001meet. The app The app [clears throat] states Sonny won the triple jump after hitting 39 ft 7.75 in and won the long jump with 18 ft and 3.5 in. That's That's pretty impressive. Sophie Alexander ran WNC's fastest time in both the 1600 and the 3200 m at the 6A State Championship meet, the Virginia Tech Sonny, go Hokies, finished third in the 1600 race and second in the 3200 race. Zion Baxter won the state title in the long jump with a mark of 22 ft 7 in and also had a season best of 22 ft 11.75 in. Baxter Baxter also won the state triple jump title and one and was one of WNC's best sprinters. Are any of our track stars here this evening? Probably at practice. Okay, if you see any of those three individuals,
002give them a huge shout out and a big jump. We celebrated assistant principals week this month. Um thank you to our outstanding assistant principal crew for going above and beyond in all they do to support our students and staff from helping support the principals in running the building to transportation to behavior. As a former AP, it's like having a bunch of plates circling around you and trying to make sure you don't drop any of those plates. Um if any of our assistant principals are here this evening, which I see some, if you'll stand up at this time and be recognized. >> [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> At this time, we are going to hear from Samuel Crow, president of the SAVE club at Asheville High and SILSA, and Julie Noblett from Asheville Middle School who are
003going to talk to us about the Students Against Violence Everywhere club and share some of the great things that are happening at both of those at both Asheville Middle School, SILSA, and Asheville High. You guys want to talk? Sure. Yeah, I feel like everybody should say something. Can you guys hear me all right? Okay. Hello, everyone. My name is Sam and I'm the president of the SAVE Promise club at um Asheville High and SILSA. Um SAVE stands for Students Against Violence Everywhere and our goal is to empower and support student leaders in preventing violence within our school community. Some of the things we've done this year include setting up a booth in our cafeteria to raise awareness about gun violence. Students were able to stop by, have conversations about the way to prevent gun violence,
004and learn through setting aware support awareness through see something, say something reporting system. We also handed out orange ribbons as a symbol of support for ending gun violence and many students wore orange that day to show their support. The booth helped encourage students to become more informed so we could work towards preventing it in the future. Another event we organized was Trusted Adult Day. During this activity, students wrote the names of trusted adults on cutout paper hands, which we added to a large poster. This was an important activity because it encouraged students to think about whether they have someone at school they can trust and feel comfortable going to for support. We identified 80 trusted adults at Asheville High School. Hi, I'm Julie Noblett. I am the staff sponsor for the SAVE club at Asheville
005Middle and um we were have explored the positive and negative impacts of social media and self-care. They made little self-care pencils, positive affirmations, give and take, and then their favorite activity, everyone's favorite activity was the trusted adult, um identifying a trusted adult in the building, and then the students wrote about it, and then um I gifted the what students said to the staff who were then like immediately touched and tearful about being uh safe space for students cuz that's important to all of us. So, thank you. >> [applause] >> Let's Thank you for everything you're doing to make our schools safe. >> [applause] >> Last week, we had um the pleasure of hosting representative Brian Turner at Asheville High School and SILSA. Uh Dr. Gibbs and Mr. Edwards joined us in Copeland for a tour
006of the schools and the alumni center where representative uh Turner was able to find his mother in the 1961 yearbook, which was a real treat. Um but we also had a chance for representative Turner to talk to some of our teachers. And um in putting our teachers on the spot, we asked them, "What are the things that you would like for uh representative Turner to take back to Raleigh during the short session?" And it was consistent across the board, res- restoring master's pay, adequately funding public education, oh my gosh, and pay pay increases for teachers. So, um just want to let you know that he we are bringing representatives into our schools over the next couple of weeks to tour and to talk to them about what our needs are in Asheville City Schools and
007all of the things we have to celebrate as well. And so with that, as always, I leave you with be a champion for public schools. Follow us on Asheville City Schools on Instagram and Facebook. Tonight, as I always say, is just a small sampling of all the amazing, outstanding teaching and learning that takes place in this school district every single day. As Dr. Furman would say, you can get it all in Asheville City Schools. We have We have school choice and we have lots of options for all children. So, thank you for everything that all the educators do in the room and that concludes great news. >> [applause] >> Thank you for that great news. At this time on the agenda, we have an update from our school nutrition folks, uh Kristen Teckel and Melissa
008Allen. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board, Dr. Furman. Uh I am not listed on your agenda. My name is Aaron Propes. I'm the area director for Chartwells. I'm a surprise guest, apparently. Uh Melissa has joined me and our first slide tonight is the introduction of Kristen Teckel. Kristen joined our team in February. Kristen is a North Carolina not native necessarily, but spent a great deal of time here in North Carolina, so she's returning to her roots. Uh she brings with her 10 years of K-12 experience. She came to us from the Napa Valley Unified School District all the way in California, so she switched coasts. She is an App State grad uh dietitian and an AB Tech graduate with a culinary arts degree. So, we're happy to have Kristen join our team. Wanted
009to take a little bit of time just to give you a snapshot of what we've been doing in school nutrition over this school year. So, something new that we started this year was a limited-time offer campaigns. So, currently we are wrapping up Bloom into Breakfast. So, that happened May 2nd through May 1st. >> [snorts] >> We invite students to start their day with vibrant, nutritious meals that fuel growth and brighten their mornings. Featured items such as breakfast bowls, yogurt parfaits, chorizo breakfast burrito, pancake puffs, and more. Up next will be Foodie Fest, so focusing on festival-themed foods. So, we're going to be featuring things like a Sonoran street-style hot dog, a chicken gyro, and a chicken parmesan wrap. Good evening, members of the board, Dr. Furman, and thank you, Aaron, for the introduction. As you
010mentioned, I started in February and hit the ground running. We had um as you're all probably aware, the district professional development day on March 3rd. So, we hosted our own in our department and it was a hands-on culinary skills uh based training. So, staff got into the kitchen and we tested a bunch of granola recipes. Um it was really a great way um to start off here to see how um much pride the staff take into their work and I think they had a great time. So, that was fun. We tasted a bunch of different granolas and um just discussed and talked about um cooking techniques, ingredients, so on. Um and that was a great time. And then we have also relaunched our school nutrition social media page, so please follow us, shout out. Um
011this is just a great way to showcase the hard work of the school nutrition staff. They do so many cool things across all seven schools. So, whenever I'm out, I'm just snapping photographs of what they're doing. Um it's a great way for the staff also to connect and see what their co-workers are doing at their schools. Oh, they rolled their uh enchiladas like this, that's a great idea, and of course families and students um can see what's going on as well. So, in November of last year, a select group of districts that work with Chartwells were enrolled in the school report card survey. We gathered data with the help of the district. We were able to get 259 people to respond to the survey. Of those Oh my goodness, my percentages are all goofed up.
012I can't read them there. The majority of the respondents were parents. That would be the red in the circle there. We did not get a lot of feedback from students, so we are focused on getting that feedback now to help us guide our menus for next year. Parent feedback is obviously very crucial, but the kiddos are the ones that we're here to take care of and we want to make sure that we're getting those things on the menu that they want to see. Got a lot of feedback from that survey. At the risk of making this an eye chart slide, I kind of just took some snapshots. So, you'll see the key at the bottom. The numbers I'm going to focus on are in blue. Those are the responses that are specific to Asheville City
013Schools. So, alternatives to eating school breakfast, 57% of the respondents are eating breakfast at home, while 48% of the respondents are skipping breakfast all together. Obviously, we want to encourage more of that. Kristen and I have discussed some ways that we can work with administrators at the individual schools, especially at this time of year when we're still planning for next year. So, if we're looking at alternative modes of service, be it second chance breakfast, be it breakfast in the classroom, there's time now to work that into the planning to make that work for everybody. Alternatives to lunch, we had 58 respondents say they bring lunch from home. 42% said they skip lunch, but that's 100% and I know we have kids eating in school, so I need to get some clarification on those numbers. As
014far as breakfast satisfaction goes, I did capture the two largest respondents. 45% said they were neutral to the breakfast satisfaction. 27% said they were somewhat satisfied. The remaining covered very satisfied, very dissatisfied, somewhat dissatisfied. Those were 9% each, equally spread. In terms of lunch satisfaction, we saw a huge uptick and 52% were somewhat satisfied. 13% were neutral. 13% were also very satisfied. 13% were somewhat dissatisfied and thankfully only 9% were very dissatisfied. So, those are positive numbers. Overall, we are seeing that 12.5% of the students enrolled in Asheville City Schools are eating breakfast and 31.2% are eating lunch. Um We have two schools that are over 40% participation at breakfast. That would be Hall Fletcher and Ira B. Jones. And then we had Isaac Dickson and Lucy Herring are both over 25% for breakfast. So,
015we're seeing positive improvement in those areas. Kristen will talk about the specific improvements we've seen here in just a moment. At lunch, we have three schools at over 60% participation, being Ira B. Jones, Hall Fletcher and Lucy S. Herring. And then we have three more that are over 50%. That would be Asheville Middle School, Claxton Elementary and Isaac Dickson Elementary. So, again, we are seeing some very positive numbers coming in in the number of students that are choosing to participate. Just to give you a rough idea, the snapshot for February, we're serving over 1,800 lunches per day and over 700 breakfast per day. Our totals for February were 39,000 plus meals served. In terms of our overall reimbursements, we are currently seeing 71.7% of our breakfast claims being reimbursed at the free reimbursement rate and
01669.9% of our lunch reimbursement rates. And then again, just as a snapshot, I provided what those breakfast and lunch rates are currently for this school year. All right, so this is a busy slide. Um but the main takeaway I'll explain. So, this this graph looks at each individual school site and it compares data from last school year to this school year. So, it shows you percent change. So, um this is breakfast only and the takeaway is that there's been increase at every single site. So, that's great. Um Yeah, that's that is great. Um with the biggest increases happening at Isaac Dickson, Miss Pearly's school, and Lucy Herring and Ira B. Jones. So, that is where the largest percent change in breakfast participation is showing. And this is for the month of February, data from the
017month of February. And then the same um same concept but lunch from the month of February, percent change from last school year to this school year. And again, the takeaway is we're seeing growth in participation. And the biggest increases are at Lucy Herring, Isaac Dickson again and Ira B. Jones. So, Nobody likes to close school for weather or for any other reasons, but it is a reality that we have to deal with. In terms of the 7 days that we missed, we missed the opportunity to serve 5,300 breakfasts and approximately 13,000 lunches. That equates to roughly $57,000 in revenue that we were not able to realize. Um Asheville City School staff are allowed to use their personal leave time during that time, so those were resulted in a little over $21,000 in payroll costs that
018were um essentially uncovered because we lost the revenue. Um so, you see in the box there, impact of new policies as roughly $80,000 for this particular school year. And I'll add on to what he said. I always like to explain school nutrition programs as a restaurant. Our revenue comes from our customers, our students. So, if you just imagine we're probably the largest restaurant in Asheville, right? And so, that is the only way we our department gets funding is through the students, our customers coming in and eating with us. Um so, what's next? May 1st is School Lunch Hero Day. Um I'm aware that school might not be in well, is not in session that day. So, if anybody would like to celebrate your school nutrition staff all week, they love getting little notes and messages
019from students. Just a simple sign saying thank you brings so much joy to their day. So, we look forward to celebrating them as well on School Lunch Hero Day, May 1st. April is Waste Warrior Month. Um so, we featured a broccoli slaw recipe today on the menu, which is a way to utilize the stalk of the broccoli, therefore preventing it from, you know, getting wasted. So, hopefully the kids enjoyed it or were at least adventurous and tried something new, the broccoli slaw. And um this time of year we're already planning next year's menu. So, as Aaron mentioned, checking in with kids, checking in with the staff and getting their feedback and incorporating all of those new ideas and concepts into the menu. So, we're excited to you know, finish this year with a bang and
020already looking forward to next school year. And I think that is it. So, Yeah. Looking at that chart of improvements year over year, I do want to shout out Silsa at plus and Claxton at plus 11.02% who were also had huge improvements. And I I did have a question about what the new policy was um on your slide about the impact of weather days. Uh I'll I'll address that since I added that to the slide. I really appreciate all the work that Melissa, Kristen, Aaron put into this presentation. They've been doing a lot of work to try to get those numbers up and working with staff on training and it's been really showing up big when we see the numbers presenting like that. Um Every time, like they said, inclement weather does drive the revenue
021side of that equation, but this year there the MCC policy that was passed that the school nutrition employees could get paid to do remote work on those inclement weather days, those were largely going to be no pay days in the schedule. So, when they were no longer no pay days, obviously then we had a an associated payroll cost with us. Thank you very much for supporting our employees with our your employees with that new policy. Um just a shout out to our track people who came in in the back. WE SEE YOU. >> [cheering] [applause] >> OKAY. UM THANK YOU OKAY, I THINK THAT'S all for the nutrition folks, and we greatly appreciate your report. Thank you. I think we're going to have a quick photo op with our famous track people. Before public comment.
022Thanks. And I'd like to note the tie-in between good school nutrition and excellent athletes. All goes together. Okay. At [clears throat] this time, we're going to move to public comment on our agenda. Uh the Board of Education greatly appreciates your interest in Asheville City Schools. We welcome your comments to the board. Please be mindful of guidelines in policy 2310. Personnel and student matters are confidential and are not appropriate for public comment. If you have a concern about an employee or a student matter, please contact or see the superintendent after the meeting. Um so, we have uh several folks up and the first one is Julie Noblitt. And you will have 3 minutes. Okay. Now, okay, can you hear me? Okay, great. Oh, I'm all nervous. All right. Hi, my name is Julie Noblitt. I am
023the only media coordinator at Asheville Middle. Last year, I lost my co-librarian when she became concerned about the stability of her position, took a job elsewhere, and the position was not filled. Additionally, my digital lead teacher was moved into a district role as digital coach. So, the Asheville Middle School library went from having three student-facing positions to one. Mount Whiteside was able to squeeze a district media tech assistant from other schools, so now I have less than a half-time media assistant supporting me. Uh we have more students at AMS than we have during my 8-year 10-years, and less support than ever. So, I have to say no to staff and students in a lot of ways that I used to say yes. No, you cannot send a student to borrow a Chromebook and take a
024test in the library. I don't have supervision available. No, I cannot chaperone your field trip, otherwise the library has to close. No, I you can't stay in the library during movement or recess. Um there's no supervision. No, you can't bring your class to the library. We already have another class booked, and even though we have two classroom spaces, we only have one media coordinator to support you. No, I can't pull a small group for intervention. No, you can't send individual students for checkout. No, I don't have time. I'm not here to complain. I love my job. Uh the library is the hub for a sense of belonging at Asheville Middle School, and I get to be the curator. I work hard to learn the name of every student in the building and build relationships with
025each student. And I'm here today to advocate for the Asheville High School and SILSA uh media center to keep their second media coordinator position. I don't think the people in this room realize just how squeezed the media tech department was last year. Asheville Middle and William Randolph both lost media coordinator positions, as well as Asheville High lost their full-time media assistant last year. Additionally, the DLTs were pulled from one student-facing position at each school to five digital coaches for the district to share. The media coordinators have to spread themselves even thinner to make up for that loss. I know this is a nationwide trend. I know this is a state trend. It doesn't make it right. There's too much academic data supporting the positive impact of a school library media program to ignore. The Asheville
026High and uh Asheville High and SILSA need at least two media coordinators to support their students and staff. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Julie. Um we'll now call on Jackson Shaw. And you have 3 minutes. Hello. My name is Jackson Shaw, and I will be speaking on the same issue. Um this past semester, I got the absolutely wonderful opportunity to be the librarian assistant for Ms. Capp and Ms. Mills, the two full-time media coordinators at Asheville High. Uh Ms. Capp actually asked me to come here and speak on this topic tonight. Uh I spent that period in the library learning about the library processes. Uh I definitely have a long-term appreciation for libraries, literacy, and the value of that in our communities, but I was still struck by the level of intent, care,
027and involvement that these librarians offer for us. Our librarians at Asheville High are always supportive, present, and educated. They create and update displays on Indigenous Peoples Month, Black History Month, Band Books Week, and more. They acknowledge and work on dismantling the inherent racism in the Dewey Decimal System. They cultivate a catalog that houses resources on any and every issue that a teenager could face, and I have seen people check out those books for support. Each of these cements the library as an accepting, inclusive space that is crucial for young people. And that's just one aspect of our librarians. They also teach classes on media literacy and ethical AI use and professionalism. They beautify the physical space, and I haven't even touched on their wonderful personalities. I know that my life has been changed by the
028humor, intelligence, and empathy present in the Asheville High Library. However, all of this im- impact comes directly from the effect of at least two librarians. The educational ventures of our librarians are only possible when one can run the circulation desk and one can teach. Every freshman English class visits our library in September. Without at least two, those classes won't have anywhere to go, and that support will unfortunately most likely fall through. It goes without saying that the best part of ACS is the people, and I've seen that again and again, but we won't create the impact that we want without supporting the staff as well as the students. For every grade to come, and there were a lot of them in here earlier, I please ask y'all to invest in our library and keep at
029least two of those positions. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Jackson. At this time, I'll call on Brian Head. Hi. Uh my name is Brian Head. I am a resident of Asheville, a graduate of Asheville High, and a former high school English teacher. I'd like to speak briefly about the value of our library staff here at Asheville City Schools. This past year, I left teaching high school English after 5 years to pursue a career in law. What made me feel like I'd be able to keep doing meaningful work as an attorney is that my law school curriculum is entirely structured around social justice and public service. As a part of this curriculum, I've worked for the last 9 months on a project meant to reduce the access to justice gap in Washington, D.C. The
030justice gap is the name for all of the things that make it really hard for many Americans, especially those with low incomes, to access legal support when they need it. Thankfully, we were not asked to fix the justice gap. Instead, we were asked by our school to support the people already doing that work. Turns out, those people were D.C.'s public librarians. Our faculty of attorneys and legal scholars recognized that a library system is a necessary and well-positioned positioned agent in the fight for equity. We found that this is true for lots of reasons. Notably, librarians are widely accessible to the public. They are some of the most trusted institutions within communities. And librarians are trained to distill messy, incomplete questions or complaints into material resources for those in need. From a public policy perspective, that
031is essentially magic. So, last August, my colleagues and I were asked to simply make it easier for librarians in the district to continue to do all the things that they are already exceptionally good at. It was meaningful work. And to me, it proved that any serious effort to increase access to justice, to education, or any societal need should look at librarians as a critical piece of that mission. It should be expanding access to librarians in any way we can, and when it's hard to do that, at a minimum, it should be shoring up the positions and resources that are currently in place. Now, because most of my friends are also teachers in the area, and because I am a nerd, I was so excited to share everything I learned with people here in town who
032are doing important equity work for our community. This is how I learned that librarians working in public schools here are working towards similar outcomes as those in DC. On top of everything they already do to meet the needs of both students and teachers, when a student doesn't know the type of support they need, librarians triage whatever it is they do know into material support. Again, magic. This board has paid a lot of earnest attention to issues of access for our students over the last few years and I'm so so grateful for that. I'm here just to provide a little context as to why this mission of improving outcomes for our students required this board and all of us to continue its support for the work librarians do here at ACS now and in the future.
033Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Um next is Will Smith. My name is Will Smith, an Asheville City resident and taxpayer. My husband, Ryan Williams, chose to teach in ACS until 3 years ago. Our son has grown up in these schools. I've taught at the high school for 20 years under six superintendents. I've taught some of your kids and worked with many of you. But I've never felt compelled to give public comment until tonight. I'm frustrated that we are facing yet another staffing cut at Asheville High SILSA with Dr. Furman's decision not to hire a replacement for one of our two media coordinators. This creates a discrepancy with the staffing allotment formula that was approved by the board last year. It also doesn't meet the language of one media specialist per school since our campus serves
034over 1,200 Asheville High and SILSA students. Dr. Furman has tried to justify this cut by writing, quote, "Two media coordinators is an anomaly. I have not found one campus the size of AHS SILSA with two full-time media coordinators." End quote. I suspect that's true. In my research, I've not found one campus in our region that has a nationally ranked speech and debate team. I've not found one campus with two band directors of what is perhaps the best high school band in the state. I've not found one campus that offers the depth and breadth of the AP and elective courses offerings across CTE, arts, and core subjects. I hesitate to give these examples of what makes our district exceptional for fear that these will be the next resources, these other anomalies, that will be cut in
035our district's new and misguided austerity policies. Since we are one of the most highly resourced districts in the state with a disproportionately high fund balance, we need a yes and approach. Yes, rehire our media coordinator and fund elementary reading coaches. Yes, offer retention bonuses and fund EC instructional assistants. Is continuing to cut positions the way to build our district's competitiveness and increase student enrollment? I'd like to believe we can have it all in Asheville City Schools. You can make it a reality for my son and for all the students that follow. Please do not vote to approve a budget that includes this cut. Let's fully fund both high school media center coordinators to serve our two schools on campus. Thank you for your service to our students and our staff. >> [applause] >> Thank you,
036Will. Um next is Christina Shimrak. And Christina, you're speaking on behalf of a group, so you have 5 minutes should you wish to take 5 minutes. I usually go over, so I guess that's good. Okay, good evening. My name is Christina Shimrak and I have a fourth grader at Claxton and a rising kindergartner. I'm a member of Families of Asheville City Schools, FACTS, and I'm also the community organizer for ACA and BCA. So, tonight we all showed up. Parents, board members, teachers, students, and staff showed up because we care. We care deeply about this community. We care deeply about our kids. The work can be messy, thankless, all-consuming, and yet we keep showing up behind the steering wheel of a bus, on the carpet with our legs crossed, book in hand, behind a podium speaking,
037fighting for the future. The future of our kids, of this district, and of public education here in North Carolina and the US. We show up because we refuse to let it fail our kids. Our staff led the way by organizing and boldly putting in a day to use their voices loud and clear in Raleigh on May 1st. Our district listened and responded by making the difficult decision to close, yet communicating its importance to meet the moment. FACTS is grateful for this leadership and advocacy from all of our teachers, staff, and in central office. As you may know, FACTS's mission is to fight to fight to celebrate and defend public education, and there is no greater time in North Carolina to defend public education when we are dead last in funding, dead last in investing in
038public education, and we're dead last in investing in our kids. one of our values in FACTS is that democracy is not a spectator sport, and on May 1st we all have the opportunity to step up in many ways alongside our our educators and our neighbors. So, there are five opportunities that I want to share with you all tonight. First, you can be a part of the community art build this Saturday at Hawk Creek Commons from 12:30 to 5 uh 3:30 to create protest art signs. There's going to be DJ, food. It's to celebrate, um but it's an opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with our educators creating art. Secondly, you can go to Raleigh on May 1st to join thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people fighting in the streets of Raleigh, fighting for
039the future of public education, so the kids over corporations. Um day May Day of uh May 1st Day of Action. Third, we know not everyone can go to Raleigh on May 1st, but you can celebrate public education here. On May 1st you can attend one of the seven community feasts that will be happening all around the city. It's being organized by more than 25 organizations. There's going to be one at MLK, at Jake Rusher Park, Trinity Methodist Church in West Asheville, and many more. So, if you'd like to volunteer, we have opportunities for that as well. It's all going to be on our website. Fourth, head to Pack Square on on May 1st. You might not be able to march in Raleigh, but you can march here. You can stand shoulder to shoulder with people
040who want to fight for the future of this community, for public education. Bring your kids, use your voices loud and clear. And fifth is to show up and pay attention. If you're watching, you're already doing that, but that also means showing up to the strategic planning town hall, which has on the 28th from the 6:00 to from 6:00 to 8:00, and that is a way that we can make sure that we are using our voices to make sure that we want the future of of Asheville City Schools to head in the direction that is best for all kids in this district. Thank you so much. Thank you, Christina. Next is Bailey Griffith. Hi, everyone. Uh good evening. Uh sometimes it feels like you are on attack from all sides. Um so, there are a lot
041of things I could be speaking on, but I I want to take a moment to talk with you about librarians. I'm the librarian at Claxton Elementary. I love my job and all the librarians that I work with love their jobs, too, and that's pretty amazing. Um I want to share with you, or hopefully remind you, the valuable and direct impact that our school library and our librarians have on students. That's academically and emotionally. We're all passionate about reading and the power of story and the ethical use of information, but our jobs expand beyond that. Like specialists, we see and teach all the students in our school. I teach 417 students at Claxton each week. My companions at other schools teach all of their students, as well. Like academic coaches, we support teachers with resources. We
042support lesson planning. We help share the load of teaching the critical academic standards to all students. Like instructional assistants, we support directly in the classroom. We have lunch duty. We run intervention groups. We help with dismissal and arrival. And on top of that, we run and manage the library program. We organize school-wide events, book fairs, author visits. We manage the budget. We organize the whole library and curate all of the resources. We build community from within our library and our school. School librarians in this district work incredibly hard to support students in all of these roles and we are immediately affected by cuts to digital lead teachers that were student facing, to the tech department, to media assistants. That affects our jobs. And it feels like we're on attack under attack from all sides, from
043a budget standpoint, from a censorship standpoint, for being viewed as doing harmful work. I want to use my time today to urge the board to consider the valuable role of school librarians in our school and our community. I ask you to make it a priority to maintain these positions throughout the district, particularly at Asheville High and SILSA. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Bailey. Um, our last speaker is Jana Huckma and she is speaking on behalf of ACEAE and has 5 minutes. Hi, my name is Jana Huckma and I'm actually speaking for two reasons because I am the school librarian at Hall Fletcher Elementary. So, I'm here to speak tonight also about libraries and ask the district to preserve and continue funding for our school library services. Our school libraries are essential assets that
044provide measurable academic and social benefits to ACS students. For many introverted learners, the library offers a quiet, supportive environment in which their passion for reading can develop without requiring public expression. I and my fellow librarians serve as skilled book matchmakers for promoting reading for pleasure and guiding students to texts that align with their interests. An approach that strengthens reading comprehension and expands vocabulary across all grade levels. Library instruction begins in our early grades with our little kindergarteners and preschoolers and builds progressively. Even our young students receive training in locating, evaluating, and using information responsibly. In the middle grades that I teach, we explicitly address the importance of source evaluation and teach citation practices for research and presentations. These skills are foundational to digital literacy, academic integrity, and college and career readiness. Beyond academics, the library
045functions as a critical venue for social and emotional learning. It provides an alternative, calming community space where students can regulate emotions, seek comfort, and refocus. For these reasons, the targeted literacy support, scaffolded information literacy instruction, and a unique contribution to students' social emotional health, I recommend working to restore funding levels for library staffing, materials, and programming. Continued investment will directly support student achievement, lifelong learning skills, and a safe school climate. I am also here to talk to you on behalf of ACEAE. As a union, we wanted to express our gratitude to the district for the announcement last Friday that ACS will be closed on May 1st. The Kids Over Corporations campaign is a statewide movement that is only just beginning and we appreciate Central Office's clear communication around both our goals and what has led
046educators from across North Carolina to take action this spring. Year after year, we watch as funds are funneled into vouchers and tax breaks for the ultra-rich. And as Christina has mentioned earlier, NC is now ranked dead last in public school funding in the nation. And the General Assembly has promised to bring the corporate tax rate to 0% by 2030. So, we had to ask, if not now, when? As of last Friday, Guilford, Chapel Hill, Chatham County schools have also committed to close on May 1st and as of about 10 minutes ago, so has Durham. In Asheville, we have confirmed through our organizing structure that at least 45% of school-based staff and over 60% of certified staff have requested personal leave in order to participate in this opportunity to advocate on a statewide level for the
047schools our students deserve. And thousands of staff from across the state are standing united with us at this moment. Thank you for your support. I choose to work in ACS for the diverse climate and because the library program works to make it accessible to all students. And I am proud to work with so many ACS coworkers who have tremendous passion and commitment to our students. I hope you join us in the streets on May 1st, whether in Raleigh or here locally. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Jana. And that concludes our public comment. Thanks to everybody for being here. Okay, board members, next on our agenda is our consent items. You will see draft minutes from our work session on March 2nd, closed session minutes from March 2nd, minutes from our regular meeting on
048March 9th, minutes from our special called open meeting on March 19th, and minutes from the special Sorry, that's a duplicate. Um, you'll also see the student releases to Buncombe County, the current fiscal year 26 budget expenditure report and amendment, and last, um, as we discussed last week, is a letter to the county commissioners that Amanda Rigsby has written um, about enforcement around, um, violations involving motorists who unlawfully pass a stopped Asheville City school bus. Um, so all of those are before us on the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? I move that I looked at you first. I was like >> was not looking at you. >> Who's going first? >> Bad. I win. I move that we adopt the, um, that we adopt the consent agenda. Then I guess
049I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Excellent. The consent agenda passes. Um, we have three action items before us tonight and I'm for each one I'm just going to summarize what we did last week and what is in front of us. The first one is a contract and just to remind everybody the, um, there is a fence with a cost of $39,773.50 to be placed in the upper parking lot of Central Office that will house, um, equipment that used to be at the Haywood, um, Haywood Road location. We heard last week about eminent domain and safety concerns and that is what is before us. Um, I know there is, um, a conversation that folks may want to have some other evening about what's going on at 441 Haywood and that will be appropriate
050when that is before us on the agenda. But just to focus the board, what is in front of us tonight is this contract, uh, for the total amount of 130,000, um, which was an originally already budgeted 87,000 for other work and then this additional 39,773.50. I move that we approve the DBA fence contract. Second. Do we have a discussion? Excuse me? Uh, when would you like discussion? Oh, I was We have a motion and a second and so now it is appropriate to have discussion. Okay. About the item before us, if you please. Okay. Um, I am uncomfortable at this point moving forward with that plan. I am concerned about impact on neighbors here of moving all the things that are outside at, uh, 441 Haywood Road into the upper lot and potentially the, uh,
051property adjacent to the upper lot. Um, and I it is a lot of money to spend for a fence for that purpose. Um, my drive through, um, this past weekend, um, I saw what I would not want next to my house, uh, just the the disarray and I understand that it's a complex situation. Um, and I'm not ready to move that here. I'm also concerned about the loss of parking for those moments when there is a lot of public that wants to be present at a board meeting. And those are my concerns and of course I'm looking forward to, um, learning more about what has happened at 441 Haywood Road and I appreciate Ms. Dockery, um, uh, speaking with me before the meeting and, uh, being willing to have a conversation about, um, uh, what
052has happened with that property. Thank you. Other discussion, board members? April, I appreciate you bringing up, uh, the neighbors. >> [clears throat] >> Uh, honestly, it hadn't occurred to me, so thank you for bringing that up. I, um, I'm [clears throat] going to do a yes and. Yes to that and uh, I'm I'm try It's not an ideal situation. I uh, don't Yeah, and it is extra money that we have to find for this fence. I'm I'm trying to think in my own mind and I'm sure this has happened across the district with administrative staff trying to figure out a different solution for this equipment. Uh, so while it's not ideal, that's why I seconded, just so you know. Sarah, can I say something real quick? I know there are different types of fence, April.
053There are different types of fence. We got wood fence, we got vinyl, we got chain. Could you give us some type of description what 130 what $130,000 going to get as as a fence? Is it appropriate for me to speak, Sarah? Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Um it is a chain-link fence. It is very similar to what we've put on other properties. As I shared with the board, it has been an ongoing concern across the district, not just at 441, about our property being broken into and damage happening to our our equipment. But it will be chain-link, just like it is at every other campus that we have. You know, the the height No, sir, I do not, off top of my head. All right. I'm afraid to say. >> I I just want to
054clarify because you mentioned 130,000, the fence itself is 37,000 or 30 And I do I also want to make sure the board understands, too, that addition was also not just that project. It was to repair some other things that we've had that this year has been very difficult for the maintenance department at every campus with fencing. Is it Is it possible to move, relocate the fencing that is already in place at 441 or Asheville Primary? >> recycle, reuse it in a different way? >> Mhm. I don't want to misspeak, but I do not believe that it is easy to do. I think it's cheaper just to go with a new new system. But I will I will confirm clarify. Okay. Regardless, we're going to need to do something. I would be interested, too, to know
055if the DOT could support with this project, as well. I I would challenge the board to just to understand that we are trying to do our due diligence and secure our property and do our best to make sure that it is not damaged any further. And we need this additional contract increase to support not just this project, but across the district. Um all those are really good ideas. I can take them back to the team and do but doesn't negate the fact that we still need this. And we need to move quickly on on what we're going to do. The longer it sits, the worse it becomes. Thank you. Any other discussion? Questions? There is a motion and a second before us. All those in favor of approving the uh contract with Asheville Contracting Company
056doing business as Asheville Fence, please say I. I. >> I. Those opposed? >> I. Nay. Okay. Thank you. The motion carries and that contract is approved. Next on our agenda is our old friend policy code 3000. Um we have This is a second round of reform policies that Maggie has been working on. Um this came from many with input from many groups across the district. It has been in front of us for a while as we worked on some editing and grammar for clarity, but you were all sent the clean copy of policy code 3000 um that is before us this evening on second read. Is there a motion to approve policy code 3000? I move that we approve policy 3000. I'll second. Okay. It is before us. Is there any discussion? Yes. Um I
057am not seeing in the draft before us either inclusion um or links to um the cited theory of action or um What is the other thing? Uh portrait of a scholar. So, regardless, I would like to see that when when it is posted. Um I do have concerns that uh the previous um uh What are we calling this? A a progressive policy? A What kind of policy? Reform policy. That the previous reform policy has had some implementation issues and I want to make sure that this policy um I would for me, I would send it back to the teachers' group to review because it's been significantly changed. I understand that the sense of the board is to move ahead and approve it tonight. Um but I would like to see more review of it. Any
058other comments for discussion? All those in favor of approving policy code 3000, please say I. I. I. Those opposed? Nay. Okay. The motion to approve policy code 3000 passes. And I thank um everyone who worked on that policy for their hard work. And my apologies, I lost my agenda somewhere in my computer here. Um that is the I'm sorry. Next last action item is the personnel report. And um I want all the board members to know that board member Amy Ray is recusing herself from this vote um because the terms of employment of her wife are on the personnel report. So, it's not She's not going to participate in that, but it is otherwise before us. Um and is there a motion to approve the personnel report? I make a motion to approve the personnel
059report as is. Second. All those in favor? I. I. Any opposed? It passes with board member Amy Ray having recused herself. Um thanks, everybody. Those are our action items and I will now turn it over to Maggie for a superintendent's report. Good evening, board members and those here in attendance. Uh just a few updates >> [clears throat] >> uh for the board this evening. Um strategic planning update. Um a quick just review. We have come a long way in our timeline. And as we looked at phase four, which was developing the strategic part of the plan, um we are now at the part where we've had our initial presentation. We are collecting feedback and we'll use that to make some tweaks, but it has been a long process and I'm glad we are where we
060are today. Did want to take some time to talk about the difference between a strategic plan and the action plan. So, a strategic plan part of this work is the very high-level three to five-year plan. It sets a direction. It's our what and our why. So, what are we going to do? Why are we doing it? And then you have accompanying your strategic plan, your short short-term detailed action plan. That's the how, the who, and the when. Those are very specific steps that include responsibilities of who's doing what and what are the resources we need to get this action done. Um so, if you think about it in a couple different ways, your strategic plan sets that focus, that high-level direction, but your action plan is focused on the immediate, the execution, and what those
061operational tasks are, very much more detailed. Um as I mentioned here, strategic plan is that three to five-year long-term plan. When your road map or your action plans that then are how you're going to get the work done, those are sometimes not even a full year or just one year. So, when we the board looks at the plan and and we share this with our community, just making sure we clarify this is that's the that part's the very high-level. We're not going to talk about specific programs, per se, because those get ironed out and put in the um the action plan. Again, um some flexibility, strategic plans can be adapted to environmental changes, where your action plans are like that step-by-step kind of process that you're going to go through. Uh but they do work
062together. You have a strategic plan, but if you don't have the accompanying action plan, you're not going to get any work done. Um so, the strategic plan is just again that big high-level piece um where your action plans, which is once we have all the kind of big the directional pieces approved, then we really get in and roll up our sleeves to say, "Okay, what's our step-by-step action plan that we'll put in place with this X, Y, and Z time frames?" Um what are the indicators that we want to look at? What how are we going to progress monitor? Um so, just a heads-up on kind of thinking through the difference between strategic plan and then that action plan that gets developed once we have finalized that big piece. Um so, as I mentioned, we're
063in the feedback process. Um we went to schools last week and did staff meetings at every school and collected feedback from our staff um in the buildings. We have our town hall coming up on the 28th. We will be taking all of that feedback, analyzing it, and using that to make some adjustments or tweaks um and help improve our communication. So, when we were looking at the feedback initially, what we're hearing is questions about the action plan, questions about the details. So, as we share it, wanting people to know like this is just the overview. This isn't going to be those detailed steps just yet. That is coming once we get kind of our direction and everything ironed out there. Um quick update, Meet, Confer, Collaborate has met a few times and I haven't shared
064um any updates with the board um on those conversations, but we have been continuing to have budget conversations with Meet, Confer, Collaborate. Um and then we had a really great discussion at this last meeting about what our professional development expectations and um came to the agreement that uh they they asked admin to go ahead and craft a draft of some professional development recommend and expectations that we'll take back to meet, confer, collaborate in our May meeting for their input and consideration. Um we also did a really in-depth discussion about a teacher job description and updating our teacher job description. Um so that was another great conversation where we're going to uh take their feedback, update that uh job description and then move forward with that and for have them have opportunity to provide some feedback
065on that. So, I feel like over this year we've had some kind of growing pains to put meet, confer, collaborate in place, but I feel like we are kind of hitting that stride where we're building trust amongst the team, having some really open and deep conversations, listening first and asking questions, and then coming to a place where we can have those really robust discussions. And that concludes my comments for this evening. Any questions for Maggie? Appreciate that report, Maggie, very much. I have very brief random board chair comments. Um I just try to bring you all up to speed about things I've done between meetings um and wanted you to know that um in preparation for Maggie's presentation to the county commissioners asking for the 10-cent supplemental tax, I spoke with Terry Wells and Chair
066Amanda Edwards, and Rebecca spoke with Drew Ball and Martin Moore. So, we tried to keep those lines of communication open. Um Rebecca and I also, mostly Rebecca, stays in touch with um Carson Woods at ACAE and with Tracy Barrett, so we try to keep those lines of communication open. I talk with some frequency with Rob Elliott on the Buncombe County School Board to see what they're doing and what we're doing so that we stay in contact about that. Um let's see. Uh I am in the process of scheduling a breakfast with Gretchen Miller, who's the new head of the Boys and Girls Club. There continues to be a lot of interest in partnering with the Girls and Boys Club, and so I'll talk to her and find out what um opportunities exist. Um we continue
067to move forward on the South French Broad High School marker. Um we gathered a lot of information and it is now in the very capable hands of Ms. Kimberly Jones, um who is helping we have some vendors we're looking at to gather information. So, we'll be getting back to you all soon about that, but that that uh project is moving forward. Um just last, as reminders to board members, the strategic planning community um meeting is next. I didn't write it down. Tuesday, the 28th. Um and any board member that can attend, that would be great. Um tomorrow, it should you all got a notice for it, is the mural at Asheville High School. I think it's 2 3:30, something like that. Um and that's a pretty exciting project that they've been doing. Um and so
068those are just some brief things we've been up to. Uh there are announcements and future meetings on your agenda, but otherwise, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I. I. I. Any opposed?