Internal records detail staffing reductions as Burke schools reject ‘layoff’ label

It’s a question of semantics and strategy.

Burke County school officials may not call it “layoffs,” but internal budget records show sustained planning for staffing reductions that would shrink the workforce through attrition, position eliminations, reassignments, and unfilled vacancies as student enrollment declines.

The documents, obtained through N.C. Open Meetings laws, detail cost-saving scenarios for Fiscal Year 2026-27 that would remove teaching and support positions across the district, even as leaders publicly insist no layoffs are planned.

Central to the discussion is a Dec. 6 headline in The Paper that read, “Declining enrollment puts Burke Schools on track for layoffs, bigger classes.”

School leaders swiftly and adamantly insisted that “layoffs” were not part of the strategic discussion to manage an expected $5.2 million budget shortfall.

The cache of records and correspondence obtained at the formal request of The Paper’s attorneys describe a different story.

The document request was made on Dec. 22 after the school board publicly chastised the publication’s entire three-year portfolio of education-related coverage and revoked the newspaper’s “special media access.”

The documents, some of them redacted, are from the period between Sept. 18, 2025, and Dec. 19, 2025.

The roughly 120 internal records reflected early and sustained preparation for reducing payroll, programs, and personnel costs. They employed language patterns common in public-sector budgeting strategies that are pre-layoff mechanisms or substitutes for “layoffs.”

Included were the descriptors, “attrition,” “vacancy savings,” “position elimination,” “reassignment,” “hiring freeze,” and “not filling vacant positions,” all measures designed to lower staffing levels without formally declaring layoffs.

A redacted three-page spreadsheet titled “Cost Savings Initiatives 26-27.xlsx — Quantify.pdf” listed potential actions and projected savings, including:

• Table Rock Middle School: Lose one, possibly two teachers, $62,000
• Walter Johnson Middle School: Eliminate a reading interventionist position plus one teacher, $62,000
• Spanish: Possible elimination of one districtwide position, $62,000
• Patton High School: Possible elimination of one position, $62,000
• Eliminate 2.8 program enhancement teachers, $173,600
• Reduce library book funding to replace only lost or damaged materials, $35,000
• Eliminate one administrative assistant, $21,000

In a Sept. 22 email to Burke schools’ leadership, Finance Director Keith Lawson wrote, “In addition to addressing this year’s shortfall, we must begin preparing now for the anticipated FY 2026–2027 deficit. Throughout this year, please be attentive to operational areas and identify potential reductions where possible.”

In an Oct. 9 email to staff, Lawson wrote, “We will start meetings with Principals in January and have a pretty firm idea of our ask from the Commissioners and will inform them of what’s coming. The risk of losing some Federal funds, such as Title II, III, & IV. Projected shrinkage in state revenues of 2.4%, and our declining ADM is killing us. Does anyone else have a rosier outlook?”

Lawson warned of a “very lean financial year” in an Oct. 22 memo to school leadership. As budget planning progressed, the shortfall projection improved to $4.6 million from $5.2 million after learning that less federal funding would be withheld than anticipated. He wrote that the district had already eliminated $4.2 million from the current year’s budget and urged administrators to identify possible reductions as planning continued.

Three days after publication of The Paper’s story about staffing reductions in the school system, Burke schools Superintendent Dr. Mike Swan dispatched a systemwide email to faculty and staff on Dec. 9 in which he addressed the headline’s vernacular. “Over the past several days, many of you have read or heard media coverage regarding projected budget challenges for the upcoming school year. I want to speak to you directly, clearly, and calmly: the sky is not falling.”

“... No final decisions about staffing or programs have been made,” he wrote. “We are confident we can make up the shortfalls through attrition. No layoffs or reductions in force are planned for the immediate future.”

Prompted by The Paper’s Dec. 6 article about potential staff layoffs, the school board on Dec. 15 unanimously and publicly approved a prepared statement criticizing The Paper’s coverage of Burke County Public Schools.

The statement accused the newspaper of publishing “misleading, inaccurate, or distorted information” and described what it called a documented pattern of reporting that undermined public understanding of school system decisions.

On Dec. 23, Cheryl Shuffler, the school district’s public relations officer, sent The Paper a 221-word clarification email stating that the board’s action was directed at special access and was prompted by what it said was a factually inaccurate headline and reporting that caused confusion among staff. The clarification did not identify the headline or reporting at issue.

The clarification cited Board Policy 5020, which applies to all media and allows school administrators to limit media access if it interferes with maintaining a safe and orderly learning environment or disrupts instructional time. The document concluded by stating that no further action was contemplated and that the district appreciated continued dialogue with The Paper.

Policy 5020 was adopted in November 2021 and revised in March 2023. The seven-page policy sets the basic rules for who may enter Burke County schools and under what conditions, with student safety and minimizing classroom disruption as the overriding priorities.

For media access, the policy draws a clear distinction between public events and access involving students during the school day. While photography at public events is not prohibited, anyone seeking media access that includes photographing students must register with the school system’s central office, submit to a formal background check at their own expense, and complete any required training.

The district maintains an approved list of individuals with media access, and school administrators are instructed to check that list before allowing access. The policy also gives principals and the superintendent authority to remove or bar individuals who disrupt school operations or violate policy, reinforcing that media access inside schools is conditional, regulated, and subject to administrative approval rather than automatic or unrestricted.

The Burke school board will be busy with the budget in May and June. On May 1, the budget and budget message are due; May 15 is the deadline for the approved budget to be presented to the Burke County Board of Commissioners; the final budget resolution is due June 30.