After Alamance County manager Heidi York unveiled her recommended county budget for 2025-26 Monday night, Alamance-Burlington superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming said he’s concerned about the potential impact it could have on the school system’s operations.
“The county manager released her 2025–2026 recommended budget, which reduces [our] current expense funding by $10 million, shifting that money to capital projects, and does not fund our $5.72 million [current expense] expansion request,” Fleming told The Alamance News Tuesday morning. “In total, this represents a $15.72 million fiscal impact on our district’s local operating budget. This comes at a time when our enrollment is stable, our community is growing, and our educational needs are increasing, not decreasing.
“With this proposed [county] budget, we would be unable to sustain the progress we’ve made this year, including efforts to restore previously cut positions, improve teacher and staff supplements, increase hourly pay for classified employees like bus drivers, and meet our [funding] obligations to charter schools.”
– ABSS superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming
“With this proposed [county] budget, we would be unable to sustain the progress we’ve made this year, including efforts to restore previously cut positions, improve teacher and staff supplements, increase hourly pay for classified employees like bus drivers, and meet our [funding] obligations to charter schools,” the superintendent said Tuesday morning.
In a brief update on the budget during the school board’s work session last week, Fleming reiterated his earlier concerns that ABSS is projected to lose about half of a state-funded low-wealth funding supplement for the upcoming 2025-26 fiscal year that begins July 1.
The superintendent had told school board members in early April – just weeks after submitting a budget request to Alamance County government – that the school system’s administration had learned that a state-funded low-wealth supplement for ABSS would be reduced by at least $4.7 million (44.8 percent) for the 2025-26 fiscal year due to rising property values in the county. ABSS received approximately $10.5 million in state low-wealth funding to supplement current expenses for the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
“What that says,” the superintendent told school board members last Tuesday, “is Alamance County is becoming wealthier every year.”
The value of Alamance County’s adjusted tax base is projected to increase by $9.1 billion (75.9 percent) this coming fiscal year, from $11.98 billion in 2024-25 to $21.1 billion in 2025-26, based on figures that ABSS officials furnished this week for The Alamance News, which are derived from calculations by the North Carolina Department of Revenue and the N.C. Association of County Commissioners.
State low-wealth funding is designated for counties that don’t have a sufficient property tax base to fund their public schools at a level equal to the state average for county funding, according to DPI.
A provision in the state budget that the General Assembly passed in 2021 requires counties to “either tax their property at the state average or contribute more local dollars to public schools than the state average,” based on the latest report on “Supplanting Low Wealth Supplemental Funds and Small School System Supplemental Funds” that DPI submitted to the General Assembly last week. “If the county does not meet the minimum effort, their [low-wealth] allotment is to be prorated,” DPI’s report states, though it doesn’t include the current state average for county funding.
Low-wealth funding is restricted to uses such as: funding positions for teachers, teacher assistants, substitutes, and clerical staff; instructional supplies and equipment; professional development; overtime pay; fringe benefits; and salary supplements.
“The formula [used to calculate low-wealth funding] is built so that the county grows in tax revenue, the school district grows in their [county] allotment,” Fleming told school board members last week.
“The $5 million [in low-wealth funding] we’re losing right now is based off of the [revaluation] of property,” the superintendent told the board. “When it comes to that formula, it’s about…the school district receiving a larger allotment as property values increase. That’s really what it boils down to. So if the commissioners, or the contracted groups that are doing the [property revaluation] say, ‘Okay, the property values has increased by that much,’ our allotment from the county has to increase that much.”
ABSS chief finance officer Tony Messer told the board last Tuesday, “That formula is legislative-driven, and all of the information comes from the county commissioners’ association and all of the data that flows through that organization.”
Meanwhile, Fleming said during the work session that there appeared to be a significant gap between the budget request that ABSS had submitted to county government officials and the amount that York apparently privately signaled that she would recommend allocating to the school system for 2025-26.
The budget request that ABSS submitted to Alamance County government in late March totaled $78.6 million, representing an overall increase of 32.5 percent ($19.3 million) from the county’s funding levels for the 2024-25 fiscal year that ends June 30.
Superintendent concerned about ‘domino effect’
“This will directly affect our ability to serve our community,” the superintendent told the newspaper Tuesday morning, referring to the county budget that York presented the previous evening.
“While the recommended budget includes funding for school resource officers (SROs) through the sheriff’s department, those dollars no longer count toward the district’s per-pupil expenditure,” Fleming told the newspaper. “That shift could hurt our eligibility for state low-wealth funding, which uses local spending as part of its formula. In short, this proposal could have a domino effect that goes beyond the $15.72 million hit. Our per-pupil current expense funding would drop by at least $471.98, a number that may grow as our finance team completes its review.
“Our schools are the foundation of this community’s future,” Fleming added. “Families are choosing to move here. Economic development is happening here. We need a budget that reflects that reality…and a shared commitment to our students. Our educators, families, and community members deserve a budget that supports growth, opportunity, and excellence. Alamance County has the economic strength to invest in its future. Our community deserves just that.”
The commissioners are scheduled to hold a public hearing on the budget on June 2, followed by two budget work sessions on June 8 and June 9.
