Alamance County taxpayers could be asked to provide $78.6 million in county funding for the Alamance-Burlington school system during the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1 (see related story, this edition).
See story on exclusive interview with superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming and chief finance officer Tony Messer on their plans for greater financial transparency within the school system: https://alamancenews.com/abss-plans-to-open-the-books-with-new-financial-dashboard/
See separate related story on ABSS capital needs portion of the budget request: https://alamancenews.com/abss-seeking-19-5m-in-county-capital-funding-for-facilities-projects/
School board members held a public hearing Monday night on the county budget request, during which they heard from 10 speakers, most of whom identified themselves as ABSS employees and members of the Alamance-Burlington Association of Educators. All 10 speakers overwhelmingly expressed support for the $78.6 million county budget request – though one speaker, LeVon Barnes of Mebane, urged ABSS to increase its county budget request without specifying by how much.
School board members subsequently voted 6-0, during their regular monthly business meeting that immediately followed the public hearing, to approve the budget request, with no changes (see accompanying chart).
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The school system’s county budget request for 2025-26 will be forwarded to Alamance County government officials by the end of this month, ABSS officials said.
If approved by Alamance County’s commissioners later this spring, county funding for ABSS would total $78.6 million in 2025-26, representing a 32.5 percent ($19.3 million) increase in total county funding from the $59.2 million in county funding that the school system received for the 2024-25 fiscal year that ends June 30.
The school system’s budget request for 2025-26 includes: a total of $59.2 million (an increase of $5.7 million from this year) in current expense funding, much of which would be to cover mandated cost increases for utilities and higher costs for employee benefits; and a combined total of $19.5 million in capital funding for building repairs.
“We are asking for three buckets of revenue,” ABSS superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming said at the outset of the public hearing. High on his list of priorities is higher pay for employees, mainly through county-funded supplements, which he said would help ABSS remain competitive with other school systems in the Piedmont-Triad region.
One of the discretionary line items within the current expense funding portion of the budget request is a proposal to begin offering classified employees – who include bus drivers, child nutrition workers, and other staff whose positions don’t require state licensure and are typically paid on an hourly basis – a new county-funded supplement. The cost for the new classified supplement is estimated at $1.1 million in 2025-26, based on the county budget request that was approved by the school board Monday night.
The proposed supplement for ABSS classified employees would start at $1,000 for those who have up to five years’ experience within the state retirement system and would increase in $100 increments for every five additional years, topping out at $1,500 for classified employees with 26 years’ or more experience.
ABSS chief finance officer Tony Messer listed seven nearby school systems that offer a classified supplement for the school board later Monday night. “Some are percentage-based, some are a flat [dollar amount],” the CFO said.
The other school systems that the CFO said provide a county-funded supplement for classified employees are: Chapel Hill-Carrboro city schools; Chatham County schools; Guilford County schools; Lee County schools; Moore County schools; Orange County schools; and Wake County schools.
Board member Seneca Rogers said Monday night that other private-sector employers – such as the Toyota battery plant now operating in Liberty and the Buc-ee’s travel plaza that is planning to open in Mebane in 2027 – will be competing with ABSS for the same workers and add pressure to pay competitive wages.
“Those classified employees are basically the backbone of a school,” Rogers said. “I feel like everything we are laying out is important, but I feel like that’s another way of trying to compete and making our school district attractive to come and work for us.”
School board member Avery Wagoner amplified Rogers’ point, saying, “Our recruitment is the counties that touch us; what we’re competing with is the counties that touch us.”
School board member Dr. Charles Parker said that the $1.1 million cost to offer the new classified supplement is minimal in comparison to the unseen costs of employee turnover. “This is for the folks listening who think this is just an expense,” Parker said. “You learn this in your intermediate microeconomics class: even a small supplement can do things like reduce turnover. Every year, the bus driver turnover is historic. If you look at the big picture, I think it makes a lot of sense as far as helping to retain employees.”
The ABSS budget book, which outlines all of the line items in its county budget request for 2025-26 and its CIP budget, can be viewed in its entirety at: https://www.abss.k12.nc.us/o/abss/page/budget-dashboard
Read the newspaper’s editorial page views on the school board’s budget request and specifically the proposed new spending for classified employees: https://alamancenews.com/spending-cheerleaders/
