Smithfield — The Johnston County Board of Education and County Manager Rick Hester are not that far apart on their proposed local spending for schools.

The gap between what the schools want and what Hester has proposed is $2.4 million — the smallest gap in recent memory. That suggests the schools and commissioners could quickly reach a spending accord, but when they dropped by the Herald on Friday, County Commissioner Wade Stewart and school board Chairman Kay Carroll weren’t exactly seeing eye to eye.

Carroll said the school board had kept other spending flat to afford higher pay supplements for teachers, assistant principals and principals.

“We have worked every which way to keep our budget to a minimum so we could have [an increase] in teacher supplements,” Carroll said.

Stewart, who’s married to a retired teacher, said he wanted to raise supplements too. But with the economy slowing, now might not be the time to commit to what will be a recurring expense, he said.

“I always try to work out a deal that will accommodate the Board of Education but at the same time reserve the soundness of the county,” Stewart said. “We try our best to do that, and normally we have done that in previous years. We are going to try to do it this year.”

Stewart said he would rather see the board spend one-time dollars on buses rather than recurring dollars on pay supplements.

“I know the public expects yellow school buses to run up and down the road and pick those kids up,” he said. “I like to look at it [and see] we need this many buses this year, and we can buy them this year. We know that the supplement [request] is recurring.”

Stewart wondered too whether the board’s estimates for some expenses — like utilities — were realistic. He feared the school board might come before commissioners next spring to ask for money to pays its electricity bill.

Carroll said the school board would make do with whatever dollars the county offered. “We take what we can get and make the most of it,” he said.

Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the budget on June 2.