The Alamance Burlington School System's Board has delayed a meeting to decide the fate of its virtual school program. The discussion that was supposed to happen on Friday has been moved to Monday night.The district says an outpour of parents and students wanting to be heard is partially why. Several students and their parents gathered at the ABSS Administrative building Friday, chanting to save the virtual school program. Their plan was to get the attention of school board members before the scheduled meeting. This comes as ABSS school superintendent Dain Butler sent a letter Thursday with his recommendation to close the virtual school. Butler noted several recommendations in the letter but the following paragraph highlights what he said about the virtual school. "To remain compliant with these federal funds, The Board of Education will need to vote on and approve the closure of the Alamance Virtual School at the end of this school year. This school was originally designed as a response to COVID-19 using ESSER funds, which meant it was intended to end when these funds expire in 2024. The current principal will be reassigned to an open principalship in the summer, and all virtual teachers will be assisted in being assigned to a school with a vacancy that matches their teaching license for next year. They will all be notified of this change if the Board supports this plan. This will allow all students and staff to remain at the Alamance Virtual School for the rest of this school year. A big thank you to our AVS principal and staff for a stellar job of virtually serving our students’ academic needs!"Les Atkins, the school system's Public Information Officer, said, “We were actually in the process of closing this school anyway. The first part of the year we closed K through three so the enrollment is now at about 234 kids so that was sort of our original plan." The school system says they originally opened the virtual school in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and were using emergency relief ESSER funds for it, but those funds will expire. The superintendent's budget proposal does not include the virtual school for the next school year. However, several students say they don’t want to go back to brick-and-mortar learning. "When I’m in-person school, I can’t ask for help, and so with virtual school, it’s very easy for me to ask for help and get the help I need for me to succeed," Katilin Campbell, a sixth grade Alamance Virtual School student, said.Virtual student Gabriel Strickland said he used to go to in-person schooling and doesn't want to go back."It was a lot of bullying that happened that year, a lot of bad stuff, so we moved back to virtual school, and it’s just the opposite. Everything here is just great,” Strickland said. “This school has changed my life in many ways,” Lillith Stewart said.There are other virtual school options throughout the state, but these families say there’s nothing like the Alamance Virtual School."My kids, they love it. They were crying yesterday when they got the news saying that it might have to close," Jane Uhn, a parent to three Alamance Virtual School students, said.Mandy Campbell, a parent of five Alamance Virtual School students, said, “We know that there are other virtual options, but we would like to stay in our ABSS community, and Alamance Virtual School provides that for our children.”Parents and students will get a chance to speak to the school board at Monday night’s School Board meeting when the superintendent’s budget is proposed.That meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 26, at 1712 Vaughn Road, Burlington, North Carolina.