Superintendent clarifies restructuring of ACHS Band Director Position

By ANGELA FARR KING

The Alexander County Board of Education met for their regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Monday, June 8, at 6 p.m. The board room was filled close to capacity with parents, students, band boosters, teachers, and administrators who came to support the band program at Alexander Central High School. Many were holding yellow signs that said, “Save our Band.”

Many people in the community had been upset after seeing information online about Alexander Central High School “losing” one of their two full time band directors. There had been many posts online about this issue and a community forum was held at First Baptist Church on Sunday, June 7, moderated by Rev. Scott Henson, about people’s concerns.

No one had met the deadline of 4:30 p.m. Friday, June 5, for requesting to speak during the public comment section of the meeting, so this topic was addressed during Superintendent Dr. Bill Griffin’s report at the end of the meeting. The first thing that Dr. Griffin said was, “Students, I see your signs and I hear you and I appreciate your voice and I appreciate your support and your passions for your programs, but nobody is taking your band program. We certainly don’t have to save our band program because we’re not taking it.” He added, “We believe in our band. We believe in our arts programs.” Griffin went on to read three emails he had received over the weekend concerning the change in the band program. The first one was from Brad Hubbard, a former band student at ACHS who had graduated in 1984. He now resides in New York City and has performed all over the world. Hubbard talked about the value of collaborative music experiences and how his band experiences at ACHS impacted his life and career. He also stated the positive academic impacts that the band program can have for students.

The second email was from Byron Harrington, representing the Band Booster Board, stating that they are “deeply concerned and disheartened by the recent decisions regarding our music education department.” Harrington also stated that the band program is continuing to grow.

The third email was from Dr. Tyler Stark, the Director of Bands at Lenoir Rhyne University. Stark spoke highly of the number of students in the ACHS band and the quality of the program.
Griffin said he agreed with everything said in the emails he read aloud. He reiterated his commitment to public education and his appreciation for the band program. He thanked local pastors for leading a respectful community forum to discuss the band director position over the weekend. He thanked the band booster parents and the students. He thanked the school board and the commissioners for their continued support of the school system. He then went on to explain how decisions were made regarding staff allocations for each school year.

He referred to Dr. Alisha Cloer, the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, as having the daunting task of making sure every school is staffed with what is needed and can be afforded each year.

He reminded those listening that when he took on the role as Superintendent, “the Alexander County School System was one year away from going bankrupt, one year away from not being able to navigate any longer, one year away from not having any fund balance that would allow us to do any of the things that we need to do to stay afloat.” That was the year 24 positions had to be cut from the school system. Griffin said, “We never want to be in that position again where we have to lay people off, to say to people, ‘You don’t have a job.’ I talk budget every day with somebody and not everybody gets what they want.”

He added, “Dr. Cloer looks at numbers every year. It’s all about numbers. The only revenue we have as a public school system comes from three avenues: the federal government, the state, and the local government. The vast majority of our funding comes from the state and is based on ADM (average daily membership, which is the number of students that we have in our building). I am sad to say that Alexander County has been losing students in our public schools for years and every time we lose a student, we have to adjust. We are operating within our means. This year’s budget (2026-27) has already been set based on the numbers from last year. We already know the amount of positions that we are down, so I had to find three positions somewhere within our school system. Through Dr. Cloer’s studies and her analysis, we ended up repositioning several people. We didn’t cut a single job.”

In other words, any cuts that needed to be made, were made through natural attrition, such as retirements or people moving on to other jobs. Some people were moved within the county, but no jobs were cut.

Griffin said that the following departments were affected at the high school through the repositioning of personnel: Math, Social Studies, Spanish, a Registrar position, CTE (Nursing), and Band. He said the discussions about these changes have been taking place since April. They were not “spur of the moment.”

Griffin went on to say that Alexander Central has been the only high school in the Unifour area with two full time band directors. He checked with Wilkes, Iredell, Caldwell, and Catawba and was told that they all have one band director. He commended the two band directors at ACHS, Patrick Watkins and Jennifer Weddington, for the tremendous jobs they both do and their willingness to be flexible in the coming year.

He also shared the schedule that had been followed for last year’s band classes at ACHS: First block was a planning period. Second block was an Honors Percussion Ensemble class for 19 students and third block was also a planning period. Fourth block was a marching band class for 87 students. He noted that at least one band teacher did help with middle school band during the day sometimes. Griffin said the district simply could not justify two full time band directors for that schedule, so Jennifer Weddington will teach music at Wittenburg and Ellendale, but will be in fourth block to assist with marching band at ACHS each day.

In other news, Chief Finance Officer Sharon Mehaffey shared that Alexander County Schools will once again participate in the CEP program, which will allow all students, including middle and high school students, in the Alexander County School System, to have free lunches and breakfasts. According to https://www.fns.usda.gov, “The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a non-pricing meal service option for schools and school districts in low-income areas. CEP allows the nation’s highest poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications. Instead, schools that adopt CEP are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students categorically eligible for free meals based on their participation in other specific means-tested programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).”

Due to low participation at the middle and high school levels, which resulted in a loss of funding to the nutrition department, middle and high school students were required to pay for lunches last year, but they will not have to for the 2026-27 school year. Dr. Griffin also said that for the first week of the Summer Meal Program, 12,320 meals were dispersed to children in Alexander County.

There were two important personnel changes made at the Board meeting. With Assistant Principal Ashley Jenkins leaving West Alexander Middle School to go to Caldwell County, Assistant Principal Kelly Brantley is moving from Alexander Central High School to West Alexander Middle School as their new Assistant Principal. Don Robinette, who has been the Exceptional Children’s self-contained teacher at West Alexander Middle School, is being moved into the role as Assistant Principal at Alexander Central High School.

Jacob Lail, the Director of Testing and Accountability and Auxiliary Services, shared a small change in the 2026-27 calendar. November 25, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, will now be an optional workday instead of an Annual Leave Day.

Director of Maintenance Brian Davis gave an update on the HVAC project at West Alexander Middle School. He said they are in the first of four phases of the project and during the first week, there has been a complete tear out of the duct work on the eighth grade wing of the building. The project will include replacement of the entire HVAC system, the duct work, and a new roof on the building. This is being paid for with lottery money, which can only be used on capital (building) projects. Dr. Griffin said WAMS has been having issues with their HVAC system for quite some time. It is the original system they are replacing.

Next meeting

The next school board meeting will be held on Monday, July 13, at 6 p.m. at the Central Services building.