Latest news with #HaywoodCountySchools
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Summer school aims to bridge the gap of lost learning during Helene
May 28—Students in Haywood County have a key opportunity this summer to recover valuable instructional time lost to Hurricane Helene and winter weather, with programs available to support learning and allow for retakes of end-of-grade and end-of-course tests. "I encourage parents to participate in this program. Take advantage of this," said Haywood County Schools Board Chairman Chuck Francis. The program can be particularly beneficial for students who struggled this year, given that they missed 22 days thanks to Helene and winter weather. While Haywood County Schools is sixth in the state in academic performance, up from seventh last year, Superintendent Dr. Trevor Putnam isn't sure if Haywood can hold onto its high rank due to the disruption in learning from Helene. "We are down 200 plus instructional hours. I still think we will be in the running, but it will be hard to give up 200 hours of instructional time and compete with schools that had a full year," Putnam said. "You can't create 200 hours out of thin air." However, "we are going to get as many instructional hours back in the summer as possible," Putnam said. But it's more than just those hours missed. "It's not just the 22 days, but you think about the crisis and turmoil the kids were in after that," said Assist. Superintendent Jill Barker. "It's not just the 22 days. It's been more than that. We're trying to mitigate that." School leaders were also faced with the challenge of piecing together multiple different funding sources to provide the programs, as some money came from the state and some came from the federal level. They also had to face the challenge of making sure they achieved all of the requirements attached to the money for each program. "There's different rules for transportation. There's different rules for food," Barker said. Some students will have the opportunity to re-test before the school year is out, while others will have the opportunity to re-test during the summer program. "Kids that need intensive intervention, we're encouraging them to come to the summer program and re-test at the end of June," Barker said. "It is to mitigate lost instruction for kids. ... We are just trying to have that opportunity for kids that want to come." Following are some of the programs offered. Read to Achieve Students in kindergarten through third grade can take part in the Read to Achieve program. Read to Achieve Program will include phonics instruction, writing and specific reading intervention strategies. Transportation and meals (breakfast and lunch) will be provided. The Read to Achieve program is funded with state dollars, while Haywood County Schools is chipping in from Title I funds to add kindergarteners to the program. Building Master Builders Students in fourth or fifth grade have the opportunity to take part in the Building Master Builders program, which focuses on math and reading with some sciences added in. "They'll be doing YouCubed summer math, which includes math and reading. They'll also have some enrichment activities that will vary by school," Haywood County Schools Title I Director Charly Inman said. Those enrichment activities include the Science Olympiad, drones and Legos. Summer YouCubed Middle schoolers can take part in the Summer YouCubed Math Program. The programs aimed at fourth through eighth graders are being funded by state dollars, coming from the School Extension Learning Recovery Program, a direct response to Helene's impact. "That money will definitely cover all of the teachers and bus drivers. We're also able to get a director for each school," Inman said. Students in eighth grade or below will receive a meal. There will also be buses for students. Credit recovery for high school High school students can participate in a credit-recovery program in order to avoid falling behind. The high school program will not offer food, as each session will be about two hours shorter than those for the younger grades. High schoolers will also not attend on Fridays. Participation is voluntary in each of the summer programs, so parents or guardians make the decision. Parent notifications regarding students who could benefit from the service have already gone out. The help sessions will last three to four weeks, starting June 10. Classes are taught by local teachers.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
No property tax hike planned in austere county budget proposal
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways May 7—There's both good news and bad news in the Haywood's budget for the coming year, one that's balanced at $111.9 million, but the good news for county property owners is that there is no planned tax increase. The bad news is that it's a very tight budget, and that work to recover from Helene means services will expand little, if at all. Under the budget proposal for 2025-26, the tax rate will hold steady at 55 cents for each $100 of property value. Part of that is because commissioners relied heavily on the county's fund balance to offset budget needs. Haywood County Manager Bryant Morehead presented his recommended county budget at the Monday morning commissioner meeting. Budget figures indicated the county is growing, despite the double whammies sustained in the past several years. The total value of property in Haywood — which is the basis for property tax collections — actually rose by $250 million this year, but that growth was offset by property value losses of $230 million from the paper mill closure where reduced values just hit the books and from losses due to Hurricane Helene. Where Haywood will be spending more Here's a breakdown of the major cost increases required or planned in the 2025-26 Haywood County budget. —3% cost of living hike for employees, plus a possible 2% merit increase, a $3 million budget increase. —18 new vehicles, half of them going to the sheriff's office. Morehead said the county rolling vehicle replacement schedule means between 16 and 20 vehicles are updated each year. —Operating costs up 3% for an extra $631,000. —Capital outlay of an extra $871,000, mostly to be used for repairs, roof replacements, library carpeting, a forklift and jail appliance replacements. —Haywood County Schools — an additional $445,000, an amount in line with the automatic school funding formula tied to enrollment, bringing the total appropriation to $18.4 million. —Haywood Community College — up $103,000, upping the total appropriation to $3.5 million. —Insurance and bonding — an extra $272,000 Of those projected losses, $190 million in value is from the paper mill, and $39 million is projected from Helene. The nominal overall growth in property values and other revenues led to a relatively flat county budget that restricted any bold new initiatives but will allow the county to continue services at the current level. New ways to spend The 2025-26 fiscal year budget reflects new funding in two areas. One is to provide financial support for the ongoing recovery work in the county. Haywood County budget: where the money comes from Here's how the revenue projections stack up for the proposed 2025-26 Haywood County budget. —Property taxes — $56.6 million, a $60,000 increase from last year —Sales tax — $16.4 million, same as last year —Restricted government revenue — $15.5 million, up $1.5 million —Other revenues — $12.4 million —Fund balance appropriation — $11 million Total general fund revenues — $111.9 million, up $5.8 million from last year. Since Tropical Storm Fred hit in 2021, the county has employed a grants writer. As Morehead explained, there are no direct state or federal grants to counties struck by disasters. "You have to apply for everything," he said. "We set up our own recovery and resiliency office after Fred, but this is the first time we're putting it in the budget." Workers for recovery Garron Bradish, who heads the county development services office, will now oversee a new grants person, a flood mitigation specialist, and a new building inspector. "We still haven't closed on any properties under Fred," Morehead said of the disaster funding available to flooded homeowners willing to sell their property and relocate to higher ground. "There's a lot of work to be done." The new funding amounts to $735,000. New funds for recovery court The other initiative is funding recovery court efforts in Haywood that began with a two-year state grant. Under the contract terms, the county was to pick up the funding when the grant expired. The county's cost is $140,000. Recovery court is an alternative program for nonviolent offenders that offers a lifeline toward helping addicts become productive citizens. The program currently has 16 participants. Revenue The county budget's general fund includes basic government operations. There are separate funds for services such as solid waste, fire and road service districts or the tourism occupancy tax collections. The county receives funds to operate from multiple sources. One is federal funding primarily for health and human services. A second is revenue from property taxes, and a third comes from sale taxes. These three sources provide 79% of the county's revenue. Investments, fees or licenses are other revenue sources. Sales tax This year's budget anticipates both property and sales taxes to remain at the same level as last year due to the economic and disaster losses. Construction work on I-40 and the Blue Ridge Parkway to repair damage from Helene could also hinder visitors and therefore hold back increases in sale tax revenue. Only the federal revenues are expected to increase, but that is largely due to more children in the foster care program. A $1.4 million increase in federal payments is anticipated, with the county shouldering $175,000 of added foster care costs. Property tax forecast The property tax projections are based on a tax collection rate of 98.18%, down from last year's 98.29% rate. The proposed budget expects revenue losses because of less activity in the Register of Deeds office which collects revenue based on the value of property changing hands, and a decrease in building fees due to a lower level of construction in the county — all tying back to damage from Helene. On the flip side, increased revenues are projected from services such as ambulance charges, library and recreation fees, vaccinations, well/septic inspections and the sale of maps through Geographic Information Services, or GIS. Fund balance This year, the budget relies on a nearly $11 million transfer from fund balance, or money left from previous years, to make ends meet. Last year, the board approved a $6.8 million transfer. Morehead said the county's healthy fund balance has not only allowed the county to maintain service levels during difficult years but provides the needed operating funds to pay for disaster needs upfront as it waits for federal or state reimbursement, which are only available once projects are complete. "We have a history of a fund balance that's fiscally conservative," Morehead explained. "If we had all the issues to address at an 11% fund balance we had in 2006, I'm not sure how we could have made it. We build the fund balance during good years for times like this." The county's fund balance amount is a moving target where a snapshot is taken once a year on June 30, Morehead said. The latest unassigned balance available was $44 million. Expenses When beginning the budget process this winter, Morehead worked with each department head to review needs for the coming fiscal year. After that, he met with each commissioner. As Commissioner Jennifer Best noted, the board members had the opportunity to go over each department request, line item by line item, during the budget preparations. Trimming to fit The budget requests amounted to $117 million. From that amount, $5.6 million was trimmed primarily by eliminating requests for additional employees, all 22.5 of them. Approving the added staff would have cost $2 million, budget documents note. Overall, the general fund expenses increased by $5.8 million for the 2025-26 budget. Debt The county's non-education debt increased by $600,000 this fiscal year as balloon payments were being met. While old debt will begin dropping off next year, the $31 million jail project more than doubling the jail capacity is anticipated to cost the county $2 million annually to service the debt and interest costs. That is roughly the equivalent of an added 2 cents per $100 of value on the tax rate, but reduced debt for other projects is expected to temper the amount of additional revenues needed once the jail comes online in 2026. Haywood County Schools debt will continue to rise until 2028, when annual payments reach $2.3 million and will then begin decreasing. Haywood Community College debt payments are $1.5 million annually and falling. Local governments need approval of the N.C. Local Government Commission to enter long-term debt, and the levels obligated in Haywood County were well within the approved limits given by the commission. Once commissioners approve a budget, it will go in effect on July 1, for a fiscal year than runs through June 30 of 2026. A copy of the draft budget is available at the county administration offices in the county courthouses, the Waynesville library or at the county website at
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
School cafeterias face triple whammy: weather closures, rising food and labor costs
Jan. 27—Haywood County Schools cafeterias posted a loss of $700,000 last year. And school closures from winter weather and the flood isn't helping matters this year. The impact of snow days has been felt by Haywood County School's school cafeteria staff, not only in the amount of food that is lost, but for many, in hits to their own paychecks. While the system expects some closures due to winter weather, the challenges began much earlier this school year when Helene closed schools for 11 days thanks to massive flooding, and school nutrition staff members were out of work. Typically, school nutrition workers are paid an hourly rate, but with no hours, some were set to get a check that was missing two weeks' worth of pay. State to the rescue Following Helene, the state stepped in and provided relief funding for school nutrition employees — an action unusual for the state. School nutrition employees, as well as food and equipment costs, are typically funded directly by the sale of lunches and breakfasts. "It's huge. Missing 11 days out of one paycheck is a big hit for somebody. We were fortunate the state was able to provide that," said School Nutrition Director Alison Francis. "This was an extra special instance where they helped with that." More recently, school nutrition employees have been missing days due to snow and ice. Management still works on remote learning days, but the rest of the staff is only there when students are, meaning their checks can be diminished by the weather. Food spoilage The other issue presented by storms comes with the food actually being served. With fresh produce and milk on hand, things can quickly spoil and leave the school nutrition holding the bag. That issue was never more present than following Helene. "We ended up losing about $14,000 in food due to things spoiling because we were out of school or (had) freezers going down," Francis said. Inventory lost has been submitted to the state, however, and Francis is hopeful they can get at least some reimbursement for the food. Some of that loss came down to products simply going out of date, such as what school nutrition staff had to face during a recent winter weather surge that rolled through Haywood County. "We still have some minor food loss with fresh produce or milk, but for the most part we're able to use the food that's in our freezer," Francis said. They may also cut down on their next order so they can use more of the food in the freezer and not allow it to go bad. Power loss means food loss During Helene, however, there was another hurdle — power outages. All of the food at Meadowbrook Elementary was lost, while food from other schools was transported to the school nutrition program's central storage off of Crabtree Road. "We had four schools where we had to go in and move food to our warehouse," Francis said. Additionally, two schools were set up and giving out free lunches to kids under 18 during Helene, allowing school nutrition to put some of that produce and milk to use instead of allowing it to spoil. Wage challenges Storms aren't the only challenge that school nutrition is currently facing. A few years ago, the minimum wage for staff jumped from $11.85 to $15. "It was a huge jump for us, to be able to cover that difference," Francis said. On top of that, the cost of the food itself has gone up. "Food costs have continued to increase since COVID. That's hurt us as well," Francis said. More need equals more revenue Currently, every student in Haywood County is able to eat for free thanks to funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, that funding isn't fully covering every meal. The payments are based on the number of students who automatically qualify for free lunch. Students who receive SNAP or Medicaid or are considered homeless or migrants are among those who fall into that category. Currently, just under 55% of students fall into that category. To truly break even, the school district would need about 62% of students in that category. Because of the 7% gap, Haywood County school nutrition receives $4.54 for 87% of the meals it serves. For the other 13%, the USDA, only reimburses 53 cents. That reimbursement is crucial to the school nutrition program as the money it brings in from the sale of lunches, or in this case from the USDA reimbursements, directly goes back into covering labor, food and equipment costs. "That reimbursement rate hasn't been high enough to cover all of that for us," Francis said. Francis said that the more that students eat at school, the more they are able to bridge that gap in funding. "It helps. The more students that eat, the more reimbursement we get," she said. It's been a tough year for school nutrition, and it comes on the heels of a $700,000 loss last year — nearly half of the money that the program had in its savings account. School nutrition is theoretically supposed to be self-supporting — operating more like a business than a normal government program. Francis said the goal is to simply break even. "It's nice to have some extra funds in our savings account so we're not nervous about how we end every year," she said. "When we do have extra funds, those go towards purchasing equipment and other supplies that we need."
