Alamance-Burlington school board members voted 7-0 Monday night to cancel school tomorrow so that ABSS employees can attend the state teachers’ union rally at the North Carolina state capitol.
It will be a non-instructional day and an optional teacher workday, according to the option that school board members unanimously approved Monday night.
Students will not need to make up the day, ABSS officials confirmed for The Alamance News.
As of Monday afternoon, the ABSS administration had received requests from 483 certified staff (i.e., employees whose positions require state licensure) to take personal leave tomorrow, and 276 positions for which no substitutes were available, superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming said during the school board’s latest meeting.
“That doesn’t count classified staff,” Fleming told the board Monday night. “We have a number of bus drivers planning to go to Raleigh and also a number of support [staff], as well.”
As a result, the school system’s administration concluded that the number of planned absences “far exceeds the number we’re able to keep up with as far as safety of students, coverage of classrooms,” Fleming said.
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The North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) plans to march to the legislative building in downtown Raleigh to demand that the General Assembly provide $20,000 in per-pupil funding by 2030, which would be the highest level of funding per student in the Southeast, along with other demands outlined for the union’s “Kids over Corporations” rally.
The teachers’ union claims that North Carolina is “dead last” in the U.S. for school funding, though no source appears to be cited on the organization’s website. The most recent report from the National Education Association (NEA) estimates that N.C. is 46th in the U.S. for state per-pupil funding (estimated at $13,680 in state funding) and 46th in the country for average teacher pay ($59,971), based on a report that the national teachers’ union released Monday.
[Story continues below photos from ABSS teachers at similar event in 2018.]
Superintendent: General Assembly will not be in session
Fleming pointed out during the discussion that the General Assembly will not be in session tomorrow.
“While May 1st has a significant importance when it comes to the labor movement, it is also a day that our General Assembly will not be in Raleigh; that also another concern I wanted to share, but hopefully that message will still get through even though members will not be in town.”
– ABSS superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming
“I want to make it very clear, I support all of our teachers, administrators, and other personnel in advocating for our students,” Fleming said, “but the disappointing part of this is going to be, if we do have an optional day off, we know this will be a burden to parents who are getting less than a week notice that we will not have school. They, of course, have to find care for their students, particularly younger students. That is disappointing; we are cognizant of that and aware of that.
“There’s going to be some negative pushback if we go down this road, so if I have anything else, it would be disappointment, because it is a school day,” the superintendent added. “While May 1st has a significant importance when it comes to the labor movement, it is also a day that our General Assembly will not be in Raleigh; that also another concern I wanted to share, but hopefully that message will still get through even though members will not be in town.”
The NCAE rally coincides with “May Day,” also known as International Workers Day, which is intended to commemorate the accomplishments of labor unions, such as the eight-hour workday that stemmed from the riots in Chicago’s Haymarket Square in 1886.
Administration considered three options, including using central office staff as subs
Fleming subsequently outlined for the board three options that he’d evaluated with the assistant superintendent of academics, Dr. Sean McWherter, in deciding whether to cancel school tomorrow.
The options included: denying the time off (through the use of personal leave time) and requiring documentation for any sick leave used tomorrow; declaring tomorrow an optional teacher workday with a makeup day for staff on June 8th; and making tomorrow an optional workday with no required makeup day for staff.
“I’m happy to recommend we go with that third option,” Fleming told the board Monday night. “I want to say, for our whole community, we appreciate any grace that we’re shown on this because I know it’s not easy. Again, we don’t like interrupting student days because we know where we are when it comes to academics and where we are with data; I still believe we’ll be okay. I don’t want to use that as an excuse for why we shouldn’t do it, but we want our students and teachers in school every day. Again, I understand the advocacy piece.”
School board member Avery Wagoner responded, “With half the staff in our schools, I’m assuming – I wouldn’t say [it would be] pure chaos, but I’m sure there’d be opportunities for learning to be disrupted.”
The superintendent agreed, telling the board that he’d looked at the possibility of using central office employees as substitutes and at combining classes. “It’s to a point where we cannot find coverage for almost 300 [absences],” Fleming said, emphasizing that the decision to cancel school came down to student safety.
Rogers: North Carolina only state without a budget
School board member Seneca Rogers said that North Carolina public school employees are in a “unique situation where we’re the only state without a state budget.”
The absence of a state budget that Rogers cited Monday night refers to an impasse between the state house and state senate over whether to slow the pace of scheduled personal (as well as corporate) income tax rate cuts, which was set to drop from 4.25 percent in 2025 to 3.99 percent in 2026 and to continue decreasing annually to an eventual target of 2.99 percent by 2030, according to the Office of State Budget and Management.
Those planned rate cuts were part of the goals for tax reform that Republican state legislators set after gaining a majority in the General Assembly in 2011. At the crux of the state budget impasse is a disagreement between Republican house speaker Destin Hall, who has said he wants to slow the tax rate cuts, and outgoing Republican state senate pro tem Phil Berger, who has said he wants to maintain the scheduled cuts.
“I’m a person who’s all about advocating and using your own voice,” Rogers said Monday night. “Our teachers are the front lines of that, along with the bus drivers, [teacher assistants], and other support staff. Our teachers are asked every day to do a lot of things, and the level of support is extraordinary especially when you see that the state is not holding up their end of the bargain…I think we should allow our educators to have that space to go down and advocate for themselves.”
School board member Dr. Charles Parker said he’s “generally supportive” of allowing staff to have the option to attend the NCAE but sought assurance from Fleming that ABSS would meet the state’s minimum number of instructional hours (1,025) for the 2025-26 school year.
“I think we should be safe,” the superintendent said.
School board member Tameka Harvey said she will always support teachers but also expressed disappointment about an unintended consequence of canceling classes. Tomorrow is “college decision day,” i.e., the deadline for rising college freshmen to declare their final choices for which colleges they intend to attend starting in the fall.
“It does sadden me a little bit because Friday is college decision day for our high school seniors, so they will not get to partake in the decision day,” said Harvey, whose daughter is scheduled to graduate from Cummings High School next month and plans to start college in the fall. “In spite of that, I do support option three.”
School board member Dr. Eric Hall said, “I appreciate the advocacy you are showing here; obviously, as a parent, I will be scrambling to figure out what I’ll be doing with my children on Friday also, but I completely understand.”
School board vice chairman: Budget impasse ‘most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in my life’
School board vice chairman Dan Ingle, who is also a former Republican state representative, told teachers and members of the Alamance-Burlington Association of Educators (ABAE) who attended the meeting Monday night, “All of you thank you for being teachers; I know what you’re going through because I’ve got family members in ABSS. It’s tough for teachers all over the state.
“That’s your First Amendment right to go down there and raise sin.”
– School board vice chairman Dan Ingle
“It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in my life because there’s still no state budget,” said Ingle. “It affects all of you; how does it affect you? I’m going to tell you: you’re paying more for insurance right now. I know one [who’s] working three jobs because they can’t afford it on their school salary. It is an abomination that the state has not passed a state budget. The rest of that abomination is there’s a majority party there – they should have had it passed…The General Assembly, they should’ve passed it months ago.”
“That’s your First Amendment right to go down there and raise sin,” Ingle added.
The state budget funds a portion of public school operations and salaries for most, but not all, school employees. In the absence of a state biennial budget for 2025-27, the state government has continued to fund its operations through a continuing budget resolution that the General Assembly adopted on August 6, 2025, according to the Office of State Budget and Management.
School employees have not received an annual raise to offset the cost of higher premiums for health insurance that took effect at the beginning of the current fiscal year, or other cost-of-living increases.
Employee contributions to health insurance premiums are now salary-based and increased from $25 in 2025 to $50 per month in 2026 for individuals with no dependents who are insured under the standard plan and earn between $50,000 and $65,000 per year, which accounts for 94,900 (32.1 percent) of the 295,800 state employees, according to the State Treasurer’s office which oversees the N.C. State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees (NCSHP).
By comparison, employee contributions for health insurance decreased from $598 per month in 2025 to $590 per month in 2026 for married state employees with dependent children who earn between $50,000 and $65,000 per year and are covered under the state’s standard healthcare plan, based on changes to health insurance premiums that the NCSHP’s board of trustees approved on August 15, 2025.
“At the end of the day, it’s the right thing to do… teachers across the state are not getting the support they deserve, and it’s not just financial support; it’s support in general. I stand behind the educators.”
– School board chairman Sandy Ellington-Graves
Employer-funded contributions to health insurance premiums are funded through the state budget and are included in the benefits package for full-time state employees, including most ABSS staff.
School board chairman: ‘It’s the right thing to do’
“At the end of the day, it’s the right thing to do,” school board chairman Sandy Ellington-Graves said Monday night. “I’ve been watching social media for the past couple of weeks, and all of the districts, and the back-and-forth comments. I think for those people who are really passionate, I’m hoping you’ll throw a lot of that passion behind our educators, and not focus on what we are or aren’t doing [by] making this a teacher workday and focus on the why – why are we making this a teacher workday; it’s because teachers across the state are not getting the support they deserve, and it’s not just financial support; it’s support in general…I stand behind the educators.”
School board members subsequently voted 7-0 to approve a motion by Wagoner to approve the third option to declare May 1 an optional teacher workday, with no requirement for staff or students to make up the day.
Three teachers urge board to cancel classes
Earlier in their meeting Monday night, school board members heard from three teachers, including ABAE members, who pressed the board to cancel classes so employees can attend the rally in Raleigh if they choose to do so.
Meagan Hummel, an exceptional children’s teacher at Haw River Elementary School, said during the public comments period Monday night that she is urging the board to “recognize May 1st as a critical day for public education in North Carolina”; to allow staff “to advocate for public schools and passage of a state budget”; and to “speak directly with [state legislators] and to highlight the needs of our public schools.”
Declaring tomorrow as an optional teacher workday – rather than keeping it as an instructional day scheduled under the school calendar that the board adopted for 2025-26 – “would give educators the flexibility to participate without disrupting instructional continuity,” said Hummel, who described the rally as a “direct extension” of services for students.
ABSS teacher Tabitha Boswell, who currently serves as vice president of ABAE, the local chapter for the teachers’ union, told the board, “We are going, not to disrupt learning, but to defend it.”
“We often say we value education; this is a chance to prove it.” – Tabitha Boswell, ABSS teacher and vice president of the Alamance-Burlington Association of Educators
Boswell said public schools are being asked to do more than ever, such as meeting “new literacy mandates,” i.e., the Science of Reading standards, which rely on the use of phonics in reading instruction and were approved by the State Board of Education in 2021, with full implementation required by 2027-28. Other demands on school employees that Boswell pointed to included managing increasing student behavior needs and supporting student mental health.
“[Those demands] require investment,” Boswell said during the board’s public comments period Monday night. “They require people; they require a budget that reflects the expectations placed on our schools. Rather than forcing schools to scramble for coverage or to operate understaffed, we are asking you to prioritize safety, continuity, and respect for this profession. This is not about political theater; this is about whether our classrooms have enough trained adults, enough interventionists, and whether our students get the support they deserve.
“Our teachers deserve it, and a teacher workday ensures that learning is not disrupted by absence and it strengthens by advocacy,” said Boswell. “It gives teachers that space to stand up for students and to return better-equipped to serve them. We often say we value education; this is a chance to prove it.”
[Story continues below link to related editorial.]
Read the newspaper’s editorial page views on school board’s action, comments: https://alamancenews.com/weak-kneed-school-board-buckles-to-the-union-mob/
Other demands by NCAE
The NCAE is also demanding that the General Assembly: provide raises of 25 percent for all school employees; fund “modern” school facilities; and fund school meals free of charge for all students, according to materials that the teachers’ union has posted on its website for the “Kids over Corporations” rally.
The NCAE is also demanding that the General Assembly: end corporate tax breaks and redirect funding to public education and healthcare; pass “fair” congressional redistricting maps and protect voting rights; “fix the tax system so that the wealthy finally pay what they owe”; and end private school “vouchers,” i.e., the state-funded Opportunity Scholarships that offset a portion of the tuition for K-12 students to attend private schools, among other priorities outlined on the organization’s list of demands.
While North Carolina is a right-to-work state that does not officially recognize collective bargaining, teachers and other staff from ABSS and across the state participated in several similar N.C.A.E. demonstrations at the state capitol prior to the pandemic.
As of Wednesday, ABSS was among 17 of the state’s 115 public school systems that have announced they will cancel classes tomorrow so their employees can attend the rally tomorrow, based on multiple news stories published by The (Raleigh) News & Observer.
