By Beth Cassidy
Enterprise Record

The Davie Board of Education voted five to one last week to approve the fiscal year 2011-12 budget draft. Public school laws require a budget be presented by the superintendent to the BOE by May 1 each year.
The lone “no” vote belonged to Rick Ellis, who voiced his concern over the inclusion of possible cuts in teacher supplements.
Deborah Smink, finance officer, reminded the board the budget draft is just that, a draft. The final resolution will be voted on in June. “If possible, teacher supplements are the first thing we want to see go back in,” she said. “We’re all anxiously awaiting the house and senate budgets because that will give us an insight as to what a possible General Assembly-adopted budget would look like. We initially heard we might have those [house and senate budgets] at the end of last week, but as of today (April 8), we don’t have them.”
Supplements are used to lure quality teachers to small systems and to help retain them, she said. When they were first implemented locally, they were about $200 per teacher, according to Interim Superintendent Dr. Bill Steed. No longer given as a flat fee but rather …