JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL) — The Washington County, Tennessee Board of Education (BOE) ratified its budget for Fiscal Year 2025-26 on Tuesday. This decision included an amendment to restore an employee pay raise that had been previously eliminated.

Initially, the wage increase was removed from the budget while the BOE faced a $4 million shortfall. Though scheduled step pay increases were maintained, the proposed pay raises were omitted.

Chairman Annette Buchanan explained that an oversight at their last budget meeting led them to overlook a Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) requirement regarding the pay scale, which needs to be addressed in the upcoming budget.

During Tuesday’s meeting, four options to allow salary increases back into the budget to fulfill that TCA code were presented, and after discussion, the fourth option was chosen:

The BOE approved “option 4”, with Vince Walters and Chad Fleenor voting “no”.

That vote will raise the starting teacher salary to $47,905. The number, as mandated by the state, must be at least $50,000 by next year.

Superintendent for Washington County Schools Jerry Boyd told News Channel 11 after the meeting that hard choices to keep the budget as balanced as it can be aren’t over yet.

“Difficult decisions have to be made,” he said. “You know, we’re not done as far as those difficult decisions throughout the year, as we do every year. We will continue to monitor the budget very closely.”

Boyd said the decision was on a tight schedule, as the budget they decided on Tuesday went into effect the same day.

“Since we’re actually in the Fiscal Year 26, effective today, and we’ll be proceeding to the commission to update our budget through these budget amendments that our board approved tonight. And then [we’re] also prepared to adjust our salary schedules for this next school year, so that that’s the work ahead of us.”