The future is looking a little bit brighter for Beaufort County’s teaching assistants—at least until next year.

At a special called meeting on Monday morning, the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners agreed to fund the nine individual teaching assistants whose jobs were cut for the upcoming school year.

The commissioners voted 5-0 in favor of funding the positions, prompting applause from some members of the crowd. Frankie Waters and Ron Buzzeo were absent from the meeting.

Last week the Board of Education expressed funding woes as the state continues to battle over whether to fund the same amount of teaching assistants as the last fiscal year. The board eliminated 16 teaching assistant positions, and after electing to move seven of the assistants to other positions and leave the rest of the positions unfilled, the board estimated that nine individuals would be out of work.

The lack of funding from the state level has forced the board to dip into local funds, but the local money can no longer sustain the same number of positions, said Superintendent Don Phipps.

“The big picture is the state has reduced funding for teaching assistants. The way we’ve kept them is we’ve hit our fund balance. We can’t continue to hit the fund balance at this rate. In two years, we’d be completely wiped out,” he said.

At the meeting, Beaufort County Schools asked the board for $315,000 in funds to maintain the positions, $35,000 a year for each job salary.

Commissioner Hood Richardson clarified that the board would just be guaranteeing those jobs at Monday’s meeting. He said that the schools’ budget for the 2015-2016 year was already increased by $400,000 as compared to the previous year, and this teaching assistant funding would bring it to more than a $700,000 increase.

County manager Brian Alligood said the county would not have to disperse those funds if the state decides to maintain its teaching assistant funds from last year.

“If state funding comes through in the state budget, your funds would be returned and would not duplicate those funds,” Alligood said.

Phipps said the commissioners’ decision to offer funding was great for those individuals who will be able to return to work, but it is only a temporary solution to the problem.

“We’re grateful that we have the funding for these positions for this year.  We’re concerned about where we’re going to be for next year, but for this year it allows those individuals to continue to be employed,” Phipps said. “We’ve got to look at the immediate and then we’ve got to look down the road, in the long term. Down the road it looks there will be more cuts.”

Vail Stewart Rumley contributed reporting.