle to meet the requirements of the Tennessee Teacher Paycheck Protection Act, which raised the minimum teacher salary to $50,000 for the 2026-2027 school year.
KCS will reassess its overall salary rates in 2028, and will continue to do so every three to five years.
"This was a pretty tight budget this year," Superintendent Jon Rysewyk said. "We do want to try to do what we can in that, but it really wasn't an oversight. It was really just us having to make some decisions to be able to keep operations the way they are."
The board unanimously approved a capital improvements budget of $24.4 million and nutrition budget of $33.76 million. Next, the budgets must be approved by the Knox County Commission.
During the public comment period, JLL Transport LLC owner John Llewellyn discussed pay increases for bus drivers amid rising costs. The board will reassess costs in the summer and present the information in the fall to see where the district has saved money to reallocate toward driver pay increases. The board would need to approve it then.
KCS will delegate $24.4 million to capital improvements, most of which will cover air conditioning and ventilation for schools, a new gymnasium for Gresham Middle School, facility upgrades, roofing and pavement repairs.
Out of the allotment, $1.8 million will be used for the first phase of planning for a new K-8 school for the Mechanicsville, Lonsdale and Beaumont area.
The board already approved a $66 million for the new school to serve upwards of 1,600 students by 2028. The district wants to meet the projected increase of approximately 400 school-age kids by 2030 as part of the city of Knoxville's projections for the Transforming Western housing development.
The district is in the early stages for a "South Knoxville solution," too, based on projected growth in that part of the county. The district is asking for $51.9 million to develop this plan beginning in fiscal year 2029.
The district's budget for the School Nutrition Fund is estimated at $33.76 million. It will increase meal prices due to its increasing costs for labor and food.
The price increase will support the 63 KCS schools that are part of Community Eligibility Provision, which provides free breakfasts and lunches for eligible schools. The increase will go in effect at other schools.
Old versus new meal prices:
Breakfast: $2 current, $2.25 new
Elementary lunch: $2.75 current, $3.25 new
Middle/high lunch: $3 current, $3.50 new
Adult breakfast: $2.25-$2.50 current, $3 new
Adult lunch: $3.50-$4 current, $5 new
Parents may apply for free meals at knoxschools.org.
Keenan Thomas reports for the Knox News business growth and development team. You can reach him by email at keenan.thomas@knoxnews.com.
Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks at knoxnews.com/subscribe.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: KCS budget news: Teacher salaries and meal prices are going up
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