Chuck Hughes, Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education
♦ Our North Carolina General Assembly needs to do a much better job of meeting budgetary time-lines. The lapse between the time our local board of education must make budgetary decisions and the time they learn what allocations they have, needs to be addressed. Already, we had to send out letters of contract non-renewal to many teachers because we “may or may not” have the money to continue their valuable service. You can imagine the anxiety and stress our contract teachers must be undergoing in these circumstances, knowing they “may or may not” be able to be rehired. Disgraceful? Yes. What if I ran my household budget that way, i.e. telling the mortgage company I don’t have the money to pay them or the credit union because I wasn’t sure how much the VA would be paying me next month. “So guys repossess my car and my house. I’ll get back to you when the VA reveals what my income will be so with a little luck I can buy back part of my house and all the car now.”
We surely owe our teachers and other public employees better service than that. In all due respect North Carolina General Assembly–please get it together.
