Budget hearing draws a crowd

Some asked council members to ensure there was money for street paving projects.

Others urged the board to support programs that help children — from increasing funding for the Boys & Girls Club to making it financially viable to expand summer meal distribution for at-risk youth.

Representatives from the Arts Council of Wayne County asked that elected officials and the public support the organization’s programming — and acknowledged that the non-profit’s $5,000-a-month rent might force them to relocate.

But during the Goldsboro City Council’s public hearing on its 2019-20 budget Monday evening — the board will meet Thursday to work through, and potentially alter, the spending plan — the request that drew the loudest response came from a school teacher.

For the second consecutive year, Brogden Middle School teacher Mark Colebrook asked the board to consider funding stipends for those who serve as educators inside the city limits.

And his argument was fairly simple.

“I know that no one in this room can stand up and say their lives have not been touched by a teacher,” he said. “So, I am here asking that when you guys meet on Thursday, that you consider a supplement. … I know that when Carver Heights was in jeopardy of being taken over by ISD, everybody came out of the woodwork to show up for the photo ops and all those things and say, ‘Save our school.’ Well, we can’t save our schools if we can’t pay our teachers.”

For complete coverage of the city’s budget work session, follow the New Old North.