The Art of the Matter

The turn-out of a mere three Ocracoke citizens at the Hyde County Board of Commissioners special budget workshop could not only be blamed on the weather. What gives? Does not everyone want to spend two hours listening to five guys going over line items in the county's ~$13 million list of expenditures? 

I had just one reason for attending: I hoped to hear if the commissioners would support the school board's request for more funding this year, and that did come up..... at 7:40pm (the meeting began at 6.)

County manager Bill Rich opened the proceedings with a short list of additions/changes to the proposed budget, including a $10,000 appropriation to pay for engineering to improve Ocracoke's storm water drainage. Hyde County committed to pay for the engineering, in partnership with the Ocracoke mosquito control board and NCDOT, which are paying for other aspects of the puddle mitigation projects. 

He also added another 10K to allow for a rent increase when Hyde County EMS has to move to new (not yet determined) digs on Ocracoke after December. 

There won't be any raises for county employees in the budget. (A sort of exception is that the tax office will get a temporary raise for two years while they do the property revaluation but that's 'cause they are going to work extra hours instead of hiring a third person.) 

This budget, Bill pointed out, proposes ~$150,000 less spending than the current year's budget, but the county is also anticipating a ~$240,000 loss of revenue. Why? Well, the land that became the Ocracoke Community Park won't produce property tax revenue anymore, nor will the former East Carolina Bank building that now belongs to the county. As the county population ages, more and more homeowners will get property tax discounts for the elderly. But, Bill said, tax administrator Linda Basnight is "always conservative in her revenue estimates and we always end up better than projected."

Taking all that into consideration, the commissioners then began to look over the budget and ask questions.

If you skipped this budget meeting (and you know you did) you missed the many comments that our Ocracoke's representative county commissioner, John Fletcher, made on various budget items, including his opposition to the purchase of a new K-9 dog for the sheriff's department. (K-9 dogs are trained to the tune of $12,000.) John says that for people of his generation, police dogs remind them of Hitler and his henchmen. "In the second world war we were fighting against a government that had their law enforcement walking around with dogs," he said. He also mentioned that police dogs are a liability hazard. The dog-buying item did not get removed from the budget at this time.

Finally, finally, they got to the school board request. Commissioner Dick Tunnell said that he was "happy to see the school board budget." I was, too! 

The county gave the school board $1,288,286 for fiscal year 2014-15. The school board request for the coming year is $1,428,086, a difference of $139,800. If approved, this will be the largest amount of local revenue in the school system budget since 2009. At the April 6th commissioners' meeting, Hyde County Schools superintendent Randolph Latimore said they were asking for the extra funding for art because of "requests from citizens." (Huzzah to all you squeaky wheels!) "Losing those positions has has a negative impact on what we can do for our children. Our teachers have struggled to meet the needs of students. Ocracoke and Mattamuskeet need their art teachers reinstated," he said.

During his "state of the county" presentation at the May 4th commissioners' meeting, Bill Rich counted as one of his professional "joys" being able to work with the school board to get art back in the schools. He was very happy to announce that his 2015-16 budget proposal included that extra funding.

So tonight, after being reassured that the extra money would pay for two art teachers – one at each campus (Ocracoke and Mattamuskeet) – the commissioners had no further questions. The school board budget extra money will also pay for $10,000 for the Ocracoke ballfield, and another $10,000 for Driver's Ed classes, and some money for a part-time custodian at Ocracoke School.

It seems that the commissioners themselves were relieved to get through the school budget discussion as they adjourned shortly after that discussion. None of them expressed opposition to the funding. The final decision will be made at the next regular meeting on Monday, June 1st at 6pm in the school commons. 

Hope springs eternal. Keep your fingers crossed. Wish upon a star. It also wouldn't hurt to let your commissioners know how you feel one more time. 

Before the budget meeting, Superintendent Latimore held an Ocracoke School community meeting in the commons at 5pm. It also had a dismal turn-out, but we can blame that on baseball. The staff (Principal Walt Padgett, administrator Linda Willis, teachers Flavia Burton, Susan O'Neal, and Flavia Burton) outnumbered the parents/community members (me and Amy Johnson) 5 – 2.

Latimore had one item on his agenda (though he welcomed additional items from the crowd), and that was: the budget request. He went over pretty much the same stuff you read (skimmed) in the first half of this story. He also said that he hope they will know how much money they'll get from the state by sometime this summer. (One year, the state didn't get their act together to pass a budget until October!) Depending on that outcome, they might have to ask the county for more money.

One thing I learned: If we get art classes reinstated, they will post the position, take applications, and do interviews. The job doesn't go straight back to former art teacher Kitty Mitchell, who is currently teaching 5th grade. 

The school will also be hiring at least three more positions: one high school teacher is retiring and being replaced by the middle school math teacher (leaving the middle school position open), one elementary teacher is leaving, and the data manager/information highway teacher is moving to the mainland. 

There was some discussion about a school garden (plans are in the seedling stage; money will come from the 21st Century and Burroughs-Welcome grants), pre-K and Kindergarten (will they be combined next year? The answer was an emphatic "no"), the conversion of the old Fire Hall into the new shop class (downstairs) and new studios for WOVV (upstairs)(it's coming along, slowly), and school security (how do we balance being welcoming with being safe?) The meeting was short, so if you missed it, you didn't miss much. 

Latimore plans to hold another Community Meeting at Ocracoke School in the fall.