ABSS superintendent William “Bruce” Benson has decided to resign his post.
Benson has notified school board members he intends to leave by Jan. 1, 2022; in a subsequent announcement, the superintendent asks to be released from his current contract, effective Jan. 1, 2022.
He cited “a desire to devote more time to family priorities and his personal life.”
Benson was hired as ABSS superintendent in March 2018 and moved into the school system’s top post in July 2018, after previously serving several years as the superintendent of Stafford County Schools in Virginia.
Much of Benson’s tenure has been focused on dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, with in-person learning suspended for most of 2020 and early 2021.
Also on the agenda has been implementation of $150 million bond referendum that voters approved in November 2018. Construction has been started on a new high school in the Hawfields area that was the cornerstone of that spending. Expansion and renovation projects have also recent begun at Cummings, Eastern, Southern, and Western high schools.
Last week, Benson went before Alamance County’s commissioners and Burlington’s city council to tout the school system’s strategic plan; he also used the occasion to float a proposed name change that would rechristen the 25-year-old institution from the “Alamance-Burlington School System” to “Alamance-Burlington Public Schools.”
School board members will likely discuss the process for recruiting and hiring a new superintendent within the coming weeks.
In July, the board had extended Benson’s contract through June 30, 2025. The board typically adds a year each year, since state law prohibits longer-term contracts.
