Letter: Reworking school district lines could help with cancellations

Graphic by Lori Deaton

[Regarding “Draft Report: School Districts Shouldn’t Consolidate,” Jan. 15, Xpress:]

I literally just wrote an email to Asheville Watchdog about the absolutely ridiculous wide swath of the Buncombe County Schools (BSC) system and how it’s resulting in far too many school cancellations for schools that are in the heart of Asheville, such as Oakley Elementary, and how students are being robbed of an education; how it really seems apparent that BCS doesn’t value their education as much as they should.

Meanwhile, according to your article, Oakley Elementary is currently considered a “low-performing school” because  it “earned an overall school performance grade of ‘D’ or ‘F’ and a school growth score of ‘met expected growth’ or ‘not met expected growth’ as defined by state law.” Keeping these kids out of school for no reason isn’t helping one bit, that’s for sure.

What I would like to know is why some of these schools that are very clearly in the heart of Asheville, central Asheville, like Oakley Elementary, have been categorized as a BCS school rather than Asheville City Schools (ACS). It’s quite puzzling. So I don’t believe a full merger is the answer here, but certainly there are a handful of schools that should immediately be changed from BCS to ACS.

Monday, Jan. 13, is a perfect example of how this unilateral cancellation policy makes no sense and is hurting our kids’ education — it was 45 degrees and sunny with all the main roads around Oakley Elementary clear, and our kids weren’t allowed to be in school! Because there were icy roads miles away in say, Black Mountain or Barnardsville, kids who actually live in central Asheville, where there were no icy roads impeding, also had school cancelled.

Since all the missed school due to COVID-19, I believe it’s extra important to make sure these kids get to school every single day; it’s imperative for their learning and socialization. Apparently, the BCS system feels differently, and it’s become apparent that they might not value our kids’ education as much as they should.

The BCS system is simply far too wide, and as locals, we’re aware that it might be snowy and icy 15 minutes from the heart of Asheville and not at all in Asheville proper. BCS is fully aware of the flaws in this system and yet does nothing year after year to address it.

On another equally important note, the Buncombe County Board of Education voted Oct. 18 to count the 19 days that our students missed due to the hurricane as completed school days. Just cuz.

I’m incredibly sick of it and how detrimental it is to our kids’ education. I’ve spoken with school officials about it previously, and it’s culminating this year with already way too many cancellations after 19 missed days of school due to Helene. At this writing, just in the last five school days, from Tuesday, Jan. 7, through Monday, Jan. 13, our kids have missed three out of those five school days and had at least one day with a two-hour delay.

I don’t believe that enough parents are aware of this nonsense, and they need to be made aware. I can only imagine there’s a large handful of parents who are outraged with all the unnecessary school cancellations around here and want something done about it immediately.

— Sam Katz
Asheville

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