New Hanover County School Board discusses goals for 2025-2026 budget

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The New Hanover County School Board met Monday to begin discussion on the district’s 2025-2026 fiscal budget. 

The board faces a number of challenges before a final budget is drafted in the spring of next year. One of the biggest is renovating schools that are quickly becoming obsolete

The district is looking at a total of $22.9 million in capital project requests next school year, including renovations and equipment upgrades, and $581 million in projects that the district would like to address. 

The $581 million wish list includes nine school additions and renovations, one new elementary school, four new buildings at existing schools, as well as infrastructure and technology improvements. The district won’t have enough money in their budget to address all of those projects, so the board will need to prioritize which are the most pressing. 

Interim Superintendent Chris Barnes said an important part of that process moving forward is transparency. 

“My goal, and Ashley Sutton’s goal, the chief financial officer, is to create a transparent and effective budget process so that it has stakeholder buy-in. So that our parents, our public, and our school board can feel comfortable with the process that we’re using,” Barnes noted. 

The board also discussed a potential bond measure to direct more funding to the district. That bond would be on the ballot for the 2026 Midterm Election.