ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. — A meeting was held Thursday night to address a Triad school district's money troubles.
Alamance County Commission and school board met with state leaders to discuss the next steps for the finances of the district.
Leaders are looking to come up with a solution to the school district's problems after Alamance- Burlington School System (ABSS) said its in a financial crisis.
This comes after the district faced several incidents including mold remediation which cost ABSS millions of dollars, and the recent damage to schools because of heavy rain.
In the meeting, ABSS Deputy Superintendent Lowell Rodgers presented a proposal called a Reduction in Force (RIF) plan.
The district said they will have to make several cuts, some of those proposed cuts could affect 54 employees.
The proposed cuts could result in shorter hours or no job at all.
The district said some of the internal cuts could save them $1.3 million.
Currently, the district is over its utility budget.
They said they need another $5 million for the rest of the school year to pay for utilities. They said continuously running the HVAC and dehumidifiers because of mold issues is expensive.
"Dehumidifiers running that takes electricity. So, that made our utility bills go up. That is something we did not plan, that is something we have not used in years past and that's altered our utility cost as well as running our HVAC. We feel like that may be one of the causes so we ran our HVAC throughout," Rodgers said.
ABSS said cutting curriculum is not on the table to save money.
"My most important priority is keeping our people in place if at all possible. Keeping our programs in place and trimming where we can without eliminating things that have a direct impact to student learning.” ABSS Board Chair Sandy Ellington-Graves said.
This meeting is for planning purposes only. A decision on possible job cuts will be made at the school board's meeting on Tuesday.