ROCKY MOUNT -- A split Franklin County School Board approved its 2009-2010 budget on Monday -- a proposal that will now go before the board of supervisors.

The school board approved the $80 million budget on a 5-3 vote with members Sarah Alexander, Evelyn Cundiff and Edward Jamison opposed, mainly because of a decrease in instructional funding.

"I think our kids are our most important resource," Cundiff said. "Their funds ought to come first."

The education budget includes startup costs for the new Windy Gap Elementary School, as well as mandatory increases in health care insurance, Superintendent Charles Lackey said.

The budget includes no pay increases for any school system employee -- a sore spot for many, including the Franklin County Education Association. The association, in fact, chose not to endorse the budget.

Today, the school board will present its budget to the board of supervisors at 4 p.m. at The Franklin Center.

About 37 percent of the budget, or $31.2 million, will come from county coffers. Another $31 million is expected from the state and $7.7 million from the federal government.

Those totals do not include extra dollars anticipated from the federal stimulus package approved by Congress. Without it, school officials have estimated $3.9 million in cuts.

Even though Alexander opposed the budget, she said she hopes that the school board can work with the supervisors to provide funding equal to what was given this year.

What the school board and its administration are calling "level funding" from last year, County Administrator Rick Huff considers a request for increased funding.

"The schools have said they needed 'level funding,' yet their request showed a request for $1.6 million in new local money and 122 fewer students," Huff said. "To request more money of this magnitude is to ask to raise local taxes or take it away from someone else who is losing money anyway."

The county is also facing about $3 million less in revenue this year, Huff added.

Lackey and Alexander said one of the issues at play in the school budget is the funding for Windy Gap -- new funds that shouldn't be considered an increase because the project has been in the works for years and the money set aside.

Some have also pleaded with the county to take money from its reserve, Huff said.

"The $17 million reserve is approximately six weeks of working capital for a business the size of the county's operations," he said. "It is not a rainy day fund and has never been categorized in that fashion."

The two boards will continue to work on the budget starting with today's presentation. Two workshops are scheduled for later this month.

The supervisors will host another public hearing on the budget April 20, and they are scheduled to vote on the entire county budget a week later.