BCS swears-in new board members, elects chair

Recently elected Charles Martin and Greg Cheatham were sworn-in as new members of the Buncombe County Board of Education at its Dec. 5 meeting.

Martin, who became the first Black elected representative on the school board, replaced Glenda Weinert as the at-large representative after defeating her in the Nov. 5 election.

“It’s an honor to serve Buncombe County Schools and to work with our community and work with our teachers and staff to elevate our kids for the next level in life,” he said.

Weinert exits after a brief appointment to the board to replace Amanda Simpkins, who resigned from the board May 15.

“I just wanted to publicly acknowledge and congratulate Rev. Martin on his election to the at-large seat,” Weinert said during public comment. “I know that you are honored to serve in this position, and I personally congratulate you on this opportunity,” she said.

Cheatham also thanked the voters for his success in the election. He replaces Peggy Buchanan to represent eastern Buncombe County, now known as District 2.

The new board selected Rob Elliot to serve as chair, ending Ann Franklin’s tenure with the gavel. Franklin was reelected to represent northern Buncombe County in the November election and remains on the board as a member. Amy Churchill, who was reelected in November to represent southern Buncombe County in District 4, was selected as vice-chair.

School district consolidation feasibility study marches on after Helene

A study to determine the feasibility of the consolidation of Buncombe County’s two public school districts continues on schedule despite Tropical Storm Helene.

Rachael Sawyer, strategic partnerships director for Buncombe County, told the school board that the vendor performing the work, Charlotte-based Prismatic Services, completed its data gathering and interviews before the storm. Sawyer said Prismatic would deliver a report to Buncombe County Schools (BCS), Asheville City Schools (ACS) and Buncombe County by Tuesday, Dec. 31, per their contract.

The N.C. General Assembly mandated that both school districts “jointly study the feasibility of a merger … including the potential economic and educational impact of merging the school units and any other relevant information,” according to the law.

The two school boards voted to make Buncombe County the lead entity in October 2023, and the county chose Prismatic to conduct the study in March 2024. The school districts are due to report findings and recommendations to state legislators no later than Feb. 15, 2025.

Prismatic conducted thousands of surveys of the school community, conducted 168 interviews with personnel from both districts and spent 87 days on-site collecting data and making observations, Sawyer said. They conducted 10 community input forums throughout the month of September, wrapping up that work Sept. 23.

They will present their findings and recommendations in a joint public meeting to both school boards and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. At that meeting, school board members can choose to endorse their recommendations or make additional comments to be included in the final report delivered to the General Assembly.

“This topic is really important to our community. It’s a very big, complex topic. And I think we’re just trying to be very careful right about how this is presented. We will do our best to make sure that we have the ability to add some comments as this goes before the General Assembly,” Elliot said.

Epic concerns

At the beginning of the school year, BCS administrators changed access for students to Epic, a free digital library geared toward elementary-age students. Parents continue to express frustrations over that change during the public comment portion of board meetings.

“Last spring, this board considered several requests to ban books at the high school level. Whether people agree or disagree with your decisions, the appropriate processes were followed,” Lachlan Lane, impact coordinator for Campaign for Southern Equality (CSE), told the board. “In August, however, the decision to ban not one book but an entire library did not follow these policies. No parent made a complaint. Teachers and media specialists were not consulted. Media and Technology Advisory Committees (MTAC) were not involved. There was no public notice. There was no opportunity for public comment. Even the board of education itself was cut out of the decision making process.”

CSE has launched a letter-writing campaign to ask BCS to reinstate access to Epic.

Six parents and community members spoke out against making Epic unavailable to all students at the Dec. 5 meeting. Several attributed the decision to Moms for Liberty, a national right-wing parental rights group that has been behind a push to remove books about LGBTQ issues and other controversial subjects from school libraries, including in Buncombe County.

Kim Poteat, chair of Buncombe County’s Moms for Liberty branch, said the organization had nothing to do with Epic’s removal.

“Each of you on the school board and the central office knew that the removal effect had nothing to do with moms. Unfortunately, each of you chose not to publicly correct misinformation at the meeting, and in doing so, you unfairly maligned our organization at the November meeting,” she told the board.

Jennifer Reed, associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction, told Xpress after the meeting that Epic is still available to teachers to use in their curriculum, but that the district decided this summer to limit students’ access because of the program’s lack of a filter. That, she said, is within the district’s typical process with digital materials. After receiving blowback from the community, the district decided to bring the digital library before the MTAC committee in November, which sided with the administration’s decision.

When asked why the district didn’t have the MTAC review the change in access to Epic initially, Reed said “this is a unique situation.”

If Epic updates its filtering mechanism, the district will reconsider its decision to limit access, Reed said.