The ABSS Board of Education along with Superintendent Dr. Dain Butler named Harold “Bear” Bryant today as the new principal of Western Alamance High School.
Bryant has served the past three years as principal of Graham High School. GHS increased its graduation rate and exceeded expected growth under his leadership. Bryant started his career as a high school social studies teacher in 2005 and has worked the past nine years as an administrator in both Guilford County and ABSS.
He earned his Masters in School Administration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, AIG Certification from Western Carolina University, and his undergraduate degree in history from Elon University.
He will assume his new role Monday, October 17, 2022.
In other news, the Board heard from Chief Finance Officer Kim McVey who presented a plan to start charging students $65 for Driver Education. ABSS is currently operating in the red and serving more students than our state allotted funding. The state requires school districts to serve private, charter, and homeschooled students in addition to those enrolled in ABSS. “We just don’t have enough money to run the program. In addition to our ABSS students we also served more than 300 private, charter, and homeschooled children in Alamance County as required by the state,” McVey said. Last year the district had to supplement the program for more than $77,000. The Board plans to vote on the matter later this month.
The Board of Education also revisited the ABSS school zone maps and plan to hold a series of town hall meetings this fall to further discuss the district’s plans to redraw the lines in order to ease overcrowding at existing high schools and populate the new Southeast Alamance High School.