Teachers and supporters from all across the county showed up at the Rowan County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday during the public hearing for the upcoming year’s budget to voice their concerns about a lack of funding in education.

By the end, eight people spoke in front of the commissioners about how teacher pay and student funding is causing Rowan County to lag behind in hiring and keeping experienced teachers.

“Teacher recruitment, as you’ve just heard, is increasingly difficult. The teachers we attract gain valuable experience here in the Rowan-Salisbury School System. They stay for a couple years and then they leave for better opportunities and better pay. When we have increased vacancies in our staff, our students are the ones who suffer,” said Traci Walser, a local woman whose children went through the school system.

Members of the board replied to the teachers, to make sure that they knew their voices were heard and that their concerns were answered.

County Commissioner Chairman Greg Edds told the teachers that the commissioners were working with the school system and having a continuous conversation about how to improve conditions for teachers and students.

“We were presented with numbers from other communities where their teacher supplements were higher. So we understood that and our question then became, if we are paying higher per-student contributions than other counties around us then why aren’t we able to pay higher teacher supplements? That is something that we all looked at each other in the room and said, ‘we gotta figure that out,'” said Edds.

Multiple current and former teachers also spoke out about their need for funding to support them and their students.

“The data should translate to the absolute necessity of having an abundance, if not an army, of highly trained teachers, counselors, mentors and professionals in our Rowan-Salisbury public school system. Unfortunately, I wanted to tell you that reality is quite the opposite and the lack of adults in our public educational buildings is at an all time low and it’s unsafe,” said Kristin Swilley, a former Rowan teacher who left to go to law school.

Commissioner Craig Pierce provided an opposing viewpoint in the discussion. He said he was worried about how potential upcoming legislation for a voucher system for private schools could make pumping more money into public schools a waste of money. He specifically pointed to the new Knox-Overton K-8 school, noting how it could sit empty if the student population significantly decreases.

“I’m married to a retired school teacher, so I know what I’m talking about. It’s not about the money, it’s about the commitment. And unless these teachers understand that you’ve gotta be committed to education, and not just to a paycheck, we’re never going to get out of this quandary,” said Pierce.

The Rowan-Salisbury School System received a total of about $39.63 million for the upcoming fiscal year, an increase of about $1.4 million from last year’s budget. The Board of Commissioners approved the proposed budget without any changes after public comments were received, but did say they would take comments and concerns under consideration in upcoming discussions with the School Board and School System administration.