ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. — Alamance-Burlington School System said it's going into this school year more than $2 million dollars in the red. It comes after a year clouded by financial struggles.
WFMY News 2's Nixon Norman learned about the plan moving forward.
One of the biggest decisions Monday: ABSS's Board of Education approved a district wide HVAC overhaul to cut down on costs, following mold issues.
The board said projects could start next month and will take nearly a year and a half to complete.
Money for teachers was also a topic of conversation. Board member Dan Ingle said it's crucial to keep funding where it is for teachers to remain competitive with surrounding districts.
"Kind of like Ross Perot said with our American jobs years ago, he said, "you hear that sucking sound? That's jobs leaving the united states and heading overseas" well it's going to be the same thing with our teachers as they leave and go to other districts around us if we don't continue, I'm not saying dollar for dollar, but we've got to compete with them," Ingle said.
The board also agreed to continue funding school resource officers. There are 38 of them, each paid a salary of $75,000.
Initially, there was some pushback from board members who questioned why some schools needed multiple SROs. ABSS Chief Operation Officer, Greg Hook said oftentimes SROs are also supervisors of other SROs.
"In the past years, the board had approved putting individual SROs into each school, I can tell you that each jurisdiction employs someone in some way to be the SRO supervisor and for example in Mebane City, one of the four is the supervisor of all of them," Hook said.
The board also approved harsher punishments for students caught bullying or harassing others. It includes extending the number of days a student can be suspended for repeat violations.