Lexington-Richland County School District Five board members approved the second reading of the general budget, which totals $250,580,020, with an operating millage of 261.0 mills. In this budget, a total of $7,445,197 has been assigned to the fund balance.

87.9% of the budget goes towards fringes and salaries, while 12.1% is allocated to supplies, services and equipment.

The district’s administration recommended increasing the minimum salary schedules for beginning teachers from $47,500 to $50,992.

Additional increases include SLED checks, which total $63,000, Magic School AI, totaling around $100,000 and instructional technology at $400,000, which was previously funded by the state.

The recommended salary and benefit reductions included the removal of temporary time-limited Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) positions, which include nine clinical counselors, one youth engagement counselor, one behavior program lead and one social worker. The NERI program will be covered utilizing the fund balance. This totals $1.4 million in savings. 

“I want to be able to say that we put a budget together that checks all the immediate boxes,” Chairwoman Kimberly Snipes said. 

Superintendent Akil E. Ross presented a list of additional salary and benefit items for board members to consider, totaling over $1.4 million. The items presented were:

• Two assistant principals for change in intermediate school to middle school at $310,000
• Increased contract days for behavior specialists from 210 to 225 at $5,000
• Reclassify three directors into executive directors at $36,000
• Two p.m. maintenance custodial teams (two maintenance specialists and six custodial positions) at $498,000
• Onboarding/offboarding coordinators at $300,000
• ESS substitute payment increases totaling $186,000
• 13 elementary athletic lead supplements at $19,500
• Five middle school athletic lead supplements at $17,000
• Additional band supplements at $30,000

“I’m just worried we’re putting money into administrative and non-classroom areas and not as much into the classroom itself,” board member Catherine Huddle said. “I realize we have teacher raises, but we should focus on more things like reading intervention at early ages.”

Board member Kevin Scully said that all the supplementary positions mentioned help make the classrooms become what they are, and nothing on the budget is a “waste."

In addition, $7.4 million has been assigned to the fund balance, which includes items such as employee retention incentive, NERI payments, capital/equipment expenditures and six full-time equivalents (FTE) for critical needs areas. 

Board members David Herring, Mike Satterfield and Scully expressed concern about getting rid of the nine clinical counselors, who are covered with the ESSER funds. These ESSER funds were implemented to support school districts during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

All three board members noted that these positions have helped address issues in elementary and secondary school students that were occurring prior to the pandemic. Board member Elizabeth Barnhardt said that the board has known these ESSER funds positions are limited and were not going to stay in the schools and budget long term. 

Ross stated that if the board would like the nine clinical counselors to stay on the budget, administrators can discuss getting a contractual service to keep them. 

“I know you talked about contractual services and maybe that's a way to address it,” Satterfield said. “Maybe if that is a budget consideration, we can get a little more information.” 

The next scheduled board meeting is June 9, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Center for Advanced Technical Studies, located at 916 Mt. Vernon Church Rd. in Chapin.