All Coffee County School employees will receive a 2% raise in pay for the upcoming 2026-2027 school year as approved by the Coffee County School Board at their April 13 meeting.

The Board was presented options for the next school year’s General and Nutrition Budgets for either a 2% or a 3% raise. School Nutrition operates off of a different budget than the schools’ General Budget.

Director of Schools Scott Hargrove recommended that the Board go with the 2% option.

“I think financially it’s responsible because our numbers that we’re looking at budgetarily are going to have to last us a while, a few more years outside of this budget, so planning for the future gives us a little more flexibility,” he said.

Acting Chair Freda K. Jones explained that the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) funding was “up in the air,” so the Board shouldn’t overextend itself at this time.

Board Member Robert Gilley said that he personally didn’t have a problem with the 3% option, noting that the school system has done well managing potential hits to Fund Balance.

“At some point you have to figure when is it going to hit, but we’ve actually done really well and made money back enough… that we didn’t have that hit like we anticipated,” he said. “As long as the 2% gets us to the threshold that the state gave us with the 50,000, then we know we’ve at least fulfilled our obligation with the state.”

The $50,000 referenced is a result of bill HB 0329 that was signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee in 2023 requiring Tennessee school districts to gradually raise teachers’ salaries every year so that they reach a minimum of $50,000 by the 2026-2027 school year.

A vote of 6-2 passed the General Budget with Chairman Thomas Ballard absent and Board members Scott Hansert and Chris Koon voting “no.”

Hansert noted a handful of high salaries for certain teachers and district office employees and the potential for a hit to Fund Balance as reasons for voting against the budget.

“To me guys, that’s pretty irresponsible,” he said. “Any financial analyst that you talk to, we’re spending money that we don’t have, and we’re making a paper trail for it. I don’t feel like that’s being very good stewards of our money.”

When asked by Board Member Holly Matthews what he thought an acceptable percentage would be, Hansert responded that the Board shouldn’t approve a raise while they are trying to figure out how to fund upcoming school construction and improvements.

“We’ve got to make some cuts,” said Hansert. “Our County Commissioners down here, I think they pretty much already told us that until we showed something that we’re going to make some cuts that they’re going to have a hard time giving us any money. I think that’s a fact.”

In a follow-up email to the Times, Koon explained that he wasn’t voting against the raises and felt that school employees deserve a raise for “the work and dedication they provide for our great school system,” but that a flat percent for everyone creates a “major disparity.”

Hargrove explained during the meeting that: “Philosophically, if one’s going to get a raise, then we’re all going to get a raise, and that means our non-certified, our bus drivers, our maintenance as well as our educational assistants.”

Koon, continuing in the email, noted that his major concern was that the Board wasn’t presented with a balanced budget with the option that was approved showing a hit to Fund Balance of $877,000 and the other option presented showing a hit of over $1,267,000.

“The fund balance should not be used to balance an already deficit budget, it is there to be used for things that come up outside of our normal operating budget,” wrote Koon. “To start the Fiscal year off with a deficit is not sound business practices. I do believe there were other options that could have been considered to achieve this, but ultimately, they were not explored.”

“I feel as a taxpayer and a representative for the taxpayers, we need to operate within our means and a balanced budget should have been presented,” he added. “We have to be good stewards of every dollar that we are given for the education of our children, and I felt this budget proposal fell short of that goal.”

He also said that input from the Board as a whole would have been benefi cial with bringing other ideas and options to be considered for the budget.

The Nutrition Budget passed unanimously 8-0.