The Haywood County School Board on July 21 addressed two important items during a meeting that lasted less than 10 minutes.
Members were gridlocked after voting 4-4 on the proposal to devote $725,000 from the Haywood County Schools general fund to the HCS 2026-2027 budget, an unusual situation for a board that typically votes unanimously for or against items. Chairman Chuck Francis, the tiebreaker, decided in favor of balance withdrawal.
Republican Haywood County Commissioner David Burnette made an impassioned plea for the measure.
Before the vote, Burnette thanked commissioners for awarding extra funding for HCS to give out pay raises to non-classified and certified staff.
“They work very hard and they deserve to be properly compensated,” he said. “However, the North Carolina Fiscal Control Act requires that we approve a balanced budget or that we balance the budget, so I think it’s our duty to be approving a balanced budget.”
In recent years, the school system’s full appropriations requests have been unfulfilled by county commissioners, forcing HCS to turn to the general fund balance or else cut positions. This budget season is no different. Superintendent Trevor Putnam asked for $3.1 million to maintain operations without unnecessary cuts or unlivable wages. He was allocated $2.3 million; the measure to withdraw $725,000 will essentially satisfy the difference.
The next agenda item involved conservation, space usage and cost reduction. And it marked a big win for both HCS and the town of Canton.
The Southern Appalachian Conservancy has financed the town’s June 22 purchase of 78 acres — 38 acres of which consist of the Pisgah High School and Canton Middle School baseball fields, as well as Pisgah’s Farmers for America farm — previously owned by George Freeman.
“Freeman was leasing the ball fields and the FFA farm to the school system,” said Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers.
Through the next 15 years, the town will act in place of Freeman, leasing the same property at a $1/year annual cost to HCS for three 5-year terms. This guarantees HCS a decade-and-a-half of continued land usage.
“I want to give a lot of appreciation to Superintendent Putnam, Chairman Francis, and the entire school board for this. We’ve been working on this for a long time, and so this will maintain the ball fields and the FFA, which excites us in the town of Canton,” Smathers told The Smoky Mountain News.
He said some of the adjoining 40 acres could be used for future outdoor recreation, river cleanup and flood mitigation, though the land across the ball fields is specifically reserved for sportsman group activities.
“[The purchase is] just another chapter in a great relationship, providing recreation opportunities and supporting our public schools,” Smathers said, noting that different groups’ usage of the land could promote further collaboration.