The Alamance-Burlington school board is scheduled to hold a public hearing in two weeks on a proposed $88.1 million county budget request for the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1.
School board members will vote during their regularly-scheduled meeting on March 23 on whether to approve the proposed county budget requests presented Tuesday afternoon by ABSS chief finance officer Tony Messer and deputy superintendent of operations Greg Hook.
If approved by Alamance County’s commissioners later this spring, county funding for ABSS would increase by approximately $16.6 million, or more than 23 percent. in 2026-27, from the total of $71.5 million that the commissioners ultimately allocated to ABSS following a “settlement” in late June 2025, after the school board threatened to take the commissioners to mediation challenged their original allocation of $53.3 million (see accompanying chart).
The proposed $62.8 million county budget request for current expenses (i.e., day-to-day operations) represents a potential increase of approximately $5.5 million, an almost 10 percent increase, from the county’s funding level for current expenses ($57.3 million) that the commissioners allocated for current expenses for the current 2025-26 fiscal year.
Hook, the deputy superintendent of operations, presented a proposed $25.3 million county capital funding request which consists of three parts: “pay-go” or “capital outlay” for routine building maintenance ($7 million); big-ticket facility projects, termed Capital Improvement Projects, or CIP ($13.9 million); and technology expenses ($4.4 million).
The proposed $7 million in capital outlay would be used for: HVAC controls system replacements at multiple schools; asphalt patching; furniture and flooring replacements; roofing and HVAC repairs; window and door replacements; maintenance vehicles and activity bus purchases; painting; tennis court, athletic track, and playground equipment repairs; and painting, as well as other repairs, based on a breakdown that Hook presented Tuesday afternoon. Another $1 million within the capital outlay request is designated as “contingency” for unspecified expenses.
The proposed, $13.9 million county CIP budget request would cover expenses such as: ongoing roof and HVAC system replacements at ABSS schools; purchasing weapons detection systems, security cameras, and other school safety equipment; asphalt paving repairs; and $2 million to begin the initial design work and to purchase land for a new elementary school that ABSS officials have said would likely be needed in the eastern part of the county due to residential growth in the Mebane area.
Also included in the overall county capital budget request is $4.4 million for technology-related expenses that primarily entail replacing aging laptops for teachers, school board members were told Tuesday afternoon.
Proposed budget request for current expenses
ABSS officials are proposing to ask Alamance County commissioners to increase funding for current expenses by approximately $5.5 million, for an overall total of $62.8 million that would be used for the school system’s day-to-day operations, based on figures that Messer presented Tuesday afternoon.
Most of the additional current expense funding that ABSS is requesting from the county “is centered around compensation and student academic support,” Messer told the board Tuesday afternoon.
The $62.8 million county current expense budget request would be used to:
Increase the county-funded supplement for administrators, principals, assistant principals, and teachers (increase of $925,149, budgeted at a total of $15.9 million);
- Cover the part of the county budget that ABSS is required to share with 49 charter schools serving students in Alamance County (increase of $750,000, budgeted at a total of $6.9 million);
- Operating expenses such as utilities ($562,805);
- Update academic services software ($490,195);
- Provide an additional supplement of $1,500 for Exceptional Children’s department staff and speech language pathologists ($425,000);
- Increase the stipend for athletic coaches and create additional athletic positions ($300,000);
- Purchase K-5 curriculum materials ($300,000);
- Hire several curriculum facilitators ($300,000);
- Increase the new county-funded supplement for classified employees such as cafeteria workers, clerical assistants, and bus drivers by $200 ($280,000 total);
- Increase salaries by $10,000 for each of the 24 school resource officers employed by municipal police departments, at the departments’ request;
- Fund raises of 2 to 3 percent and increase benefits for county-funded positions ($85,000).
“It’s possible we will be the worst per-pupil funded [county] in the state of North Carolina [in 2026],” Messer said, pointing to the loss of about $5 million in state “low-wealth” funding or about half of that allocation for the current fiscal year.
“The state is saying the county could be doing more to fund its school district,” the CFO elaborated. “As Alamance County continues to get wealthier, and the proportion of revenue coming into the county continues to be at the same level, you will start seeing the state funding go down…which makes budgeting a bit challenging. There is no excess of staff in ABSS.”
During a discussion that followed Hook’s and Messer’s presentation, most school board members indicated that the proposed county budget request for 2026-27 is appropriate, based on what they said the school system needs, particularly when it comes to recruiting and retaining personnel.
“Spending your tax dollars we do not take lightly,” school board member Avery Wagoner said Tuesday afternoon. “We have to make sure they’re being used in a good fiduciary manner, and we’re doing that.”
Messer also presented data, which he attributed to the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI), showing that, as of June 2025, ABSS ranked: 85th out of 100 counties in state per-pupil funding of $8,086.30; ranked 99 out of 100 counties in local funding of $1,928.84 per-pupil; and ranked 37th in the state for its county-funded supplement, which is paid as a percentage on top of the state-funded salaries for principals, assistant principals, teachers, and administrators. (Those figures were based on county and state funding levels for the previous 2024-25 fiscal year, according to Messer’s presentation.)
“When you look at the total budget picture, we’re behind folks,” school board vice chairman Dan Ingle said Tuesday. “It troubles me that we have dropped in our supplement when we’re around the 15th [largest school system in the state]. This school system is heading in the right direction, but we need the people’s support and the county’s support as we go forward.”
“As you remember, we raised our supplement last year…and we still went down [in the rankings],” said ABSS superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming. “All the other districts also raised the supplement.”
Fleming pointed to a new line item for $425,000 within the current expense portion of the county budget request, which he said would be used to provide a new $1,500 supplement for speech language pathologists and teachers in the Exceptional Children’s division.
“This was a request from [the Alamance-Burlington Association of Educators] that have really felt like, instead of speaking for every teacher, really want to reach out to our colleagues in EC and [speech language pathology] to find a way to recruit and retain high-quality teachers,” the superintendent said Tuesday. “I think we’ve got to take care of all of our employees first, but if our commissioners are willing to invest on the EC side, I know that will be appreciated.”
Another $300,000 in county current expense funding would be used to restore several curriculum facilitator positions at three schools, which were cut amid a multimillion budget shortfall several years ago. ABSS assistant superintendent of academics Dr. Sean McWherter told the board Tuesday afternoon, “We lost them at all of our schools previously and are trying to get them back to our schools.”
Wagoner responded, “When we were elected, we were asked to clean up our finances; we’ve done that. We were asked to improve our academics; we’re working on that.”
Wagoner added, “We are competing with those counties that touch us…Alamance County is an excellent place to live; we better make sure it’s an excellent place to have an excellent public education.”
Messer said that a proposed $300,000 increase in the stipend for athletic coaches would make ABSS more competitive with surrounding school districts, in addition to covering expenses for newly-added sports such as girls’ flag football.
School board member Seneca Rogers acknowledged that, while ABSS increased the coaching stipend several years ago, there “is a big difference” between what ABSS coaches get paid versus their peers in surrounding counties.
School board member Dr. Eric Hall said he had reviewed the budget presentation before the meeting, thinking about what could be changed. “It’s bare bones,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “Look at what we rank, and what we’re trying to get to – it’s basic.”
School board chairman Sandy Ellington-Graves thanked the commissioners Tuesday for agreeing at their March 2 meeting to release the remaining funds from the 2018 school bond package that Hook has said will be used for school security projects. She added, “Financially, we’ve made strides.”
The county budget request for 2026-27 will be forwarded to Alamance County government officials by the end of this month, based on a budget timeline that the commissioners discussed earlier this year.
