BCPS beats their deficit, prepares for next year

When the Burke County Public Schools district learned early in the 2025-26 school year that they’d be working against a $4.6 million deficit due to declining enrollment, they started planning ahead, making cuts and slimming their spending in every area that they could afford.

Those early efforts seem to have paid off, with Finance Officer Keith Lawson telling the board of education last month that the district had not only closed its $4.6 million deficit, but saved nearly $1 million more than expected. In total, BCPS trimmed spending by $5,575,892.

“Our plan worked fantastically,” Lawson said. “Those reductions weren’t without pain. As you can see in the note, we (operate at) 88.9% payroll and benefits-related expenses in our budget.”

While the district confirmed there were no layoffs, the number of teachers did decrease from 770 to 727, mainly through retirements and resignations, though some of those vacancies have been filled through hiring efforts.

Including classified personnel, or non-teaching roles, 205 employees had left their positions as of June 24.

Throughout the year, district officials repeatedly pointed to normal attrition as a cost-saving method, reiterating that they would not just be closing positions as teachers and staff left, but combining roles and hiring only as necessary.

However, since the 2024-25 school year, hiring has dropped by more than 50%.

The district hired 55 teachers and 50 non-teaching employees in 2025-26, compared with the previous four-year average of approximately 140 teachers and 126 non-teaching hires.

Director of Human Resources Keith Recker confirmed there have been 32 teaching positions and 11 non-teaching positions filled by June 17 for the upcoming school year.

As of July 1, 43 positions are still open at Burke County Public Schools, with 27 for teachers and teacher assistants, mostly across elementary and middle schools.

“For prospective teachers considering whether Burke County Public Schools is the right fit, our message is simple: BCPS is committed to supporting educators at every stage of their career and creating a culture where people and relationships come first,” Recker said.

Despite the decrease in teachers, district staff said their student-teacher ratio shouldn’t grow too much. In December, the board discussed the potential for the ratio to move from one teacher for every 14.55 students to one teacher for every 16 students.

This would still place them under the state median of one teacher for every 17 students.

SAVINGS PAST

THE PAYROLL

BCPS Public Relations Officer Cheryl Shuffler said, “Additional savings were also realized through operational reductions, including decreased spending on supplies and materials, reducing library book purchases, and bringing student records digitization in-house rather than contracting with a third-party vendor.”

The decisions don’t mean that the district has an extra $1 million stashed away for a rainy day.

According to Lawson, it was money not drawn down for teaching positions, classroom support, office staff, school supplies, and supplements across schools and through programs like GEAR UP, Pre-K, and More at Four. Some funds were also saved due to changes in needs for Hurricane Helene recovery.

“It doesn’t mean that was money put in the bank or reinvested into other programming,” Lawson said. “It means we used less fund balance in local and special revenue funds than we used the previous year. We used less of our savings than anticipated.”

Because the district is funded based on the previous year’s enrollment, Lawson expects to see many of the same financial pressures next year, saying, “We are moving from funding 11,206 (students) to 11,021 which is a 1.7% reduction.”

For the upcoming school year, the total budget and student enrollment is unknown. Although Lawson expects the funding to increase due to the “anticipated, substantial teacher wage increases,” the overall state funding to the district is still projected to decrease due to declining student enrollment.

The deficit from the past year was based on a decrease of 93 students going into the 2024-25 school year. The upcoming budget will be based on a decrease of 185.

“We started planning for the upcoming academic year last September,” Shuffler said. “Our approach is to be proactive rather than reactive. … Each department will continue reviewing expenditures, operational efficiencies, and program effectiveness to identify reductions that minimize impact on students and classroom instruction.”