The Wake County Board of Education approved Tuesday night asking for a $55.8 million budget increase from Wake County, namely for raising minimum wage to $17 per hour for employees and raising local supplements for other workers.
The vote is part of a $650 million request from the county and a nearly $2.2 billion overall budget plan.
No board members voted against it.
The minimum pay raise would also come with incremental wage increases for those with more experience, to avoid wage compression among employees with differing amounts of experience.
While board members discussed ideally focusing more on academic and mental health endeavors beyond recruiting and retaining staff, they argued recruiting and retaining staff was also essential to providing a quality education.
Board Member Tyler Swanson said a thriving school is one with qualified and happy educators working in it.
“Keeping our kids safe means having no vacancies,” Swanson said. “Right now we have vacancies up and down, because we have state legislature that is not fulfilling its constitutional duty.”
By law, the state is responsible for funding education and counties are responsible for funding facilities and any additional wishes. But counties have for years argued the base amounts from the state need to be higher for salary and other line items to keep up with actual costs and needed student support.
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