Some parents have made frequent appearances at school board meetings to argue that various books — usually related to sexual health or depicting LGBTQ+ students and families — don’t belong in libraries accessible to children. The latest edition of Xpress’s WTF — “Want the Facts?” — series looks at the policies and procedures that determine how books are chosen for school and county libraries.
Board Chair George Sieburg said board members wanted to explore how to show support to teachers and students in the policies beyond what has been provided by the N.C. School Boards Association.
The Asheville City Board of Education voted 6-1 at its Nov. 20 meeting to commission an enrollment and capacity study from California-based Cooperative Strategies without seeking competing bids, and started a conversation about the need to consider consolidating some of its schools.
Representatives from the Asheville-based Coalition for Southern Equality, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, asked board members at their Oct. 9 meeting to hold off on changing policies related to the recently passed Parents’ Bill of Rights while legal experts analyze how districts should implement the law.
The metric, drafted by Superintendent Maggie Fehrman, will focus on her progress in three categories: strategic plan development; strategic facilities planning; and leader accountability, transparency, governance and policy.
Amidst meetings with principals, administrative staff, board members and various ACS stakeholders over her first month on the job, Fehrman developed a three-pronged promise to “help focus and bring people together” in the upcoming school year.
The Asheville City Board of Education voted 6-1 to enter into an annual contract for the fiscal year starting July 1 with Chartwells, a subsidiary of Compass Group USA, at a special called meeting June 29.
The Asheville City Board of Education approved budget recommendations that include a 7% increase to each pay level for certified staff, which include teachers, and starting pay for all hourly employees, including bus drivers and custodial workers, to $20 per hour.
Summit Search Solutions described itself in its proposal as a “boutique” search firm that specializes in education.
Mountain City Public Montessori is projected to open for kindergarten through 6th grade in August.
The new nine-member board will include two residential water customers, one commercial customer, one emergency response or disaster relief professional, two communications professionals and three experts on public water systems.
Asheville City Council will consider establishing an “independent review committee to analyze the events and circumstances leading up to, and throughout the duration of, the recent prolonged water outage.” The group would evaluate Asheville’s emergency response, identify infrastructure needs and recommend policy changes to make the city more resilient.
The Winter Safe Shelter program at Asheville Primary School, as explained by Counterflow Asheville, will prioritize families, LGBTQ people and residents who are Black, Indigenous or people of color. The shelter plans to operate nightly through the end of March, housing up to 10 people per night with space for another 10 support staff on site.
Two people speaking during public comment revealed brewing tensions around critical race theory and sexuality education in the Asheville City Schools district.
Complete Democratic control of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, a better-than-expected performance by Jasmine Beach-Ferrara and $70 million in new spending for county initiatives all emerged from this year’s midterm election results.
“What makes Miri’s candidacy unique and important is that as a board member, she will fight to include and highlight the students’ ideas and voices.”
“His vision and ideas encompass every student, including those not college bound who still benefit from support and well-rounded education in preparing for their future.”
“The video is a bit long, but by jumping around within the video, it does not take long to find an image of these candidates. This aspect of the election is very important.”
“Pepi has been a strong voice for special-needs students, for closing the achievement gap, raising teacher pay and expanding enrollment to balance the budget.”
In preparation for the 2022 general election of Tuesday, Nov. 8, Xpress sent questions to all candidates in contested local races representing Buncombe County voters. Responses from candidates for the N.C. General Assembly, Buncombe County-level races, Asheville city government and local school boards are all collected here.
Candidates in the Asheville City Board of Education 2022 general election share their positions with Xpress.
