KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knox County Schools is close to finishing work on its next budget, working with stakeholders and the community to find priorities before crafting a formal budget proposal. That proposal is expected to be brought before the Knox County Commission in May or June for a vote, according to KCS.
KCS said it previously spoke with ten principals and five regional representatives and collected 2,032 survey responses from the community about the budget. In December 2023, KCS received feedback and context from all administrators, and in March held focus groups with teachers and families.
The community meeting on April 9 was one of the final steps in engaging stakeholders through the process. Through it, KCS said it identified four priorities in the budget and discussed them with stakeholders. They are listed below.
- Excellence in foundational skills
- Great educators in every school
- Career empowerment and preparation
- Success for every student
KCS said investing in educators across every school was the biggest priority for stakeholders, with around 81.3% saying they wanted to see pay increases for all certified staff and around 75% wanting pay increases for classified staff like custodians and food service workers. Around 66% wanted to see an incentive plan rewarding staff for staying with the district.
Those priorities beat out the other three by wide margins, KCS said during Tuesday's meeting. However, KCS said respondents also indicated that "tutoring has had a significant, positive impact on student learning."
The findings come as federal funding that helped pay for hundreds of tutoring positions in the school district comes to an end. Over three years, KCS received around $114 million from ESSER funds, which will no longer be in its coffers starting the next school year.
This year, KCS also said it is facing a "significantly lower increase in state funding." State funding comes from the TISA formula, which gives money to school districts based on the number of students and their individual needs. KCS said during the meeting that the formula is normalizing this year, which results in a smaller increase of income for the district from the state.
Despite those obstacles, KCS said it is planning to implement pay raises for educators and workers costing a total of around $39 million — the largest new investment KCS is expecting this year.
By raising the pay rate, KCS said it will bring salaries up to market value. Rysewyk said while student enrollment increased by 1.3% since 2017, the total number of teachers increased by around 9.1% in the same timeframe.
Superintendent Jon Rysewyk said the school district's philosophy behind the budget was meant to "protect the classroom" and "fund what works."
By "protecting the classroom," Rysewyk said the district is aimed at supporting a holistic idea of the classroom such as feeding students and supporting staff — not just providing physical security. "Funding what works" means funding different aspects of the classroom that demonstrably benefited students and helped KCS succeed, he said.
He also said KCS has saved around $37.8 million by finding ways to cut expenses, with most money coming from "realized debt savings." KCS also said it is projected to bring in around $683.7 million in revenue. Around 51% of that is expected to come from local funding. That number also does not include federal funds like IDEA or funds from Title programs.
KCS is also expecting to use around $9.8 million to help students succeed by funding 47 ELL positions, and around 68 SPED EA positions. It also expects to spend an additional $2.4 million on tutoring, while also spending an additional $1.3 million on staff to help students prepare for a career.
On April 25, the KCS Board of Education will vote on the school district's budget recommendations, before it will be sent to the mayor's office to be included in a countywide budget proposal. That proposal will then be heard and voted on by the Knox County Commission.