Education funding falls short of requests: Jackson Schools, SCC won’t get amounts they say are needed

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Education funding falls short of requests: Jackson Schools, SCC won’t get amounts they say are needed

Associate Superintendent Jake Buchanan on May 19 requested district appropriations. File photo

Immediately after Jackson County Public Schools Associate Superintendent Jake Buchanan and Southwestern Community College President Don Tomas proposed their respective departmental appropriations for fiscal year 2026-27, Jackson County Manager Kevin King presented commissioners with a May 19 draft county budget that left both requests unfulfilled.

Buchanan presented at last week’s meeting instead of Superintendent Dana Ayers, explaining that “she was unavoidably unable to attend tonight.”

He stressed something educators throughout North Carolina have reiterated: as the state cuts back on public school funding, districts must solicit extra financial support from the county.

There’s also the impact of inflation, which outpaced wage growth from 2020-2025. In the 12-month period leading up to April 2026, consumer price index increased 3.8%, the highest rate since May 2023.

“The money that we receive from our local tax dollars, more and more of that does not go as far as it should,” said Buchanan.

He also expressed the need to raise teacher supplements, which can decrease educator turnover. In an April 2026 report to the North Carolina General Assembly, 62% of public schools surveyed noted that teacher supplements had impacted retention and recruitment.

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Other factors driving JCPS’ expenditures include purchased services, professional development, supplies and materials — Buchanan mentioned that teachers sometimes must buy classroom supplies on their own dime — as well as maintenance, transportation, utilities and insurance.

The district requested an operational budget of $12,763,530, not including the county-wide free Community Eligibility Provision free meal program and JROTC, both of which are funded through different departments.

The proposed county budget allotted $11,249,965 to public education, which amounted to a shortfall of $1.5 million.

Public School Forum reported that in 2023-24, Jackson ranked second highest among all 100 counties when comparing tax base per average daily membership. ADM represents a district’s average daily student attendance in the first 20 days of the prior academic year. A large tax base per ADM means district real estate wealth has the capacity to adequately fund every public-school student.

But a county’s capacity to fund does not always mean that it will. Indeed, Jackson ranked 96 of 100 for relative funding effort in 2023-24, when public school appropriations made up about 10.7% of total expenditures. JCPS funding accounts for 10.3% of the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

WRAL in 2024 investigated how five counties fund school operational expenses as a proportion of annual budget. Wake County, at 33%, appropriated the highest percentage. Hoke County, at 14%, appropriated the lowest.

Jackson County has, however, put its money into facilities upgrades and improvements, having taken on $27 million in new debt as of Feb. 17 for county and school capital projects.

On the ADM side, the district is seeing a downward trend in student enrollment — at least at its non-charter institutions. The school system’s ADM peaked in 2017, with 3,787 traditional public and 236 charter school students. In 2026, traditional public and charter ADM totaled, respectively, 3,201 and 420.

While a county’s tax base per ADM might rise with fewer students, no district is advantaged by lower enrollment. The legislature, in addition to its recent public-school cutbacks, penalizes drops in ADM through its funding formula. Shrinking districts are allotted fewer teacher positions, sometimes resulting in school closure or classroom consolidation.

After Buchanan spoke, Tomas approached commissioners about SCC — the community college serving the Qualla Boundary and Jackson, Macon and Swain counties — funding, noting that 90% of SCC graduates stay within the college’s service area.

The college was requesting $3,335,633 in county appropriations, and Tomas was clear that number represented necessary operational funding.

“We don’t come in with anything that I believe is more than what we need, and I don’t want to play the game of want, and then settle for what we need,” he said, adding later that “operation is what keeps the lights on.”

As for capital expenditures, the college had budgeted about $1.2 million, half of which would go toward replacing old HVAC units.

The rest, he told commissioners, was about “keeping our buildings up and keeping them nice,” as well as maintaining the fleet of SCC vehicles.

Thomas ended by implying funding the college wasn’t so much an expense as an investment.

This is demonstrated by what he said were “the number of graduates we got out taking jobs, paying taxes, coming back to us, to you, and then enhancing our community for opportunity and access.”

In the proposed county budget, SCC would receive $985,000 in capital and $3,070,646 in operational appropriations, each of which were $300,000 below Thomas’ proposal.

Commissioners didn’t have many questions after the SCC president spoke — nor did they comment much after Buchanan presented the funding proposal for JCPS — perhaps because King was about to present the budget.

King told The Smoky Mountain News that scheduling conflicts had informed this year’s timeline.

“The board did not see the request before the draft budget was recommended on May 19. The board was given all capital outlay, non-profits and personnel on April 21, 2026. We did not receive the requested amount from the school until April 20, 2026,” wrote King in response to an SMN inquiry as to whether commissioners had a chance to review the appropriations requests from SCC and JCPS.

Typically, appropriations are requested at least one meeting prior to the county manager’s presentation so departments can influence their funding.

For example, Haywood County Superintendent Trevor Putnam presented the requested district budget in late April, well before a proposal was drafted by the county manager.

Last year, Ayers approached commissioners May 6, two weeks before King released the proposed budget. However, the board didn’t hear from SCC or Tomas that day nor on May 20.

The SCC president first presented on June 6, 2025, though the meeting minutes do not mention FY 2025-26 requested appropriations, only what the county allotted.

The document does, however, include a line about additional funding.

“Four years ago, the Commissioners provided SCC with a contingency fund. The line item was mistakenly left out of the FY2025-26 budget request. He requested consideration to expand the budget an additional $83,000 to continue with the contingency,” the document reads.

That line item was added to the final budget.

The library

King on May 19 also informed commissioners that the two Jackson County Public Library locations will cost $1,859,019 to operate in the upcoming year, compared to last year’s total of $1,516,000.

Friends of the Library and state aid, among other sources, will expend $243,000, pushing the county’s expenditures down to $1,616,019. Still, JCPL requires annual appropriations $343,000 greater than its 2025-26 budget, prior to breaking from the Fontana Regional Library system.

Commissioners’ final discussion on May 19 concerned JCPL — in particular, a May 5 document explaining the duties and framework of the new library board. Nine volunteer members were outlined in the original proposal, with seven voting and two non-voting participants. The latter group would be nominated by the Friends of the Library.

While public commenter Antoinette MacWatt felt the FOL members should have the ability to vote, Commissioner John Smith wanted them entirely off the board.

“If the non-voting members, they can’t vote, could they not still make comments to the board via public comment? If that’s the case, then why have them on there as non-voting?” he asked.

“Well, I think their input is more than just a public comment kind of input, especially considering the fact that these are the ‘Friends of’ individuals; they’re on site more often,” responded Chair Mark Letson.

Smith brought up a seven-month-old message discussed at the prior meeting which he did not attend.

“Also, remember the threatening email that we got back in the fall of last year, that they threatened to pull funding if we didn’t decide to get back into the FRL?” he said.

The email was concerned that if Jackson County pulled out of FRL, FOL couldn’t adequately fund it.

“Membership is down because patrons won’t contribute to the Friends if the Library is going to be run by the County,” wrote Cashiers FOL president Cathy Maddock.

This year’s budget includes two FOL contributions totaling $93,000.

”I just don’t see why we can’t keep the same board we have now to have a smooth transition with Grace coming in,” said Commissioner Jenny Lynn Hooper.

Commissioner Michael Jennings asked her to clarify — did she mean the regional FRL board or the Jackson County advisory board?

Hooper indicated she’d meant the former.

“From the regional board, there’s three from Jackson County,” said Smith.

Hooper reiterated Smith’s point about axing the two non-voting participants.

“I’m kind of with John on, why should the [FOL] — I mean, if they want to come to the meetings, they can come and give their input. I think we only need five [members], don’t need to have seven,” she said.

Letson clarified that according to the document, the board would be made up of nine individuals.

Commissioner Todd Bryson pushed back on Hooper’s comment, arguing that Powell has a strong relationship with FOL and the board should trust her judgement.

“Well, I trust her too, but I just don’t want it to go to back to where it was, because those people are pretty devious and mean — not Friends of the Library — I’m just talking about the people in general that were against [leaving FRL],” said Hooper.

Letson asked commissioners if they’d like the board to comprise of seven individuals, and to that, if there would be five or seven voting members.

Bryson thought five would be a bit easier to maintain a “quorum.”

“This is an advisory role,” Letson clarified. “If there’s a legal question, they’re going to be contacting legal counsel.”

Smith brought the conversation back to FOL. “Somebody from the Friends of the Library could be one of the voting members, anyway. There’s nothing to prevent them from applying and becoming a voting member.”

The meeting adjourned even as commissioners couldn’t come to a consensus about the preferred number of board members.

A budget public hearing will be held at 6:25 p.m. June 2.

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