Alamance-Burlington school officials say that ABSS could lose $1.7 million in federal funding due to a decision by the U.S. Department of Education to pause grant award notifications until a review is complete.
The potential loss of $1.7 million in federal funding for ABSS represents approximately 6.4 percent of the overall total of $26.5 million in federal funding that the school system received for the previous 2024-25 fiscal year, based on the budget resolution school board members approved earlier this year.
School board chairman Sandy Ellington-Graves appeared Monday at a press conference in Raleigh with state attorney general Jeff Jackson to announce that North Carolina was joining 23 other states and the District of Columbia in suing to block President Donald Trump’s administration from cutting $165 million in federal funding for N.C. public schools and $6.8 billion nationwide.
The U.S. Department of Education notified all states on June 30 that no grant award notifications would be issued for five types of grant programs on July 1 until a funding review can be completed.
The five programs for which the federal government has paused funding provide additional support for: Migrant students; additional training and recruitment of teachers for minority and/or economically-disadvantaged students; students classified as multi-lingual or English-language learners; academic enrichment for low-performing schools and student groups; and 21st Century community learning centers, according to the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
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ABSS could lose federal funding for 2025-26 that DPI allocates for three of the five affected grant programs, the school system’s chief communications officer Emily-Lynn Adkins told The Alamance News Wednesday morning.
In the short term, however, ABSS has a fall-back plan – including some federal funds that can be carried over from the previous, 2024-25 fiscal year – to continue funding affected programs and positions while the federal review is underway, Adkins said in the interview.
“We are strategically reallocating available federal dollars to maintain employment and critical programming,” Adkins elaborated. “We also recognize the necessity to thoughtfully evaluate some programs and, where necessary, pause them for the time being. This is a fluid situation, and we will work in the best interest of our students and staff through this process.”
ABSS could lose $849,056 under the federal Supporting Effective Instruction grant program; $349,343 in grant funding for English Language Acquisition; and $489,943 in grant funding for Student Support and Academic Enrichment, based on a breakdown that Adkins provided for the newspaper Wednesday.
ABSS uses the $849,056 Supporting Effective Instruction grant for:
- Stipends for approximately 200 experienced teachers who serve as mentors to beginning teachers;
- Two Beginning Teacher coordinators, who serve approximately 250 new teachers during their first three years in the profession;
- A summer symposium for beginning teachers;
- Other professional development opportunities.
ABSS uses the $349,343 English Language Acquisition grant for:
- Two multilingual (ML) specialists and a data specialist;
- English-language program management and teaching software;
- Stipends for workshops to train teachers to teach students for whom English is not their native language;
- Additional multilingual instructional supplies;
- Other professional development.
ABSS is estimated to have approximately 4,000 ML students in 2025-26, which represents about 17 percent of the total enrollment in ABSS schools and an increase of 250 from the 3,690 ML students who were enrolled in the school system during the previous 2024-25 school year, Adkins said Wednesday.
ABSS uses the $489,943 Student Support and Academic Enrichment grant for:
- A lead counselor position and literacy tutors at the 20 elementary schools;
- Family engagement events;
- Analytics software to identify students who need additional academic support.
The school system also receives approximately $6.5 million in federal Title I funding, which is targeted for schools with high proportions of economically-disadvantaged students; the Exceptional Children’s program; and Career and Technical Education, Adkins said Wednesday. “These are not part of the frozen funds,” she added.
For her part, Ellington-Graves told the newspaper Wednesday that she had been invited to speak at Jackson’s press conference on Monday by Geoff Coltrane, who is the senior director of government affairs and strategy for DPI.
Ellington-Graves said she had met Coltrane in early 2024, when then-Gov. Roy Cooper toured Southern High School as part of his “Year of the Public Schools” tour.
“I was asked to come and speak because they wanted to hear from somebody about the local impact,” the school board chairman said Wednesday.
During the press conference on Monday, Ellington-Graves said, “These funds are not discretionary. They are allocated specifically to support programs and personnel that are essential for providing a high-quality education to all students, especially our most at-risk youth.”
“The withholding of these funds is not just a financial challenge,” she said during the press conference. “It’s a challenge to our ability to provide the resources and support our students deserve.”
The state attorney general said in a news release that nearly 1,000 jobs could be lost as a result of the federal funding freeze.
County-wide impact of federal funding freeze could total $2.3M
County-wide, the potential impact of the federal funding freeze that the U.S. Department of Education announced on June 30 could total $2.3 million, based on a subsequent analysis by the Office of School Business Services within DPI.
Also potentially affected due to the federal funding freeze is a $471,251 grant to Excel Community Association of Alamance, which offers an afterschool tutoring program and summer camp for local students in Title I schools and is based at Ebenezer United Church of Christ on Apple Street in Burlington (see related story this edition).
The four public charter schools in Alamance County – Alamance Community School, Clover Garden School, River Mill Academy, and The Hawbridge School – also stand to lose federal funding in 2025-26 due to the Trump administration’s pause on grant award notifications, according to DPI.
Alamance Community School could lose $44,035; Clover Garden, $55,763; River Mill Academy, $34,386; and The Hawbridge School could lose $$35,280, according to DPI’s analysis. Like ABSS, the county’s four charter schools use the federal grants for supporting effective instruction; English language acquisition; and academic enrichment.
School officials had told the newspaper earlier this year that ABSS was unlikely to lose federal funding designated for training future K-12 teachers as a result of an executive order that Trump signed on January 20, banning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs nationwide. Adkins has confirmed for the newspaper that ABSS remains in compliance with the federal ban on DEI programs.
