Alamance-Burlington school officials are considering using a New York-based temporary staffing agency to fill child nutrition vacancies in ABSS schools.
During their latest semi-monthly meeting last week, school board members previewed a proposed contract with Noor Staffing Group, which is based in New York City, to provide temporary employees in the ABSS Child Nutrition department for the 2026-27 fiscal year.
While the contract with Noor was originally scheduled to be presented to the school board for consideration at its next meeting on Monday night, it has since been pulled from the agenda and is now tentatively scheduled to be presented for a vote in August, ABSS officials told The Alamance News Wednesday afternoon.
“They are working on some things and will regroup in August, since [school board] won’t have another meeting until then,” ABSS chief communications officer Emily-Lynn Adkins said Wednesday.
The school system would pay the staffing firm $20.24 per hour (with total payments not to exceed $150,000) to provide school nutrition assistants for ABSS schools during the upcoming 2026-27 fiscal year that begins July 1, based on the proposed contract that deputy superintendent of operations Greg Hook presented at the school board’s work session last week.
The starting pay is $16.87 per hour for all full- and part-time child nutrition (i.e., school foodservice) positions, said ABSS executive director of School Nutrition Spencer Brown.
The school system currently has 25 full- and part-time vacancies in the child nutrition department, Brown confirmed last week for The Alamance News.
The 25 existing vacancies represent an overall vacancy rate of about 12.5 percent out of a total of 200 positions within the School Nutrition department, based on figures that Brown provided for the newspaper this week.
By comparison, ABSS ended the previous, 2024-25 school year with 28 vacancies in the child nutrition, Brown said.
“The department uses temp staffing for long-term absences, like medical leave, and to fill open positions until candidates are interviewed and go through the hiring process,” Brown told the newspaper.
In addition to the 25 existing vacancies, an average of 10 employees resign from the School Nutrition department each summer, Brown added.
The contract would run from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 and would be funded through ABSS’ School Food Service fund.
In addition to the contract with Noor Staffing Group, the school board is also scheduled to consider awarding five other contracts totaling approximately $1.5 million for the upcoming 2026-27 fiscal year at its monthly business meeting Monday night.
The five other contracts include:
- A $618,330 contract with the parent company for Maola Dairy to provide fresh milk at schools, which would be funded through the School Food Service fund.
- A $560,000 contract with Communication Access Partners for sign language and foreign language interpreting services, which would be paid for with state funding.
- A contract for $199,934.22 with Learning A-Z to provide reading enrichment through books and quizzes (“leveled readers”) that can be downloaded from a computer so K-5 students can continue working on reading comprehension during the summer, according to ABSS assistant superintendent of academics Dr. Sean McWherter, who didn’t specify the funding source.
- A contract for $158,588 with Public Impact to create advanced teaching roles, which provide eligible teachers with additional opportunities for career advancement and leadership. The contract will be funded through a $1.4 million grant that the ABSS received from the state earlier this year to create what Mc-Wherter described last week as new career pathways for highly-effective teachers.
When the grant award was announced on January 13, 2026, McWherter told the board that the funds would be used to create advanced teaching roles for teachers with a track record of success, leadership, coaching, and providing additional support for students. Teachers who are selected will also be eligible for additional compensation, he said at the time.
- A five-year subscription renewal for GPS software and Here Comes the Bus software, which allows parents to see the precise locations of their children’s school buses and receive security alerts via a cell phone app, under a $100,558.50 contract with Synovia Solutions Transportation that would be paid for with state transportation funds.
