Alamance PIE

09/05/2012

Alamance Citizens for Education, Alamance Partnership for Children, Alamance Community College, and Elon University are sponsoring a forum with local candidates to discuss educational issues.

When?
Tuesday, September 18
5:30-6:30 PM - State House & Senate Candidates
6:45-8:00 PM - School Board & County Commissioner Candidates

Where?
Alamance Community College Auditorium
1247 Jimmy Kerr Rd, Graham, NC

See you there!

07/13/2012

This is an article discussing a Fall meeting about the fund balance issue.

06/26/2012

Last night's ABSS meeting included news that the district might lose another $4-million this year because the state is changing a policy. http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/school-56684-additional-state.html If you want to contact your state reps about this, you can find them here: http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/

06/21/2012

Next Monday's ABSS Board of Education meeting will focus on the budget. Not clear what role audience members will have in the meeting, but it seems important to have community voices in the conversation. The meeting is June 25, 6:30pm, in the second floor auditorium at ABSS offices, 1712 Vaughn Road.

06/20/2012

In case you missed today's BTN story with school board reaction to the commission vote: http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/cuts-56499-debate-disappointed.html

06/19/2012

Early reports from the meeting suggest a large, passionate crowd and many people leaving frustrated with the Commissioners. Some Commissioners offer no evidence of support for quality public schools in our county; others appear to be afraid to lead on this issue, no matter what they say. Very disappointing.

06/18/2012

Before you go to the meeting tonight, you might want to read two articles from today's Times-News:

A news article about the actual amount in the ABSS fund balance -- that seems to imply that county officials might be deliberately over-estimating the amount available: http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/county-56430-schools-figures.html

An opinion piece by Matthew Townsend, an ABSS teacher, who reminds us that this isn't only a county issue, and that the cuts have real results for kids, schools, and teachers:
http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/gambling-56402-state-protecting.html

06/18/2012

Your voice and opinion matter. Meeting tonight (Monday) 7pm in Superior Court Room in the Historic Courthouse in Graham regarding funding ABSS schools for next year.

Say YES I WILL! And bring your friends to join the movement!

Making A Difference
by: Unknown

If each grain of sand were to say:
One grain does not make a mountain,
There would be no land.

If each drop of water were to say:
One drop does not make an ocean,
There would be no sea.

If each note of music were to say:
Each note does not make a symphony,
There would be no melody.

If each word were to say:
One word does not make a library,
There would be no book.

If each brick were to say:
One brick does not make a wall,
There would be no house.

If each seed were to say:
One seed does not make a field,
There would be no harvest.

If each of us were to say:
One person does not make the difference,
There would never be love and peace on earth.

You and I do make the difference,
Begin today and make the difference

http://www.facebook.com/OnePersonCanMakeADifference
http://www.facebook.com/OneEarthOneMission

Invite your friends to join One Person and One Earth One Mission

06/18/2012

More about the fund balance disagreement. The CC wants to have its own fund balance, and the SB wants ITS own fund balance. Each group wants the other one to spend down.

06/17/2012

In Tom Manning's recent Times-News editorial (http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/arts-56279-fiction-fine.html), Commissioner Manning compares the fund balance in Durham to that of ABSS. Fair enough. If we'd like to compare districts, let's also note that Durham spends more than $1000 more per student per year than does ABSS. Not all of that is county funding, but if we aspire to treat our schools like Durham does, perhaps we could start by funding them at an equivalent level?
For the Durham funding numbers: http://www.education.com/schoolfinder/us/north-carolina/district/durham-public-schools-school-district/
For the ABSS funding numbers: http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/mike-55090-wilder-mwilder.html

06/14/2012

The median home price in Alamance County is $133k. So a tax hike of $0.025 per $100 is about $33 per year. "Alamance County is currently has the 25th-lowest property tax rate statewide. For counties with a population over 100,000, Alamance County’s tax rate ranks 6th-lowest among 27 counties in that population category." Current rate is below revenue-neutral. Hence the battle.

06/14/2012

REMINDER: The Alamance County Commissioners will vote on our local funds on June 18th at 7:00 p.m. at the regularly-scheduled Board of Commissioners meeting held at the county office building at 124 W. Elm Street in Graham.