Chuck Marsh, Alamance-Burlington School System board member, announced his resignation at the Feb. 24 Board of Education meeting in a letter read by Sandy Ellington-Graves, ABSS Board of Education board chair.
Marsh has previously had health issues, causing him to miss meetings, and he is planning to spend more of his focus on the four businesses he runs, he said in his resignation letter.
“As each of you know, I've had some health issues which have kept me from giving 100% and that's not fair to the ABSS staff, my fellow board members and those who voted for it,” Marsh’s letter said. “I've come to realize that I am a better service to our community behind a radio microphone with that said, it's with a heavy heart that I tender my resignation from the ABSS Board of Education.”
Marsh was elected in 2022, and the board will decide at the March 11 work session meeting how to fill his position, Ellington-Graves said.
2025-26 preliminary budget
The board of education will have a budget hearing March 24, but community members spoke out about the budget during the Feb. 24 meeting before the preliminary budget was discussed. With about 30 community members present and eight members making public comments — mainly regarding the preliminary budget — the Feb. 24 board meeting focused on possible budget changes to the 2025-26 academic year and calendar changes for future years.
While raises for certified staff members was a part of the county’s original proposal, classified staff members were not given raises. Employees who require a teaching license or certification are considered certified staff members, such as teachers and counselors and classified staff members do not, such as custodians, bus drivers and administrative assistants.
Having a lack of bus drivers has led to students who are picked up on the second or third bus load showing up 20 or 30 minutes late to school, Medora Burke-Scoll, Eastern Alamance High School biology teacher, said during the public comment section of the meeting.
“They're missing content every single day,” Burke-Scoll said. “Because, in a state tested class with a giant set of standards, there's not a moment where I'm not utilizing the class period that I have available to me.”
There are 50 classified job openings across the county, Burke-Scoll said, which she feels is due to a lack of competitive pay. The base salary for bus drivers in North Carolina is $17.56 an hour, 19% below the national average, according to Indeed.
The current proposed preliminary budget is more than $20 million more than the current budget, with employee benefits, supplement increases, operating expenses and certified staff additions making up large portions of the new budget.
The employee benefit cost increases account for a 3 to 4% salary increase, a 2% increase in retirement benefits and about $300 per employee increases in medical expenses. These increases are intended to account for what the county anticipates the state will mandate in salaries for next year, Tony Messer, ABSS chief financial officer, said during the meeting. Messer said this works as an unfunded mandate, as some employees are funded by the state, but others are funded locally and therefore the county would not choose to give certain employees a raise over others because of where the funding is coming from.
The supplement increases are increases for staff members that have consistently happened year to year — but were unable to be funded last year due to other budget priorities. Last year the main immediate expense was to remedy a mold infestation after mold was found in 32 of the 36 ABSS schools in August 2023 — prompting an expensive clean-up and delaying the school year two weeks.
Messer also outlined a preliminary plan for possible raises for classified employees, due to increased public support on the issue. The raises would total $1.3 million to implement and would go from 1% to 10% based on years of experience per employee, Messer said. The board does have the ability to look at different funding models for classified employees, and Messer said this is just one way to create raises.
“When you do a percentage based supplement for any employee, anytime that their pay is raised, this is also going to raise, so it's always going to be a perpetual funding piece of anything we ask for from year to year,” Messer said.
Board member Seneca Rogers said he agreed with what Burke-Scoll and other speakers said during the public comment section.
“There's something that needs to be done with our classified employees, because they're an absolute necessity in our schools, and they need to know that they're cared for, they're looked at, they're recognized,” Rogers said. “Of course, there's always more to do just not pay, but I feel like pay is also a part of showing them their importance too.”
Future calendar options
On the homepage of ABSS’s website, there is a survey for proposed calendar options for the 2026-27 school year. The board plans to create the 2026-27 school year calendar further in advance to allow families, summer camp programs and staff members to plan ahead accordingly, and to set a precedent to create two year calendars in the future, Rogers said.
One of the calendar options allows for an earlier start date but is not compliant with state law, the other option has a later start date, as the county has done this year and historically, and is compliant with state law.
An earlier start date allows the fall semester to end in December, with final exams before winter break, allowing for mid-year graduates to finish before the next calendar year, and in alignment with Alamance Community College’s academic calendar.
Board member Dan Ingle said he is in favor of this change because students taking exams earlier could improve test scores, and many counties across the state are also in support of this change. He said there are currently bills in the state legislature in different counties that are also looking to start earlier. Community members present applauded after Ingle’s comment on the calendar and were vocally in support of his opinions while he was speaking.
Board member Tameka Harvey said she felt it was important that community members vocalized their own opinions regarding the calendar.
“We really need community members, teachers, parents, guardians, to go in there and look at it,” Harvey said. “Look at that calendar, see if it's feasible, see if it's something that's going to work for you and your family, and do the survey.”