Candidates at the Board of Education candidates forum agreed that the Alamance-Burlington School System needs to focus on students and help recoup its finances — but candidates differ on the best way to do that. The event, sponsored by Impact Alamance, Elon University and The Alamance Chamber — with support from Elon News Network and the city of Burlington — was Sept. 30 at the Paramount Theater in Burlington.
Five out of the eight candidates were present at the forum, which was moderated by Ann Bullock, dean of the Dr. Jo Watts School of Education. The forum was a non-partisan event designed to help residents of Alamance County learn about the candidates ahead of the election in November.
Budget planning this year was a challenge, and many programs had to be reduced or eliminated, along with some jobs, Donna Davis Westbrooks, current vice chairman of the board, said.
Last fall, mold was found in 32 of the 36 ABSS schools, leading to a late start for the school year and an estimated recovery plan totaling $225 million over five years. This year, how to best bounce back from these financial issues was a main topic at the forum.
Westbrooks equated each piece of the budget to a puzzle piece, saying the pieces of the puzzle are children.
“Each of those children have different needs each year, and we have to make sure that we have met those needs by allocating appropriately, wisely, effectively and productively so that the needs of those kids can be met,” Westbrooks said during the event. “We prioritize initially with making sure we have essential resources such as classroom materials and textbooks technology and people, our teachers and support staff as well.”
Westbrooks said she has lived in Alamance County her whole life, graduating from Cummings High School and attending, at the time, Elon College. She later worked as a teacher and director of teaching recruitment, also at ABSS. She has two children who graduated from ABSS and a number of grandchildren who are still attending. .
Peter Morcombe, who is running on the board for the first time, set up six charter schools in North Carolina. His main complaint with the school board is that it is focused on getting more money but less concerned on how to best work with the money it does have.
“I want to change that to getting better results and having safer schools,” Morcombe said. “With regard to the amount of money that they get, last year they spent $310 million to educate 21,932 students. That works out at about $14,600 per student, per year. That is more than enough. The charter schools can do it with about two and a half thousand less, and they get better results.”
Morocombe said he wants ABSS to function more like a charter school, with more decentralized leadership and parent involvement. He has had six children attend school across different countries, in both public and private schools, giving him experience educating children, Morocombe said.
Avery Wagoner, who ran for the board but lost in 2022, said taking taxpayers money is not something he does lightly. One specific budget priority Wagoner had was teacher compensation supplements, and said Alamance County is behind other counties in that regard. He also wants to hire and retain adequate staff and teachers, Wagoner said.
“At the forefront of every decision we make folks has to be you as a family and as a student in every school that we serve,” Wagoner said.
Wagoner has lived in Alamance County for 24 years, and his children were educated through ABSS, he said. His family moved to Burlington, after talking to his wife about where it’s important for their family to be — and now he is looking to give back and improve its public education.
Seneca Rogers, appointed to the board November 2023 after two unsuccessful campaigns, said he wants to create more opportunities to talk with community members. Rogers is looking to have more events, such as town hall and community forums, to ensure the people who are affected by the board’s decisions are included in the decision process. His campaign focuses on listening to the people the board is making decisions on. Rogers said he can be found “in the neighborhood.”
“It’s about getting out and actually listening to the people,” Rogers said. “Listening to those parents, listening to the students, listening to those people who are actually in our school building — those educators, those bus drivers — and understanding what their challenges are that they have going on so then I can make sure that I’m advocating in the correct way.”
Sandy Ellington-Graves, current chair of the board, has been on the board for the past four years and has been chair for three years. After navigating budget issues from the following year, Ellington-Graves said she has important business to finish on the board. As both a board member and a parent with three children who have gone through ABSS, Ellington-Graves said she has an understanding of parents and of the board itself.
“Before I got on the board of education, as a parent I would get these decisions and I wouldn’t understand where they came from,” Ellington-Graves said. “I think part of that is engaging and embracing the community, asking and listening so that they have an opportunity, they may not agree with the decision that we make, but they understand why we got there, how we got there.”
Dillan Bono-Lunn, professor of political science, was at the event and worked with the university to help plan it. She said she hopes even students who don’t vote in the county were able to attend the forum and learn a little bit about where they live.
“We want to encourage civic engagement, not only of our students, but our wider community,” Bono-Lunn told Elon News Network. “We have people who live in the community, who work in the community, and so in part, it’s a way that you want to be able to give back and to strengthen some of our resources around civic engagement.”
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Alexa Citrin contributed to the reporting of this story.