An annual breakfast at the local school system headquarters has long been an opportunity for Alamance County’s commissioners to hash out their differences with the Alamance-Burlington school board.
This year, however, the spotlight at this interjurisdictional gathering fell on Alamance County’s state legislators – who’ve previously been something of a third wheel during the school board’s tandem bike ride with the commissioners.
From their input on the curriculum to their insights about the state’s upcoming budget, the county’s delegates to the General Assembly dominated much of the table talk when this year’s three-way convocation took place on Monday.
Along the way, the three legislators also addressed issues of local concern, such as the retention of bus drivers and the school system’s prospective haul from the state lottery.
Meanwhile, a debate over school calendar flexibility prompted state senator Amy Scott Galey to lay down the law with the school system’s leaders about their obligation to abide by the state’s existing dictates.
Yet, in the end, the feedback from Galey and her colleagues was well received by the five county commissioners and a school board contingent that excluded only Chuck Marsh (who has sat out the board’s past several meetings for health reasons).
“As far as my experience, I don’t know of another area that sets up a meeting like this with our local policy makers and our state policy makers.”
– ABSS Superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming
But perhaps the most telling review of the gathering came from Aaron Fleming, who took over as the school system’s superintendent barely four months ago.
“As far as my experience,” Fleming declared at the start of that morning’s gathering, “I don’t know of another area that sets up a meeting like this with our local policy makers and our state policy makers.”
Follow the money
A recurring theme during Monday’s four-hour confab was the financial liquidity of the Alamance-Burlington’s school system – and in particular, the state’s contribution to the school system’s operational needs.
In a financial update from Tony Messer, the school system’s newly-appointed finance director, the meeting’s participants learned that the state treasury presently pays out $7,839 per-pupil to ABSS – or 12.9 percent more than it had in the previous financial cycle. Messer added that this annual allotment puts Alamance-Burlington in 90th place among North Carolina’s 116 school systems.
Messer contrasted the state’s outlay with the county’s current per pupil expenditure of $2,047 – which, he added, is the 89th most generous in a statewide comparison. The school system’s CFO nevertheless noted that, a year ago, the county’s allocation had been 55th in the rankings while the state’s contribution to ABSS was 92nd in its per-pupil impact.
The recent increase in state’s per pupil allowance was further amplified by representative Dennis Riddell, who offered the meeting’s participants an overview of the state’s spending priorities.
A Republican who represents the state’s house 64th district, Riddell was particularly eager to dispel the idea that the GOP has shortchanged the state’s public education system since it came to power in 2010. He tried to bring this point home with a poster-sized graphic that represented the state’s budget as a sliced-up dollar bill, whose constituent parts corresponded to different areas of state funding.
“You can see what’s the largest item in the budget: 58 percent is public education, and $12 million out of this $30 million budget goes to k-through-12. . . People think that we’ve cut spending for k-through-12, but we’ve increased it every year that we [Republicans] have been in charge.”
– State Rep. Dennis Riddell
“You can see what’s the largest item in the budget: 58 percent is public education,” the state representative added as he flourished this visual aid during the meeting, “and $12 million out of this $30 million budget goes to k-through-12…People think that we’ve cut spending for k-through-12, but we’ve increased it every year that we [Republicans] have been in charge.”
This putative proof of the state’s generosity was dampened somewhat by the budgetary prognostications from another member of the county’s all-Republican delegation to the General Assembly.
Representative Steve Ross, who represents the state’s 63rd house district, cautioned the school system’s leaders about some of the additional demands that will come to bear on the state’s pocketbook later this year.
“Early indications are that we’re probably going to be okay this year. But we’re not going to have the surpluses we’ve had in previous years, and any surplus is probably going to be earmarked for storm damage.”
– State Rep. Steve Ross
Ross went on to lament the state’s soaring healthcare expenses, the strain that a booming population has placed on its infrastructure, and the continuing cleanup costs from Hurricane Helene and other storms that have recently battered North Carolina.
“Early indications are that we’re probably going to be okay this year,” Ross went on to add. “But we’re not going to have the surpluses we’ve had in previous years, and any surplus is probably going to be earmarked for storm damage.”
Betting against the house
For the past couple of decades, the school system’s budget has been supplemented by funds from North Carolina’s state lottery, which was established in 2005 to raise money for capital improvements at the state’s public schools.
Initially, the General Assembly demanded that 35 percent of the lottery’s proceeds should go directly to public education. During Monday’s meeting, Sandy Ellington-Graves, the chairman of the Alamance-Burlington school board, observed that subsequent changes to state law have allowed this proportion to steadily dwindle. Ellington-Graves added that a recent report from a group called Public Schools First NC has put the share which public schools got in 2024 at 20.3 percent.
Meanwhile, county commissioner Pam Thompson, who had served on the school board before she joined the commissioners, asked the legislative delegation for a broader accounting of the funds that the state gets from various forms of legalized gambling.
“We hear all the time about the ‘educational lottery,’” she went on to note. “We’re also hearing about sports betting and all the money that it’s bringing into North Carolina…Can you talk about where all that money is going?”
In response to Thompson’s inquiry, Riddell shared an official breakdown of the lottery’s proceeds from 2023. Although the representative acknowledged he’s “not a fan of the lottery,” he noted that it reportedly raised $1 billion for the state’s public schools – of which 40 percent went to the construction of facilities and 38 percent to staffing expenses.
In the meantime, Galey responded to Ellington-Graves’ observation by pointing out that the lottery’s contribution to public schools has actually increased in terms of raw dollars and cents due to the growing amount of money that people have spent in the pursuit of a jackpot.
“You’re right that the percentage has changed,” the state senator added, “but the money has gone way, way up.”
Galey went on to acknowledge that some in the General Assembly would like to further increase the state’s take from the gaming industry by legalizing Internet sweepstakes cafes and taxing the money they make. Riddell, for his part, stressed that he’d rather not see the state enrich itself through such dicey activities.
“To put too much reliance on gambling to raise money for your state is not a wise thing to do. Eventually, the tide is going to turn, and we won’t be getting as much money. . . We’ve got to be careful that we don’t look at our citizens as suckers. That’s really reversing the role of government where we’re supposed to be servants and not masters.”
– State Rep. Dennis Riddell
“To put too much reliance on gambling to raise money for your state is not a wise thing to do,” he said. “Eventually, the tide is going to turn, and we won’t be getting as much money…We’ve got to be careful that we don’t look at our citizens as suckers. That’s really reversing the role of government where we’re supposed to be servants and not masters.”
Drivers wanted
The county’s legislative delegation also fielded some questions during Monday’s joint meeting about the availability of state funds to cover some of the school system’s specific needs.
School board member Seneca Rogers was particularly interested in funds for things like campus security and universal pre-k education – neither of which elicited a pledge of financial support from the legislators.
Rogers also asked the state legislators about state-level assistance to “stabilize” turnover among the school system’s bus drivers. The school system had previously tried to redress the issue itself by creating a full-time post that combined a bus driver’s part-time responsibilities with some additional custodial duties. Greg Hook, the school system’s chief operations officer, acknowledged that continued turnover had foiled an experiment with these dual positions which the school board had launched in the Western High district.
Rogers had hoped the state would provide some tangible assistance as the school system continues to struggle with defections among its bus drivers. His entreaties nevertheless drew little more than moral support from the county’s state representatives.
“Ultimately, it’s going to come down to more money,” Ross said during the meeting.
“If you have trouble hiring bus drivers at the prevailing wage and benefits, ultimately you need to increase the wage and benefits,” Riddell added. “While telling you that you need to raise the salaries of bus drivers, I don’t know where that money is going to come from. But that’s why you get paid the big bucks.”
Meanwhile, Galey suggested that a targeted pay raise for bus drivers might have unintended consequences among the remainder of the school system’s staff.
“I think you know, as leaders of complex organizations,” the state senator said, “that when you single out some people for raises, the others don’t appreciate that very well.”
Collision of calendars
The school system’s leaders got an even sterner reaction from Galey when the conversation turned to the state’s public school calendar.
Ross and Riddell ultimately told the meeting’s participants they would like to give local authorities more latitude with this standardized schedule. Riddell added that, as a newly-appointed member of a state house committee on k-12 policy, he intends to champion a bill to increase calendar flexibility as well as another piece of legislation that would “grade” schools on academic “growth” in addition to actual student achievement.
Galey, meanwhile, took umbrage with the fact that some school systems have tried to circumvent the state’s current calendar. She alluded to one such attempt in Carteret County that was eventually struck down by a judge in response to a lawsuit from a coalition of business owners.
Galey vs. Ingle on school calendar and ABSS recent survey to parents on when school year should start and stop
GALEY: “I think it’s an absolute disgrace that school boards across the state have implemented calendars in violation of that [state] law. You have to look at yourself in the mirror and remind yourself that you violated your oath of office when you voted to adopt a policy that you know is in violation of the law.”
ingle: “When you send out a questionnaire asking what you think of a policy, that’s not a violation of the law. No law has been violated, senator Galey, by sending out a questionnaire.”
GALEY: “I think it’s unwise, and it’s ultimately irrelevant.”
Galey went on to blast the Alamance-Burlington school system for circulating a survey among parents about an alternate calendar. She argued that, regardless of what local authorities may think of the state’s standardized schedule, it is, in the end, a statutory requirement that local officials can’t unilaterally buck.
“I think it’s an absolute disgrace that school boards across the state have implemented calendars in violation of that law,” she added. “You have to look at yourself in the mirror and remind yourself that you violated your oath of office when you voted to adopt a policy that you know is in violation of the law.”
Galey’s admonishment prompted Riddell to observe that a school system’s leaders can always ask their legislative delegation for a local bill that would let them deviate from the state calendar.
The state senator’s rebuke also received a tut-tut from Dan Ingle, a former state legislator and one-time county commissioner who now serves on the Alamance-Burlington school board.
“When you send out a questionnaire asking what you think of a policy, that’s not a violation of the law,” Ingle insisted. “No law has been violated, senator Galey, by sending out a questionnaire.”
Galey went on to concede Ingle’s point, although she remained convinced that the school system should never have circulated the survey.
“I think it’s unwise,” she added, “and it’s ultimately irrelevant.”
Richer by Math
Another issue that the state senator took up during the meeting was the lackluster state of math education in North Carolina.
Galey recalled that one of her colleagues on a state senate committee has proposed “an ambitious program” to improve the mathematical competency of students.
She went on to underscore the need for better math education, although she admitted she isn’t quite sure what policy changes would make the grade in North Carolina.
Ross echoed Galey’s interest in mathematical aptitude, which he said will be crucial to the state’s efforts to attract and retain high-tech industries. Ross alluded to one prospective recruit to the Triad that intends to hire some 2,000 engineers wherever it ultimately decides to set up its operations. The state representative added that the state needs to make sure its workforce includes people whose facility with numbers will suit companies like this one.
“We’ve got to start having our students love math,” he added, “and get on par with the rest of the world.”
The future beckons
Monday’s joint meeting also featured some updates from the school system’s administrators, including its newly-appointed superintendent, who recounted what he has already learned in his short tenure at ABSS.
“This morning we’ll jump into our DeLorean and travel back to September,” he told his audience, “so you’ll know all of the questions I’ve asked myself when I began.”
Fleming said that, upon his arrival, he tried to puzzle out why the community seems to lack trust in the local school system. He also inquired about the school system’s difficulties attracting and retaining qualified staff members, its issues with deferred maintenance, and the reasons for the precarious state of its finances. Fleming added, in their desperation to remain financially solvent, his predecessors may have exacerbated some of the school system’s other dilemmas, such as its ongoing difficulties with staffing.
“Previous position cuts have hurt us, and these cuts were used to balance the budget,” the superintendent elaborated. “I am also concerned that these cuts will have some academic consequences.”
Fleming added that ABSS seems to have lost ground in its teacher recruitment efforts as other, neighboring counties have surpassed the salary supplement it offers on top of a teacher’s state-funded pay.
This point was later reinforced by Tony Messer, who acknowledged that ABSS had the state’s 20th most generous supplement before the school board decided to freeze the growth of this compensatory cherry in order to balance its current annual budget.
This move on the part of the school system’s decision makers seemed like a lost opportunity to school board member-turned-county commissioner Pam Thompson.
“I think that when I was coming off [the school board], we were Number 10,” she recalled, “and when [ABSS] froze it, I knew it was going to take us back even more.”
Capital ideas
Another fertile field for discussion on Monday was the condition of the school system’s brick-and-mortar facilities.
Over the past several years, ABSS has invested millions of dollars into its school buildings thanks to a $150 million bond package which area voters approved in 2018. In the meantime, a system-wide mold outbreak in 2023 has prompted the board of commissioners to release millions of additional dollars to replace aging roofs and HVAC units that were partly responsible for the fungal invasion.
During Monday’s joint meeting, Greg Hook presented a progress report on the first round of these roofing and HVAC upgrades as well as the last few remaining projects from the school system’s bond package.
Hook was able to declare “mission accomplished” with most of this bond-funded work. He nevertheless reported one loose end at Haw River Elementary, where a shortage of cash had prompted his predecessor to remove the school’s gym from a campus-wide reroofing project. The school system’s COO added that this omission can probably be remedied with leftover funds from some of the ongoing roof work, which the mold outbreak inspired.
Hook went on to assert that ABSS should maintain a brisk pace with its reroofing jobs and the associated HVAC improvements. He was especially adamant about the need to keep heating and air conditioning systems in good working order in order to avoid a potential breakdown while school is in session.
Hook called the audience’s attention to the arctic chill which had gripped the school system’s central office at the start of Monday’s proceedings. He blamed this intemperate climate on an overnight glitch that had knocked out a boiler which should’ve been warming the building.
The school system’s COO warned that the consequences would be far more dire if maintenance hiccups occur in buildings that actually accommodate students. He recalled that officials in Guilford and Wake counties were recently pilloried in the press after heating and air-conditioning failures occurred in some of their schools.
“I think that highlights the need to stay on top of the maintenance of old equipment,” he added. “We don’t want the students to be either too hot or too cold.”
