“Today, North Carolina ranks 48th in the country in per-pupil funding ($4,655 below the national average and dead last when it comes to school funding effort).”
![](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/X_letters-480x320.jpg)
“Today, North Carolina ranks 48th in the country in per-pupil funding ($4,655 below the national average and dead last when it comes to school funding effort).”
Even after making some cuts to increased expenditures and allocating $3 million from reserves, the district may need to cut staff to close the $1.2 million budget gap, she said.
The Buncombe County Board of Education is not happy with the direction state legislators are taking in funding schools.
“Putting the city logo on the park is a small but important symbolic gesture letting people know this is a place where they are welcome and that the city supports and cares for this park.”
On June 10, the Asheville City Association of Educators delivered a letter signed by the Parent Teacher Organizations or parent teams from all eight of the district’s schools.
Kate Wargo moved to Asheville in fall 2021 with hopes for a fresh start. Teaching elementary school during the COVID-19 pandemic had left her exhausted, anxious and depressed. “It was the first time I felt dehumanized,” she says of the previous two years teaching fourth grade in Pennsylvania.
For the last year, officials with both Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County have debated what to do with the centrally located, ACS-owned facility on the corner of Haywood Road and Interstate 240. The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners got a plan update at its May 7 briefing meeting.
“The bottom line is that the turnover rate for teachers and the unfilled positions of police officers in Asheville is unacceptable.”
As state funding falls with enrollment and $1 million in COVID-era federal funding ends, the district is facing a $5.7 million gap before new funding requests and projected savings are considered, Superintendent Maggie Fehrman reported to the board April 15.
It’s been 10 years since Asheville City Schools displaced its once successful majority-Black alternative program from its home on Montford Avenue. At least one longtime educator calls that the worst decision the district has made this century.
The biggest sting seemed to be the timing: The dumpster in front the former Asheville Primary School arrived one day after the Asheville City Board of Education board voted to close Montford North Star Academy.
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners voted 5-1 to pay Charlotte-based education consultants Prismatic Services about $300,000 to provide a comprehensive report, including an analysis of the risks and benefits of consolidating Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County Schools.
The possible consolidation of Buncombe County’s two public school districts will get a little more real on Tuesday, March 19.
Anger, fear and tears came spilling out of a tense Asheville City Board of Education meeting March 11 after the school board voted 5-2 to close Montford North Star Academy and send its students to Asheville Middle School next school year. Board members Liza Kelly and James Carter dissented.
Parents are decrying a proposal that Superintendent Maggie Fehrman says could help the district address a projected $4.5 million budget shortfall next school year — merge its two middle schools. Fehrman estimated the merger would save the district $1.8 million to $2.3 million per year.
The Asheville City Board of Education voted unanimously Feb. 12 to make 2% supplement increases permanent, despite a projected $4.5 million budget shortfall in 2024-25.
The Warrior Wellness Center, which opened in fall of 2022, is one of 34 school-based health centers — or SBHCs — operated by Blue Ridge Health around Western North Carolina, and the first of its kind in BCS.
“The charge that PEAK Academy is a racist school makes little sense, given they do accept white students.”
“If you want to keep quality professional educators in the Asheville and Buncombe County public schools, compensation levels for starting teachers need to be $60,000 per annum.”
Asheville City Schools announced in November that the district may have to co-locate or merge its two middle schools, reminding some of the controversial closure of Asheville Primary School in 2021.
The Asheville City Board of Education continues to rewrite its policies in an effort to limit what board members say would be undue harm to LGBTQ+ students caused by the state Parents’ Bill of Rights law passed last year.