Over the last two months, the New Hanover County Schools district has been grappling with millions of dollars in budget shortfalls, with limited options on how to bridge those gaps.
On Tuesday, Dr. Chris Barnes offered the school board some good news — $1.6 million in federal funding, for Title II, III, and IV, is now unfrozen. (Barnes said the money has been dispersed to the state but not yet individual school districts, so while optimistic, he said he wanted to “trust but verify,” citing the Soviet proverb made popular by Ronald Reagan.)
He also noted that the county had increased the school budget by $4 million to support raises and benefits, and another million dollars to fund safety improvements at high school campuses…