Pitt County Schools recently submitted a budget request to the Pitt County Commissioners that includes enough funding to raise the current teacher supplement to 7% (currently 3.5 for beginning teachers and 5.25 for seasoned teachers). As a reminder, a base state salary is given to all North Carolina teachers. Counties can then determine what percentage of that salary to provide as a supplement. Many counties neighboring Pitt County have supplements that equal 7, 8, and even 10%, and larger counties of course have even higher supplements. Some would say that it is difficult to keep a teacher working for Pitt County Schools when they can live in Pitt County but teach in nearby counties for higher pay. Our commissioners seem to be divided when it comes to their support of a budget that includes this supplement. It would cause a 1.6 cent tax increase, which understandably has some commissioners nervous and unsure if their constituents would be in favor of this budget. If you would like to see this budget passed there are a few actions you can take. You can contact your commissioners to thank those who have thus far been supportive of the budget (Alex Albright, Chris Nunnally, and Mary Perkins-Williams), and encourage the others to cast a positive vote for this budget on June 4th (Tom Coulson, Mike Fitzpatrick, Ann Floyd-Huggins, Melvin McLawhorn, Beth Ward, Lauren White). Their contact information can be found here. You can also plan to join other parents and community members on the 2nd floor of the county office building (1717 W. 5th St) on June 4th at 7pm to show a large number of community members committed to this budget.
