A new play for children, It’s Just a Pill, premiered at A-B Tech’s Ferguson Auditorium on March 8. The 55-minute musical confronts the opioid epidemic from the perspective of a 10-year-old girl. The production will now travel around North Carolina to reach over 4,000 young people.
With James Lee opting out mid-term to take a job in another state, Asheville City Council will soon select at least one new member to serve on a board that will be compelled to turn the ship around. Two other members, Martha Geitner and board Chair Shaunda Sandford, are completing their first terms on the board and seeking reappointment. Meanwhile, in a process that will play out in the coming weeks, 11 other community members have applied to be appointed.
The 2019 Appalachian Studies Association conference returns to Asheville after 27 years. The annual gathering brings together an eclectic mix of scholars, educators, activists, students, groups and institutions to discuss and present on a wide range of topics related to life in the region.
“I think you can see by the turnout here, the phone calls to City Council, our emails, our response, that Vance in general — I don’t speak for every parent here or every student — does not feel like this is a win-win,” said Vance parent Marissa Brooks at the Feb. 27 meeting.
Jason Carter’s creative instructional attitude recently earned him the honor of being named a Teacher Ambassador by the California-based National Center for Science Education. Along with nine colleagues from across the country, he will help develop, test and deploy a curriculum that addresses climate change denial.
Commissioners voted 4-3 to approve a plan that dedicates $3.13 million in Article 46 tax revenues in fiscal year 2020 for capital expenses at the college. The money would keep coming in each of the next seven years, increasing 5.5 percent annually to account for anticipated increases in construction costs. The county would also cap transfers from Article 46 tax revenue to the general fund at $5 million and would limit the use of that money to operations at A-B Tech.
The A-B Tech Board of Trustees accepted a compromise earlier this month that would enable the college to address a $25 million maintenance backlog using yearly payments from revenue generated by a quarter-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2011. Commissioners will consider the proposal during their meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 19.
Nearly 67 percent of surveyed businesses expected to grow their workforce over the next three years, representing up to 26,700 new jobs for the region. The manufacturing and hospitality industries anticipated the largest hiring booms — up to 7,556 and 6,618 jobs, respectively — but all sectors planned for at least some expansion.
The A-B Tech Board of Trustees and Buncombe County are in the early stages of a compromise plan for the use of sales tax revenue for maintenance, capital and operating costs at the college.
What would you do if you had superpowers for a day? Xpress wants to know! Submit student art, essays and poems by this Friday, Feb. 8, to be considered for the 2019 Kids Issues.
Five Citizen Times journalists were among dozens laid off across the company by Gannett Co. Radio station BPR announced a new development director, while Xpress added two new editorial staffers.
“Our data tells us that we are doing a disservice to our black students, and you can’t say it any plainer than that,” said Shaunda Sandford, chair of the Asheville City Board of Education.
Local nonprofit Just Economics increased its living wage rates for 2019. For those employees not offered employer-sponsored health insurance benefits, the new hourly rate is $13.65; for those offered health insurance, the new hourly rate is $12.15.
What would you do if you had superpowers for a day? Xpress wants to know! Submit student art, essays and poems by Feb. 8 to be considered for the 2019 Kids Issues.
Each year, Xpress publishes the thoughtful, vibrant and engaging creative work of Western North Carolina K-12 students, along with listings of local and regional summer camps. The 2019 theme is “24-hour Superpowers” and the submission deadline is Friday, Feb. 8.
For every Go Local Card purchased, half of the $18 price goes directly to Asheville City Schools. In 2018, this amounted to $26,000.
Over the protests of Republicans, who felt the allotment was too large and would put a burden on taxpayers, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners approved a multimillion dollar investment in early childhood education on Oct. 30.
The African Americans in Western North Carolina and Southern Appalachia Conference will take place Oct. 18-20 in Asheville. The theme this year is “Making the invisible visible.”
Editor’s note: All of the candidates for Buncombe County Board of Education are running in different districts and are unopposed. They are not running against one another. For the sake of concise organization Xpress is listing them together. All voters in Buncombe County School Districts will see all the candidates on their ballots. Pat Bryant […]
In this week’s news in brief, read about the Sunday, Sept. 30, event that promises to help you get more engaged in shaping city government. Learn which Buncombe County teachers won top honors, and check out the initial results of Warren Wilson College’s initiative to offer all eligible incoming North Carolina students four years of tuition-free education.
On Tuesday, Sept. 25, historian and author Christopher Arris Oakley will discuss his latest book, New South Indians: Tribal Economics and the Eastern Band of Cherokee in the Twentieth Century at UNCA.
