On March 1 the Alamance-Burlington School System will request the Alamance County Board of Commissioners add about $3.9 million to the district’s share of the county’s 2021-22 budget.
That would bring local funding to nearly $45.9 million in county dollars for school operations. The district would also ask for the $3.3 million the county sets aside every year for building maintenance.
Notable increases
- $3.6 million to the Budd Group for cleaning services during COVID is the district’s biggest vendor contract.
- $1.66 million in new positions
- $1.45 million in pay increases
- $1.3 million for health and mental-health personnel and social workers
- $470,000 increase in spending on school resource officers or SROs
Keep versus add
- $3.9 million more, says Finance Director Jeremy Teetor, means more to keep what ABSS already has, or already has to pay for, or more to get more.
- $2.8 million “continuing budget” shows increases in spending needed to maintain existing services including:
- $1.2 million to keep 12 regional teaching coaches;
- $500,000 for nine school nurses now with the system;
- $450,000 increase in local funding to charter schools for teaching Alamance County children;
- $350,000 increase in retirement costs;
- $210,000 more to pay law enforcement agencies closer to the going rate for school resource officers;
- $55,000 increase in health insurance costs;
- $35,000 in pay increases.
- $1.9 million “expansion budget” adds more people or pay raises.
- $90,000 hires a translator and someone to help immigrant families enroll their children. ABSS spent more than $200,000 for contract translators, Teetor said, so the demand and potential cost savings are there.
- $260,000 adds four new school resource officers to schools outside cities in the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction – meaning the most isolated schools. It’s significantly less than the $1.1 million to add 17 SROs the board heard about in January.
- $240,000 hires three more mental health specialists.
- $500,000 more for the local teacher supplement lets ABSS pay teachers more for more years of experience whether or not it was local. At $4,812, on average, ABSS has the 10th highest teacher supplement in the state.
“We believe this is something that can help us recruit as everybody is scrambling for the shrinking pool of teacher applicants,” Teetor said.
Charter schools and enrollment
- 578 fewer students enrolled in ABSS in 2020-21 than 2019-20.
- $1.27 million to River Mill Academy charter school makes it the fourth-largest vendor with an enrolment of 828 in 2019-20, according to the Department of Public Instruction.
- $603,758 to Clover Garden charter school, with an enrollment of 656, makes it the ninth largest vendor.
COVID funds are separate from county funds, and the board plans to work out that part of the ABSS budget in March, but there is a basic plan.
- $3.1 million from the CARES Act.
- $2.6 million of that pays for 33 people to help students catch up after a year of less-effective remote learning.
- $480,000 pays six people to use high school student data to coach teachers and students.
- $520,000 comes from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER).
- $440,000 for five and a half more school social worker positions, so every school would have one to take on anticipated student mental health and emotional support needs.
- $80,000 would pay one more school psychologist to help with students needing psychological assessments.
Competing for people
- $75,000 of existing funds raises bus driver pay by about 50 cents to $15 to $20 per hour.
- $170,000 would raise the pay of cafeteria managers.
- $75,000 would increase the local supplement to assistant principal pay by 1.5 percentage points to 11-13% based on years of experience.
- $60,000 would do the same for principals bringing them to 13-16%.
- $600,000 kicks in the next stage of a three-year plan to increase pay for competitive positions guaranteeing 176 employees a 1% annual raise.
- $360,000 gets one-time 5% bonuses for teacher’s assistants out of savings.
- $80,000 pays a technology coach to help teachers make the most of teaching tools.
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Isaac Groves is the Alamance County government watchdog reporter for the Times-News and the USA Today Network. Call or text 919-998-8039 with tips and comments or follow on Twitter @TNIGroves.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Alamance-Burlington schools want $49 million from county for 2021-22 budget
