Pender County Schools appreciates the county’s continued support of public education and the additional funding included for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
The district received a $1.3 million increase in current-expense funding and $6 million in capital funding. The capital investment is significant and will help address important facility, maintenance, HVAC, transportation, technology, and long-term infrastructure needs across the district.
At the same time, the current-expense increase remains below the amount our school system requested in order to maintain existing staffing levels and services. In May, Superintendent Breedlove presented the district’s budget proposal to the county. In that presentation he identified the need for a $4 million increase in order to maintain current staffing levels and services, without adding anything new for the upcoming school year. Unfortunately, the $1.3 million increase is $2.7 million short of the base level requested which will result in a forced reduction in our local budget expenses for next year.
Over the next few weeks, district and school leadership will be assessing priorities to determine which needs can be funded, delayed, reduced, or addressed through other available resources.
Our goals for conducting this assessment and making the decisions that follow will be to protect students and classrooms. That means prioritizing classroom instruction, school safety, and the core operations necessary to serve students, while limiting increases to class sizes where possible.
No final decisions have been made regarding specific reductions. However, when current-expense funding does not keep pace with the cost of maintaining the number of employees we currently have and the services we provide, difficult decisions may be necessary. We will approach those decisions carefully, responsibly, and with a focus on minimizing disruption for students, families, and staff.
Pender County Schools is grateful for the county’s investment, particularly in capital needs, and we will continue working with county leaders to address the operational funding challenges that affect staff recruitment and retention, student support, instructional support, school operations, and the day-to-day needs of our schools.