Asheville City Schools’ March 7 board brief

Press release from Asheville City Schools:

Landed
During March 7’s Special Called Meeting of the Asheville City Board of Education, Dr. Kimberly Dechant, Director of Recruitment and Induction, presented an update on the district’s new partnership with Landed, a personal finance company aimed at bringing new homeownership opportunities to our staff.

Landed’s down payment program is open to ALL Asheville City Schools employees working 20+ hours/week — teachers, staff, and administrators — and is available immediately.  Participants do not need to be first time homebuyers, and there are no income or asset limits needed to qualify.

As the cost of Asheville housing continues to increase, Landed will be a valuable solution in supporting staff hoping to live in the communities they serve.

Essentially, Landed’s down payment program invests alongside employees working in education, government and healthcare to support them in reaching a 20% down payment. Landed funds up to $120,000 per home.  This comes in the form of an equity investment, meaning that homebuyers share in a portion of the gain – or loss, if any – of the value of the home once the partnership is ended — typically by sale or refinance.

Staff, please be on the lookout for additional details from Dr. Dechant.

COVID-19 Update 
April Dockery, Executive Director of Crisis Management and Operations, gave an update on COVID Health & Safety Protocols.  She explained that key updates to the StrongSchoolsNC Public Health Toolkit, which was last revised on Friday, March 4th include:

-In areas with medium or low community rates, it is no longer recommended that Pre-K thru 12th Graders or district faculty and staff wear face coverings.  However, face coverings continue to be recommended in areas with high community rates.
*** At this time, Buncombe County is considered to have medium community rates. ***
-Schools are encouraged to continue to participate in testing programs.
-Schools are encouraged to allow for optional face-coverings.
-Districts are asked to promote the importance of vaccinations and boosters.

Based on these updates, and following continued collaboration with our local health department and school nurses, she recommended making face coverings optional for all staff and students when Buncombe County has a low or medium community level of COVID-19.  Additionally, she asked for the ability to require universal face coverings for staff and students when deemed necessary by our public health officials in circumstances of high community levels that impact our students and staff.  She also shared that despite these updates, it remains the district’s recommendation that staff and students who are immunocompromised and/or have an underlying health condition should continue to wear face coverings.

Face Coverings 
Following these recommendations, the Asheville City Board of Education voted to remove its universal face covering requirements, making masks optional for all students, staff, visitors and volunteers for the foreseeable future.  The motion goes into effect on Monday, March 14th, 2022 and includes all educational settings, including school buses.

In collaboration with public health officials, Asheville City Schools will continue to monitor COVID-19’s impact on our school community.  Should our metrics trend upward, the Board may revise its face covering policy.  This could be done at either a whole district or individual school level based on community positivity rates and their impacting our district.  Per the motion, Superintendent Gene Freeman and administration would have the option to make this decision without a Special Called Board Meeting.

“Universal face coverings have proven an effective mitigation strategy to limiting COVID-19 cases among our students and staff,” said  Superintendent Dr. Gene Freeman.  “But, upon the advice of Buncombe County Health and Human Services, we feel this move best reflects the data and science we currently have.  We will be ready to adjust accordingly should this information change.”

As the district transitions into its next phase of response, we fully recognize that some students and staff will feel most comfortable continuing to wear face coverings.  We support each individual’s decision.  And, bullying of any kind, including taunting an individual’s choice to continue or discontinue wearing face coverings, will not be tolerated.

Over the next few days, Asheville City Schools will revise its training for our COVID Coordinators, as notifications will be slightly different in a mask optional setting.

Asheville City Schools will continue to evaluate and modify Covid-19 policies and procedures as needed per local, state, and federal guidelines and recommendations.  Additionally, per North Carolina General Assembly requirements, the Board will maintain its monthly votes to continue or modify this updated face covering decisions.

Additional information about our revised protocols will be shared as part of Thursday’s Community Update.

School-Based Health Clinic: 
Mrs. Dockery and Tammy Greenwell, Chief Operations Officer at Blue Ridge Public Health, also presented an update on Asheville Middle’s School Based Health Center (SBHC).  Opening this April, AMS will be the first of two schools within Buncombe County to implement a School-Based Health Center.  Housed on the AMS campus, the SBHC  will be a fully functioning health clinic that provides a variety of mental and physical health care services.

Upon its opening, there will be a full-time registered nurse and a part-time physician assistant.  A part-time behavioral health counselor is currently in the process of being hired to support our students.

With an emphasis on risk reduction,  Asheville Middle’s SBHC will:

-Counsel students on healthy habits
-Provide early identification and treatment  injury and disease
-Support behavioral health
-Treat students on-site and quickly so that they can spend more time in class

Primarily, the SBHC will serve Asheville Middle Schools students and families.  AMS faculty and staff (as well as other ACS staff who wish to be seen at the clinic) can also utilize its services.  Community members unaffiliated with Asheville Middle School or the district will NOT be able to utilize the SBHC.

This project was born out of a partnership between Asheville City Schools, Buncombe County Health and Human Services, Buncombe County Schools, Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) and United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County.  After a thorough search process, Blue Ridge Health was chosen to serve as the primary medical provider.

At this time, we anticipate that Blue Ridge Public Health will begin serving students and families on April 11th.  Once open, the SBHC will be seeing patients from 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM each day school is in session.

Answers to frequently asked questions about the SBHC can be found here.

As a reminder, the Board of Education will be hosting its next Regular Meeting on Monday, March 14th in the Board Room located at 85 Mountain Street.  The meeting can also be streamed on the district’s YouTube page.