In any discussion about Alamance County’s budget, the proverbial 800-pound gorilla is inevitably going to be the Alamance-Burlington school system.
As the single largest recipient of revenue from the county’s general fund, the school system has been a perennial source of angst and contention whenever the commissioners have slogged through the county’s finances. The school system’s primacy has only increased since the summer of 2023, when a massive mold infestation forced the county to shell out millions of dollars on a system-wide house cleaning.
In the wake of the school system’s mold crisis, the commissioners agreed to cash out $19 million in bonds that remained from a six-year-old bond package and use the proceeds to upgrade shoddy roofs and HVAC systems that had exacerbated the fungal explosion. These funds were ultimately allocated based on a joint facilities study that the county had commissioned to assess roofs and air circulation systems in its own buildings as well as those that the school system maintains.
During Monday’s retreat, assistant county manager Brian Baker reminded the commissioners that this joint facilities study has recommended additional outlays of $10 million a year for nine years to revamp roofs and HVACs that belong to both institutions. In the meantime, Baker proposed a second study to extend the same tender loving care to other maintenance needs.
“I think the next logical thing for us to do,” he told the commissioners, “is to add an assessment of those needs and prioritize them – roads, athletic facilities, water intrusion, and window replacement.”
Baker’s proposal was met with some reservation by commissioner Ed Priola, who insisted that the county gets far too little follow-up information about the funds it allots to the school system’s facilities.
“My problem with ABSS is that money goes in – into a black hole, and we don’t get enough reporting.”
– County commissioner Ed Priola
“My problem with ABSS is that money goes in – into a black hole,” he told the rest of the county’s governing board, “and we don’t get enough reporting.”
John Paisley, Jr., the chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners, informed Priola that details about the school system’s capital projects are regularly presented to a joint facilities task force that he serves on with the board’s vice chairman Steve Carter. Paisley proceeded to task Baker with compiling this data for the rest of the board.
Meanwhile, the school system’s skeptics received some additional reassurance from Sandy Ellington-Graves, the chairman of the Alamance-Burlington school board, who happened to be in attendance during Monday’s retreat.
“I think you’re going to be very excited,” she told the county’s elected leaders. “We’re putting a financial dashboard on our webpage that will have capital and operations – both monthly and quarterly.”
