In every discussion about the budget of Alamance County, the proverbial 800 pound gorilla will inevitably be the Alamance Burlington school system.
As the largest recipient of the district's general fund, the school system was a multi -year source of fear and dispute if the commissioners hit the district's finances. The primacy of the school system has only increased since the summer of 2023 when a massive mold infestation forced the county to accelerate millions of dollars in system -wide house cleaning.
After the school system's mold crisis, the commissioners agreed to pay bonds of $ 19 million from a six-year bond package and use the proceeds to improve harmful roofs and HLK systems that had tightened the mushroom explosion. Ultimately, these funds were assigned on the basis of a joint plant study that the district had commissioned to evaluate roofs and air circulation systems in its own buildings, as well as those who maintained the school system.
During the retreat on Monday, the deputy district manager Brian Baker recalled the commissioners that this joint facility study recommended additional spending of 10 million US dollars a year to revise roofs and HLKs that belong to both institutions. In the meantime, Baker proposed a second study to expand the same loving care to other maintenance needs.
“I think the next logical thing for us,” he told the commissioners, “add an assessment of these needs and prioritize them – streets, sporting facilities, penetration of water and a window replacement.”
Baker's proposal was reserved by Commissioner Ed Priola, who insisted that the district receives far too few follow-up information about the funds that assign it to the facilities of the school system.
“My problem with ABS is that money is going into a black hole and we don't get enough reporting.”
– District Commissioner Ed Priola
“My problem with ABS is that money is going into a black hole,” he said to the rest of the district's board of directors, “and we don't get enough reporting.”
John Paisley, Jr., the chairman of Alamance County's commissioners, informed Priola that details on the capital projects of the school system are regularly presented to a joint task force of the common institutions, which he works with the deputy chairman of the board of directors Steve Carter. Paisley drove this data to the rest of the board to the Baker's board.
In the meantime, the skeptics of the school system from Sandy Ellington-Graves, the chairman of the Alamance Burlington School Board, received, which happened to be present during the retreat on Monday.
“I think they will be very excited,” she said to the elected leaders of the district. “We set a financial dashboard on our website that has capital and business – both monthly and quarterly.”