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Buncombe schools outline districtwide position-allotment plan; custodial formula pilot completed
Summary
Buncombe County Schools staff updated the Board of Education on a multi-year project to standardize how positions are allocated to schools, including a new six-variable custodian formula piloted with facilities staff. The district expects full implementation in the 2026-27 school year, with some positions phased into the 2025-26 budget.
Buncombe County Schools staff told the Board of Education on March 13 that they are building a districtwide position-allotment manual to allocate staff by formula and to increase transparency, equity and budget predictability.
The manual will hold formula-driven allotments for roughly 40 positions, district Chief Financial Officer Tina Thorpe said, with the goal of completing formulas by December 2025 and implementing them in the 2026-27 school year. "These allotment formulas will be housed in a BCS allotment manual, which will be reviewed and published on an annual basis," Thorpe said.
The district presented the allotment project as an internal, standardized way to assign positions to sites and departments rather than a change to state allotments. Thorpe said the work builds on examples from other North Carolina systems and national standards and is intended to make staffing decisions objective and auditable.
District staff described the process as four steps: inventory current staffing rationale; research external practice and legal requirements; decide whether to change allotments and what data the formula needs; and publish a one-page allotment summary for each position. Luke Rose, the district's financial quantitative analyst and project manager, built an "acuity tool" that pulls data sources such as NCDPI records and facility blueprints into the new formulas.
Custodial formula pilot: The board heard details about the pilot change for custodians, the first position the district rewrote. The new BCS custodian formula uses six variables: average daily membership (ADM), number of teachers in the building, number of classrooms used, total building square footage, community use, and a supplement for schools with fewer than 450 students. The district combined local research, a California calculation model and industry guidance from the Association of Physical Plant Administrators (APPA) to design the formula.
Thorpe and maintenance staff said the pilot addressed perceived shortcomings with the system's 2019 square-footage allotment and accounted for groundskeeping work moved to a centralized position. Clark White and Rachel Bryant from facilities participated in the pilot, Thorpe said. The district showed an example where one school could gain seven months of custodial employment while another could lose about 4.25 months under the new formula; officials clarified those figures refer to months of employment for the school year.
Phasing and personnel effects: Board members pressed staff on how allotment changes would affect employees. Thorpe and Superintendent Dr. Jackson said the district intends to move positions, not people, and to rely on attrition where possible to avoid involuntary reassignments. "We're trying to make sure we're also very thoughtful with our employees," Jackson said, noting geographic and operational considerations.
Scope and timing: As of March 13, staff reported 23 of the 40 positions had been completed. The district expects to finish the remaining formulas by December 2025 and start enacting changes in the 2026-27 school year; some positions for which work is complete (for example, custodians and assistant principals) are expected to be reflected in the 2025-26 budget planning, the district said. A stakeholder committee will review formula-generated allotments and hear principals' requests for exceptions.
Board members asked about instructional allotments. Dr. Reid (working with finance) and Thorpe said curriculum- and instruction-related formulas will include metrics appropriate to those roles—examples cited included counts of students with exceptional needs such as EC (exceptional children) populations or multilingual learners (ML). Luke Rose is building similar acuity tools for each position group.
Why this matters: District leaders framed the manual as a mechanism to make staffing more equitable and to provide the county and community with clearer justifications for budget requests. Thorpe said formula-driven allotments will make it easier to model the budget earlier and to align county funding requests with staffing needs.
What's next: The district will continue a phased rollout, maintain stakeholder committees to vet allotments, and publish the manual annually. Staff said an appeal process would permit principals to request additional allotments for unique building circumstances, with committee review and a cabinet recommendation for budget implications.
Ending: Board members had multiple questions but offered general support for the project’s transparency and equity goals. Staff will return with additional formulas and follow-up at future budget work sessions.
