The Buncombe County Board of Education passed an increased funding request of $13.5 million from the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners at its May 2 meeting based on a “vast number of assumptions and projections,” according to BCS Chief Financial Officer Tina Thorpe.
The Buncombe County Association of Educators delivered a three-pronged request to the Buncombe County Board of Education at its April 11 meeting that had the support of nearly 1,200 teachers and more than 100 community allies.
Until recently, local school districts had largely avoided the national wave of book bans. Despite some activists making noise in local school board meetings last summer, there had been no formal requests to remove books from school libraries in Asheville City or Buncombe County schools. But by November, 20 books had been challenged by a group of parents at Enka High School.
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.
Where to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with food; a pop-up at Stay Glazed Donuts; the AVL Food Series kicks off; and more.
“Reading here about the new Buncombe County Schools board book ban, I might run for the board instead of the Soil and Water Conservation District in opposition and also to represent childless residents against the parental ‘rights’ dictatorship of sociobiological ideocracy.”
One month after banning a book from all district high schools, the Buncombe County Board of Education unanimously agreed at its March 7 meeting to keep nine others available to students at Enka High School.
“By banning this book, the county schools have just made it very popular and sought after by many students.”
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 ultimate authority in a child’s life is his or her parents. Our schools need to reflect the wishes of those parents.”
“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.”
The Buncombe County Board of Education doesn’t particularly like any of its options for new voting maps, as required by a law the N.C. General Assembly passed last fall. As a result, several attendance zones might see up to 30% of its population reassigned to other districts.
Xpress sits down with both district leaders to break down 2023’s challenges as well as their visions for the year ahead for local public schools.
Pay for educators, equity for underrepresented populations and housing affordability, as well as nationwide inflation, underpinned efforts to improve the quality of life for Asheville-area residents in 2023, as expressed by Xpress’ Year in Review survey of engaged citizens and leaders.
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.
After collecting a month’s worth of feedback from parents, teachers and community members, Board member Rob Elliot said the board did its best to mirror the community’s wishes in the policies while still following state law.
This third-year Asheville public charter school, whose student body is majority Black, has begun to successfully close an achievement gap between white and Black students that has consistently been an issue in Asheville City Schools since it earned a worst-in-the-state designation in 2017.
Representatives from the Asheville-based Campaign for Southern Equality asked board members to slow down approval of policies related to Senate Bill 49 during public comment. They believe the bill contradicts Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination in schools on the basis of gender.
Over $40 million in upgrades could be coming to a number of schools in Asheville and Buncombe County if the request from the School Capital Fund Commission is approved at the Tuesday, Nov. 7, Buncombe County Board of Commissioners meeting.
Across eight serious crime categories reported to the State Bureau of Investigation, Miller reported a 15% decrease from 2021 to 2022 and a 2% decrease from the previous 10-year low, in 2019.
