Alamance-Burlington school officials continued to mull this week the financial impact that the county manager’s recommended budget could have on the school system’s operations during the upcoming fiscal year, if adopted by Alamance County’s commissioners next month.
The recommended budget that Alamance County manager Heidi York unveiled last week sets aside $71.9 million for ABSS for 2025-26.
Under the manager’s recommended county budget, ABSS would receive $41.9 million in county current expense funding in 2025-26, which represents a potential reduction of $11.4 million (21.38 percent) in current expense funding for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
ABSS had requested just over $59 million in current expense funding (for an additional $5.7 million or 10.7 percent) for 2025-26, in part to cover mandatory increases likely to be passed on at the state level, based on the county budget request school board members approved in March.
The projected cost increases for ABSS include: matching contributions for employees’ retirement and health insurance; utility bills; property and workers’ comp premiums; and discretionary priorities that school board members identified earlier this year, such as a new supplement for ABSS classified employees (custodians, bus drivers, and other staff typically paid on an hourly basis), plus a bump in the county-funded supplement that teachers receive on top of their state-funded salaries, which the commissioners opted in June 2024 to freeze at the 2023-24 level in order to rein in spending.
ABSS would receive a total of approximately $29.9 million in capital funding for routine maintenance and big-ticket building projects, as well as debt service and revenue from court fines and forfeitures, based on York’s recommended budget. The $12.9 million for debt service that York has proposed allocating would be used to retire outstanding bills for previous school construction and renovation projects.
ABSS had requested a total of $19.5 million in county capital funding for routine building maintenance and big-ticket building projects.
The $29.9 million in capital funding that ABSS would receive in 2025-26 under the manager’s recommended budget represents an increase of $24 million (402 percent) from the $5.9 million in capital funding that Alamance County’s commissioners initially allocated to the school system in June 2024 for the current fiscal year.
The total of $71.9 million in county funding that York is proposing to set aside for ABSS for the upcoming fiscal year represents a 21.4 percent increase ($12.7 million) from the total of $59.3 million that Alamance County’s commissioners allocated to the school system for the fiscal year that ends June 30.
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ABSS had forwarded a total budget request of $78.6 million for 2025-26 to Alamance County government in late March, reflecting an increase of 32.5 percent ($19.3 million) in county funding levels for the current fiscal year.
School officials warned during the school board’s meeting Tuesday night that the county manager’s proposal to shift $10 million in county funding from current expenses to capital projects could have devastating consequences on the school system’s operations during the fiscal year that begins July 1.
ABSS superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming said that $1.3 million in funding for school resource officers would be transferred to the sheriff’s budget, which he said is actually more than what the school system received for SROs this year.
Fleming said after York presented her recommended budget to the commissioners last week that it’s unlikely ABSS would be able to fund an increase in the teacher supplement or the new classified supplement.
The proposal to shift $10 million in county current expense funding for ABSS to school building and repairs means that ABSS would lose $10 million in funding for day-day-to operations – which on top of the $4.7 million (44.8 percent) in state low-wealth funding that the school system is projected to lose in 2025-26 could result in an overall budget cut of at least $15.7 million in state and county funding, Fleming estimates.
ABSS chief finance officer Tony Messer told the board Tuesday night that ABSS could also lose matching federal grants that offset expenses such as Exceptional Children’s programs. “If we don’t have a local funding match, we could lose some of our federal dollars; it is extremely compounding whenever you have a reduction of that amount [in county funding],” the CFO told school board members.
The potential reduction in county current expense funding for ABSS could also affect funding for charter schools that have students from Alamance County, Messer told The Alamance News during a break in the meeting. ABSS is required to share approximately 11 percent of its per-pupil funding from the county with charter schools, which could result in a potential reduction of at least $1.1 to $1.2 million under the manager’s recommended budget, he told the newspaper Tuesday night.
“That is very similar to the way state low-wealth [funding] works,” Fleming told school board members. “Alamance County has to meet a certain threshold in order for the state to give us low-wealth dollars; we are at the top of losing that status.”
Fleming said some of the smaller facility upgrades planned in 2025-26, such as keyless entry systems that provide an additional layer of security in school buildings, might fall to the budget axe.
Another possibility is that funding for SROs could be turned over the municipal police departments with which they’re employed, and those departments would need to decide whether they wanted to fund and assign an officer to each of the schools within their respective jurisdictions, the superintendent said Tuesday night.
“I feel like the [budget] request we put out was a logical, responsible request, what y’all prioritized, based off what we gave you,” school board member Seneca Rogers said Tuesday night. “Now with our financial dashboard [on the ABSS website], that’s another thing that was put out as a needed piece. I tell people every day, go look at it; I’m amazed how anybody can access it, and if you’ve got questions, you can ask questions. That’s transparency.
“The $5.7 million [request in additional current expense funding] is not us trying to put spinners on buses,” Rogers said, referring to the custom, usually lighted, shiny rims some people put on their vehicles. “It is us trying to pay our bus drivers more, trying to help pay our operational expenses for a growing school system. Please reach out to the county commissioners. If you are a true supporter of public education, we need you to stand up with us in this moment so we can do the things that are truly needed in a growing school system.”
School board chairman Sandy Ellington-Graves said at the conclusion of the update on the county budget that the commissioners are scheduled to hold a work session on June 9 to discuss education funding. “We do have an opportunity to sit with the commissioners and do a little bit deeper dive into why this funding is vital,” she said.
Meanwhile, the commissioners are currently scheduled to hold a public hearing on the county budget for 2025-26 at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 2, at the Alamance County Historic Court House.
