001Good evening, everyone. We are going to call this meeting to order with our equity statement, which will be read by Amy Ray. In Asheville City Schools, we are committed to equity and anti-racist policies for all students and staff to learn and thrive. We recognize that our positions come with power, responsibility, and public service for the entire Asheville City Schools community. We will model our commitment to equity through our practices and decisions. And during this meeting, we invite a pause if harm has taken place, a moment to name the harm and space to practice repair. Thank you. All members of the board are present this evening, so we have a quorum. Um at the items on the agenda are the supplemental tax rate and the school district calendar. Um and is there a motion to approve
002the agenda? I move that we approve the agenda. Second. Okay. There is a seconded. And I would um offer that we add um either 5 or 10 minutes um to either get an overview or have a brief discussion about civil enforcement of school bus arm infractions. So, I appreciate that, Peppy, and I know you sent that email to us. So, um board members, there is a motion and a second on the table for this agenda as presented. If you vote against it, then we could take up an amended motion if we want to add that to the agenda for this evening. If we want to proceed with this agenda for tonight knowing we can add that to the next meeting. But we actually have a motion and a second on the on the table, so
003I got to deal with it. But does that make sense everybody? To clarify, can we then later amend the the agenda at any point in the meeting? Um I actually don't know the answer to that. I I believe that's possible, but >> Okay. How about this? I I'm trying to honor your request. If we approve the motion as presented and we have time, then why don't we agree by consensus we would entertain a motion to amend at that time to add something. Does that work? That sounds great. Thank you very much. >> Excellent. So, Peppy, can will you cuz I didn't hear every word you said. What was the What are you asking us to discuss? Um either a brief overview, which I think April Dockery could give us, um the without too much information,
004there was a meeting attended by Buncombe County Schools um board members, elected officials, staff, and there's a timeliness factor for us simply to ask for an ordinance from the County Commissioners. And so, just to have an overview of that and see if we want to either formally and formally move forward with it. >> Okay. The motion is to approve the agenda as presented with we all have an understanding if we have enough time, we can seek to amend it later if we wish. But all those in favor of the agenda as presented. I. >> I. I. Any opposed? It is unanimous. So, as we move to the supplemental property tax, I'm going to lay out the road map for everybody. The reason this feels a little different this year is in past years this decision
005has been part of the discussion we have about what our ask is going to be to the County Commissioners, and we don't have to do that this year because of the new funding formula. So, it feels a little different cuz it's in isolation this year. Um I'm going to tell you the road map and then can see where we're going. Maggie has a presentation for us. It's going to walk us through the history of the supplemental tax property tax, some of the math, some of the needs that are present in our system, and she's going to offer a recommendation. The job of this board tonight is to vote on the number. That's all we got to come up with is a number. That number has to be if it's not 8.14, you'll hear more about
006that. We have to submit that number by April 10th. And on April 16th, Maggie has to present to the County Commissioners about why we want a number higher than 8.14. That's the process. So, that's why we had to meet tonight because it wouldn't have been timely at our regular April board meeting. So, Maggie will give her presentation, then Rebecca and I have just neutral information to share with you that we've heard from County Commissioners, ACAE, facts. Just want to put it on the table so everybody knows these pieces of information. Then, there'll be time for you guys to ask questions. So, I'm just asking you to sort of take notes, um ask questions, then we'll have a period of what Robert's Rules of Order calls crystallization, where we'll hear from each other about what folks
007are thinking, trying to find consensus, and then we'll have a vote. So, does that make sense? And that's just on this first agenda item. Um so, with that road map, I'm going to turn it over to Maggie. All right, good evening board members and um staff. Uh so, I printed out a a copy of the presentation for the board as well, um but just want to run you through a couple talking points um reviewing some of the history that we know about the supplemental tax, what the revenue neutral rate is and what that would generate, talk a little bit about the current rate um at at 11 cents, share our district recommendations, and then time for the board to discuss. Um so, I was trying to do a lot of digging to find out more
008about our supplemental tax and Copeland was a great help in um helping identify some information that this was a tax passed by the the um voters that live in Asheville City Schools like attendance zone in 1935, which of note is during the Great Depression, um because they wanted a higher standard of education than what was being provided by the state or county. And specifically, they were looking for salary supplements to attract and keep high-quality teachers and staff, locally funded funded positions in addition to what the state would pay, um program enhancements such as art, music, technology, educational materials, and class size reduction. Um and just as a historical note, the rate has been as high as 20 cents per $100 value. So, just some historical context. What the county finance team is recommending is a
009uh revenue neutral tax rate um for our tax for this um upcoming fiscal year, taking our tax rate down from 11 cents to 8.14. Um and that revenue neutral rate of 8.14 is projected to bring in a slight increase of um revenue by about $200,000. Um so, let's talk a little bit about the current rate. Um we do want to give a shout-out and many thanks to the community, the staff, and the board who did a lot of advocacy work last year um trying to get us up to the 12 cents, which has been kind of in play was in place for a while before it got reduced back down to that 10.62. That did result in an increase of um from 10.62 to 11 cents, and we're thankful for that. And that did increase
010did bring us in about $425,000 increased revenue for this fiscal year. So, that was really beneficial. If we if the county maintains 11 cents for the upcoming budget, that would bring in an additional $4.4 million, which is kind of level set if it's 8.14, we get about $200,000 extra revenue prediction. If we if the if the tax rate is kept at 11, that would bring in about $4.4 million in additional revenue. Just to kind of say kind of show you that band. Um did want to share some of the needs that we do have for funding um that have all we've always had these and just really putting a pin on them so you can we can really help identify what are some of the significant needs that we have. Um first and foremost, we
011talked about this last month, is our exceptional children. We know the state caps that at 13% of our enrolled students um and I shared when the board was approving the resolution that we have 140 EC students above that 13%. Um and to note, Buncombe County also has above 13%, but in a school district their size, they're only 25 above that 13%. Um so, for us, I forget what their increased cost was, but for us, it's a very significant cost of about $783,000 um to cover all the services that we are not getting state funding for for our EC students. Another big cost um is our summer school, after-school, and Saturday programming. Um this is a a huge necessity in our school system, particularly as we're looking at having and holding two new promotion criteria to
012help make sure all the students should can be on track to meet promotion benchmarks. Um our Project Serve grant funds expire. We're able to fund summer school this year through Project Serve funds, but that does expire and we won't have those funds anymore after this summer. Um so, we are the budget that Shannon had put together with her team is about $1.4 million um for after-school, summer school, and another intervention that we put into place is um Saturday school programming. Um and that happens at the high school and middle school. The high school kind of operates its own. We are funding the middle school program, and it's a opportunity for students who might be missing work. It's another alternative to suspension for um discipline consequences. It's being used for a lot of different things to
013help support the middle school program. Um another increased cost we're anticipating for next year is our school resource officer contract is going to increase significantly. Um it's currently at 4,000 400,000 457,000. Next year, we are looking at um a contract of about $660,000. Another >> [clears throat] >> area I wanted to point out as it relates back to the supplemental tax um is the that um idea of making sure that we have programmatic support and staffing support for our arts programs. Um so, in elementary, we are committed to trying to make sure we can always provide those full-time enhancement teachers um for our elementary schools, and there are four each um enhancement teachers at Hall Fletcher, Lucy Herring, and Jones. There are five at Claxton just because they have such large numbers. They were not
014able to schedule with four um so, we did a lot them an extra one based on their enrollment. The state funds us nine of those positions. That earns that's about $767,000 um when we look at our total enhancement teachers for elementary, we then have 21, um which is about $1.7 million, which then we're paying $933,000 out of local funds. Middle school and high school, the state funds zero of the elective teachers. Um so, we fund 27 of those locally, and that is our arts, our ceramics, our band, um dance, piano, all those really great electives, foreign language classes. Um it's all of those things, Avid, um are funded through locally um with costing us $2.2 million. Um there were some additional budget enhancement requests. What I've been doing is meeting actually met with all the
015principals last week and this week to ask them, like you've seen your funded your um staffing allotment. Now you know what that is, do you have any requests to enhance your staffing positions for the upcoming year? So that then as we get all of those totaled, I can look at all of that in total along with the ACAE requests and make recommendations on if we do have additional revenue, where can we fund some additional positions. I don't have numbers for those yet, but just knowing that we are we are asking, what else do you need that isn't in your formula? So that we can look at when we do have revenue, what we can fund. Um so, Heidi and I spent a lot of time talking back and forth about our recommendation, um what we
016would ask for, knowing that we have to find, in our opinion, a balance between the tax burden on the community and all the needs that we have. We could ask for all the money, all the money, all the money, and we could find really, really great ways to spend it, but I I don't know that for me that felt the right way. So, as Heidi and I really looked at things, um we settled on um asking putting our recommendation in at a 9 cent um evaluation of tax um assessed tax, not tax assessment, I'm sorry, at a 9 cent um tax millage rate. Um and that would generate us an additional $1.3 million in revenue. Um so, are there any clarifying questions um from the board? Tell you what, Maggie, can I just I'm y'all
017I just got a few other things. Let me cuz I just think it'll help if we put on the table. Um That's right. I forgot you were Rebecca and I have a few things to share, and I have a new one to add. Um Maggie's going to correct me if I say this wrong, but I think what Avril Pender said to Maggie was if we come back and ask for something more than 8.14, we should be prepared to explain why we need it and Buncombe County Schools don't. And say that differently, but >> you know, you know, you know, I Thank you. Um basically, what the my my my reception of what she said is the uh supplemental tax brings in extra money for Asheville City Schools that Buncombe County doesn't get, and that, you
018know, is not always equitable. Um so, basically, the the the push was, well, why do you need this when Buncombe doesn't? And I pointed out the SROs for one get funded through the sheriff's department for Buncombe County, and we do not. And she said, well, that's why you have a supplemental tax to fund those kind of things. Um so, definitely, there from my interpretation was that there is going to be not a recommendation from the county manager to put in a budget to put in um support over revenue neutral. That's just my interpretation. >> Right. And I think what I wanted to offer to board members was when you see the things that have been identified, a a lot of this was aimed at, what do we need that Buncombe County Schools doesn't need? And
019as you know, we pay APD SROs out of pocket. Buncombe County gets Buncombe County Sheriff's through a grant, right? Like so, some of this is specific to that lens. I just wanted to offer that. Um okay, a few other facts. As a reminder, we have a recently approved county funding formula. We thought it would provide about $119 million. That's between us and Buncombe County, and it looks to be closer to $128 million. And the county commissioners continue to point that out that we are doing really well under that. Um, second, just a reminder, this supplemental property tax is shared with charters. So, what we get, we share with charter schools. Um, also when we we've had ongoing conversations and a great meeting with FACTS and ACAE and wanted to make sure that we brought forward
020their preference is to request 11 cents. They were clear about that. That would be what they're advocating for and I know Maggie shared with you through MCC. She's We've already seen priorities that ACAE identify have to do with EC positions and wanting to strengthen that um and and new ways of supporting EC, which align We can see where there's the alignment around um the >> [clears throat] >> number of EC students that we support above the state cap, um which is different than Buncombe County Schools. Also, just um anecdotal conversations, been hearing those of us that own property in the Asheville City School District know there are three line items. Buncombe County has a tax, Asheville City has a tax, Asheville City Schools has a tax. Um, it sounds like I mean, we don't know
021cuz everybody's in budget conversations. Asheville City likely will not be budget neutral, right? They are going to The way I The way I've heard it explained is if they currently have a tax rate on a bill of 44 cents. Given the reappraisals, and I'm making [clears throat] this number up, right? I don't know it exactly, but it revenue neutral for the City of Asheville might be 35 cents. 35 cents on a higher tax base would bring in what they bring in now. They're probably going to be somewhere in the middle, not 35 cents, not 44 cents, but somewhere in the middle. They're not going to be revenue neutral. Buncombe County, we don't know. It's very It's likely they may not be revenue neutral. I just wanted to put that out there that if you're a
022taxpayer and you're watching your bill, there's going to be some increase due to the City of Asheville and to Buncombe County. We are being asked to stay revenue neutral. I'm just presenting that as a fact to you all. Um And I'll jump in um from my day job. I tend to think about this a lot that there is a lot of community conversation right now about concepts of displacement and gentrification and a lot of fear. Those tax valuations feel very overwhelming. The county is hosting, you know, these appeals events. Um people from where I work went and it's a incredibly stressful time for folks who live in our county and in particular, you know, live in our city with the three taxing authorities. And so, um you know, [clears throat] there are places you can
023go to learn more about what strategies they think should be in place to ensure that this plays out in a fair way and reduces displacement as much as possible, but it is real that many folks in our community are very concerned about seeing their tax bills cause their mortgage payments to go up so much that they won't be able to live in their homes anymore. Um Also, I'm next to Sarah and I have done our best to reach out to as many commissioners as possible. Um have had some conversations, have some conversations scheduled. Multiple reasons, put it on their radar that we're paying attention and that we're looking at this. We don't want them to be caught off guard by the fact that we're looking closely at it and I know in one conversation with
024Martin Moore, um it I didn't come away feeling clarity. I came away feeling that this situation of all these moving parts, Asheville City's budget gap, the revaluation, the the different tenor of the appeal moment because of how that's landing for folks, um it feels like [clears throat] a lot of moving parts rather than real clarity. Um all these numbers that Maggie's been able to show us, these are just best guesses as well. Like the valuation of these properties is not yet set. So, where it's all going to shake out is very much a moving target. Just a few other things. Um I've had a couple of people reach out to me and say they just want us to know that if we raise taxes and if our tax rate increases taxes and creates unhappy taxpayers
025who complain to the state, they may seek consolidation. Okay, these are neutral comments. I just want you to hear the things that I'm hearing from people. Um Also, the county is considering a school capital bond. We've heard a little bit about this when we We're almost to the questions, I promise, and George can help answer this, but they are looking at a $130 million bond for school projects along with two other bonds for open spaces and something else. That decision would be made by June and would be on the ballot in November. Um Rebecca. Um Oh, this one's mine. Oh, there's also at the state level where our values tend to butt up, right? Around taxing. Um conversations and discussions that legislators are having and some pushing for uh limits, like let's statutory limits on
026counties' ability to levy property taxes. So, um yeah, that's I think there's we still have a a almost supermajority in the General Assembly that does not want to see taxes go up and they're considering using a tool to prevent counties from being able to do that to their discretion. Last two things that you all all know, just to say them into the space to whoever's listening, whatever recommendation we make this year is for this year. We can go back next year. We'll do this every year. Um so, what we do this year doesn't bind us for the next 4 years. Also, um the county commissioners that I spoke with wants to make sure everybody understands this. Whatever number we pick, 8 cents, 10 cents, 12 cents, that number, if it did stay the same year
027to year, there is growth each year. There's new developments, there's new projects, and the tax base increases. So, if hypothetically we're at 9 cents or 11 cents or whatever it might be, and we kept it year over year, we would see growth in that. It's not a stagnant number. That's what I wanted to say. Okay, so at this time, I'm going to open it up for questions and you can direct them to Maggie, you can direct them to whoever you want. Um we're going to have all of these questions for clarification. I don't This is not really the time for you to talk about your opinion. I just want you to have questions, and then we're going to have a time to talk about what we think the number should be, if that makes sense.
028I'm just trying to make the best use of our time, folks. So, okay, questions. Maggie, can you quickly remind us of the 2 cents campaign messaging from last year? Yeah, um so, we were really partnering with FACTS and the foundation and ACAE to try to, you know, make sure the point was made across our community that we were asking for us to get back to the 12 cents, which was like at first some I don't know all the history or context that the rate had been set at 12 cents for a long time. And for some reason that was like, "Hey, got lowered to be revenue neutral." I think after COVID. And then the request was, "Hey, we want to get back to that 12 cents." So, um the I think the the FACTS group
029and the foundation and ACAE and board members as well did a great job advocating. Um but yeah, as you know, the board did not the commissioners did not approve up to the 12, but did move a little bit to 11. Yeah, you're welcome. Yeah, I just have a quick question. The um when you say that the revenue rate of 8.1 cents 1.4 cents is projected to increase revenue, that means increase over last year's Mhm. revenue by 2 cents. Okay, so even though it goes down, it's because of the reassessments, I'm assuming. Mhm. Yeah, okay. Thank you. Um so, this is clarifying information. Um I've spent a lot of time talking with the assessment office. Um talked with the head assessor in residential yesterday. Um he wanted to talk for an hour and a half, and
030so I kindly obliged um and appreciated his time. Um the overall um valuation went from um approximately 36 billion in up to 58 billion in the initial tax um the initial letters that were sent out. And what is unusual this time is that the appraisers were not directly involved. There was a different team that did the work to change the the values. And the appraisers appear to be expecting those values to drop and for a a lot more um uh values to be contested than in years past. So, this 8.14, that's not I mean, it might be a recommendation from county staff or from Avril Chandler, but it's actually the statutory requirement that they take the valuation and they compute something that is revenue neutral with an adjustment for inflation. But that isn't like a
031recommendation recommendation. Um it is something that they're required to do by statute. And we need to take into account that um at least with everything I'm seeing, the valuations are at least 10 to 20% higher than the fair market value on January 1st. And so, what we're looking at potentially, if we were to go for the 9 cents, is that people would appeal this year and our actual revenue would drop. And then, anybody who missed the appeal and then got shocked by the tax bill would appeal next year. So, we might see, if we cut it down significantly, a series of years where every year it drops and that could create a whole other issue as people appeal because the tax values are are the fair market values dropped in the second half of last
032year and continued to drop this year. I have a slew of questions. So, >> [clears throat] >> um I I I guess this is for Sarah and Rebecca since you all have spent some time talking to county commissioners. Um >> [cough and clears throat] >> I noticed and I there might be some overlap, but in general, for our Buncombe County Commissioners, only District 3 represents Asheville City Schools. I'm sorry. >> Only District 3 represents Asheville City Schools. Okay. I'll take a look. Um [clears throat] I'm looking at the maps right now and it's um I understand there might be a little bit of overlap at the very far edges of our district. So, [clears throat] in conversations with District 3 Commissioners, are you getting a different sense from them than you are from District 1
033and 2 who don't represent or the majority of the folks they represent do not reside in Asheville City Schools? District 3 um Yes. Yeah, I haven't talked to either of them. I'm talking I'm scheduled. Drew's unavailable, but I have a scheduled call with him. >> Okay. Um I can't say for certain, but that's a good point. >> Yeah. The I I will say I talked with Terry Wells who acknowledged that she is not in the Asheville City School District at all, but has real concerns that we would not be revenue neutral. Has concerns that we I'm sorry if I said that. Given all the I I can't put words in her mouth, so I don't want to be quoting her, but I I think she would be more conservative about our request. Or okay. Um
034second question, have do you know, and I guess this is for Maggie as well or Sarah or Rebecca, if you know. Um in all of the reappraisals and all of this stuff going on, have there been any conversations at the county level about the impact narrowing down the impact of these reappraisals on especially um those most impacted by a raise in rates. So, and especially I'm thinking about historically black neighborhoods, East End, you know, Burton Street. No. Okay. And as Do we know if there's been any conversation about >> [clears throat] >> a change in how the county actually assesses those taxes based on say historical neighborhoods, that kind of thing. I'm thinking about how many houses, this is an assumption, understandably, but how many houses in Asheville City um perhaps might be second homes
035or or are homes of folks who have the income to absorb this tax in a way that others might not. I I don't have an answer to that, but I will tell you that all I've seen is the same messaging that has always existed for elderly and there's two exemptions. Elderly and disabled get tax relief. >> they're making sure people know that, but that's there's nothing new about that. >> And I think too, I again, I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth, but I had a great conversation with Martin and I find that he's very thoughtful about tax policy. And one element of what we were talking about is that other municipalities tend to have a more robust safety net for those types of homeowners. And as somebody who works in one of
036those safety nets, like we don't have that level in Asheville. And I I believe, this is me, I believe that our County Commission has studied this carefully and they're using every tool legally available to them, which there are not many, to address the equity issues around legacy neighbors whose tax bills end up forcing them out like on affordability perspective. The law really limits what's possible. The other thing, in addition to tax relief, the county started I want to say it's been several years a program that's administered through the county that even they talk about they shouldn't be administering and it's too expensive to administer where they give grants to homeowners who are of certain income levels and have lived here for a certain amount of time. And it was their way, it was very dicey,
037to try to figure out how to do that without running a foul of the law. >> Mhm. Um to say we want to come in and try to give you some funds to help with your tax to help with your housing costs. It's not your taxes, it's your housing costs. It can go to taxes, it can go to your mortgage, it can go to your utilities, but like the that's the types of stuff they've tried to do. So, my impression is they try to do everything that they're legally allowed to do already. Okay. I'll add to that um in my conversation yesterday, the head of the residential appraisals said that one of the impacts of the criticism from um uh Urban 3 and the the community members who have really pushed back on the appraisal
038approaches that we've used in the past is that he personally and the staff in general, well, they added more staff to do appraisals, but he personally went and reviewed um the neighborhoods that we're talking about, the historically disadvantaged neighborhoods, and changed their review system so that they had approximately four grades of properties and now they have closer to six and each of those have a plus or a minus. So, they're able to fine-tune values in neighborhoods based on what's actually there. It doesn't fix all the things, but it's something new that they're doing under the law. And he said he found um uh houses that were noted as being in in good shape and reduced the the status of them, which lowers the property taxes. He found He found piece of property that said there
039was a house there and there wasn't, but there's all sorts of things that they've been going on site and reviewing all the neighborhoods and it's it's a really impressive effort, but I'm personally still finding that the new appraisals are unique to this evaluation above what they were January 1st and most counties, they appraise everything just below market, so they don't get the pushback. So, we're really in new different territory. Um I appreciate you giving me this platform for all these questions. Next one, I'm thinking about um Rebecca and Sarah, what you heard from FACTS. Do you have a sense of who um like how diverse that the survey from FACTS has been to come up with that 11 cents. Like have they who are they surveying in terms of parents? Okay. No. Okay. I mean,
040we've we've had presentations from FACTS. We've seen the work that they've done. Um you know, I I don't have We met with Christina Shimrock um from FACTS and um Carson Bridges from ACAE and Copeland was there and and listened. >> Okay. And I I respect Christina and I don't think she was just speaking off the cuff, um but that her representation of FACTS's position is stay at 11. >> Sure. All right, last one. Um in the conversations with county commissioners, and this is this is going to border a bit into opinion. I'm trying my best to make it the only question. But thinking about since the county commissioners reduced or or lowered that tax rate around COVID, I feel like every year since then this district has gone to the county commissioners and asked for
041an increase. And so, in conversations with them, has that conversation come up again if we go back, or not even back, if we go farther down to 8.14? This is where I'm being careful not to be opinionated. Um are they aware of having now come come to an agreement on this blanket rate, right, that every district or each district has agreed to in the county commissioners, that here's a possibility where starting next year ACAE, FACTS, other folks in our community, and this and this board itself might be going back to the commissioners year over year asking for it to go back where it had been set only last year. Have they had any thought about that? That did not come up in the conversations I had. Okay. Uh I think that's it. Thank you. I'm
042sorry. Was there in this list of of uh district needs, the the thing that I'm looking for that I'm not seeing is the district needs to fill the gap between our reimbursement rates for early childhood education and the cost? Do we have those numbers? With the advent of the new classroom and then some additional grants she received. I don't have the exact number right now. We've also scaled back personnel a good bit. So I'd have to rerun those but it generally runs in the vicinity 60 or $100,000 deficit per year. Do you have any questions? I just want to make sure everybody gets their questions answered. You have been awfully quiet. >> [laughter] >> Jesse, any questions? I have a concern about that question. Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. Can I ask one more question
043though? Dr. Furman, do you know if Buncombe County schools offers early childhood education roughly equivalent to what we offer and I don't mean that in real numbers. I mean it like they're 22,000 students. We're about 4,000 students. Like are we is that a difference between our districts? Do you know? >> I'm really not very sure. I know they do some with their CTE programming and I know they partner I think with Head Start to do a couple like providers coming in and doing classes but I don't know if they're actually paying or using their own funds to do it any pre-K. I'm not sure. They've got community action opportunities at some sites and Christine Avery stepped in when Southwestern couldn't financially make it work at the community high school. So I think at this time
044and obviously you can still ask questions but I would appreciate hearing from each of you about where you are. You know, what number you're leaning toward and I want to respect that people are going to be all over the map on this. I'm predicting and so if you're able to just share with me share with the rest of the board what you're thinking and maybe some concise explanation of why you're there. I think this discussion will be fruitful because other board members, you know, will hear where other people are but anyway, I'd appreciate hearing from you now. All right. I'll go first. >> [clears throat and cough] >> I'm hearing a lot about ifs and maybes and buts for the communities about this is what's going to happen within the community with the assessment but
045until community members actually come out and say my taxes are going down. My property tax is going down and whatnot. It's still going to be as high as I mean there's a lot of ifs and buts out there. All right, but nothing that actually being done. All right, but until it is being done. All right, I guess we just have to hope that the taxes don't go up. My thoughts. I do understand the history about the supplemental tax. Thank you Maggie for putting this together for us. I do understand it. My thoughts and some from the communities and I'll try to put this together without using AI. All right, so so she can hear me out a little bit. I recognize the arguments in favor of the proposed tax increase. However, based on my experience
046with this community I believe implementing this tax would be inequitable for families who have been negatively impacted for generations. As a black male and I've been here for about over 20 years right now. I feel a particular obligation to voice these concerns. While a diverse coalitions of parents, educators and local professionals support strong educational funding, the current disparity between Asheville City Schools and the broader Buncombe County School System raises critical questions about equity. ACS is already one of the highest funded district in North Carolina. Requesting further increase before allowing the new funding formula to take effect risk without intention lessons quality of life for the very children we aim to support. Taxing our lower and middle class residents and small business during this time creates an undue burden. I urge our leadership to prioritize operational
047efficiency for one year over increased taxes on our vulnerable household and local economy. I don't we just coming out of a very rough life and if we can just I would like to see the system work or at least allowed to work before we start asking for more because the more we ask for we're going to I mean asking is is easy. Receiving it we're probably not going to get it. But when we don't get it, we fall back into a place where we don't know how to come out of. So my thing here is if we can just allow the commissioners to do their thing, allow the funding, the new funding uh formula to see what it gives us and we just try to work a little bit, you know, maybe this year might
048not be the best year to ask for anything. You know, I mean that's that's me. All right, and there's a lot of community members are saying that we need to get we need to get out of this first before they're able to pay more and support Asheville City Schools. All right, so maybe after this year we'll see I mean it might work but asking for something right now with the way the community is and the way our commissioners are saying no, most of them are, you know, it's going to probably make us look bad if we start asking for a lot. So that's the community and my point of view. Thank you Jesse and just for purposes of my notes what I'm hearing is you'd be inclined to stay at the 8.14 that they recommended.
049Okay, I'm not trying to put words in your mouth. >> no. I that's my last thing. I'll stay with 8.14. All right. Okay. Anything else? Um everybody gets to go once. So I don't who know who wants to go next. Check. All right. Amy. >> Okay. Um so I think it's I I really appreciate your point of view Jesse. I my concern is we're asking for less not more. In other words, I understand that as a sort of raw number they're predicting that we would get whatever it was $200,000 more at the rate that the one 8.14 but it was really hard to get to 11 and the reason that they're predicting that is because the county chose to reassess at a really high rate the individual households and so in other words, if they're
050going through and doing a property tax assessment and reevaluation that's that significant and I haven't heard that the county is giving up any of that revenue. It seems to me that Asheville City Schools, I don't know how to ask for anything less than we need. And I feel like the students who we haven't historically served, if we can tie the and I think most of those things on this list are the things we need to serve our black and brown students better and we're making progress on the achievement gap but we're not going to keep making progress if we don't have an effective Randolph and right now we don't have the funding to make that school what it needs what we need it to be to keep those students safe and well cared for. We
051don't have the funding we need for our emotional needs at our middle school and our high school. We've got still a lot of fighting, a lot of things happening and I think we need more funding for the whole child and the whole family and I just don't know how to I fear that if we say sure, we'll bear the brunt. We'll be revenue neutral when nobody else will be. We when this this taxing authority, the reason we have this tax is because Asheville, the city of Asheville's residents chose not to be equal with Buncombe County Schools. That is the choice that our residents have made to have a school system that provides more. We pay more. You know it when you buy a house. Even 20 years ago or 25 years ago whenever it was
052that I bought my first house in Asheville, I was told by in the county it's lower taxes but I chose not to because I was fortunate enough to be able to buy a house in Asheville, a lot less expensive than now and I just think that we need if you look at these needs that we have, they're well [snorts] more than than we're going to get. So I wouldn't go lower because I tell you you go down to 10, you go down to 8, you go down to 9, it's never coming back up to 11 and if they want to assess that many more property taxes, they're not increasing the tax rate for us. They're increasing it because of the reevaluations they're choosing to do and they're going really high. So, I do agree that
053we're going to have a lot of appeals, and I do think ultimately it's not going to be what they project, um which means we will be lower than we were this year if we go down to 8.14. But, I'm also saying that I don't think that this I think the school systems needs more, and I haven't heard that the county commissioners are necessarily coming out and saying what Avril is saying. Avril is saying 8.14, and I do appreciate the effort at compromise. Um I'm just not sure that that's where I would negotiate. So, you're 11 cents. I'm 11. Okay. Right now, I might be talked out of that before the end of this evening. That's where I am at the moment. >> Thank you. A question on behalf of argument, not argument, but to sell
054us something, or do I wait? Okay, I'm because I think we'll be here all night, and I'm sorry to cut >> Okay, okay, go ahead. Everybody gets their say, and I'm looking for consensus. I just Yeah, sorry, Jesse. Okay. Who? Sure, and I'm going to just keep us moving, so Um I am 100% in agreement with Amy Ray. Um the way that I would look at this is um uh we expect that this year in particular, and then for every year until the next reappraisal, we expect taxpayers to be having their valuations reduced based on what we're seeing, based on this unique um revaluation, and I would also offer um for me, making sure that early childhood education is continues to be funded in uncertain times, um news today was that um the president of
055the United States declared that the federal government shouldn't be funding any child care. Um we don't know how that's actually going to play out, but there's there's so much pressure, and there's already a funding cliff for early childhood education. So, for me, I would say to the county commissioners who prioritize early childhood education that we will put 1 cent of that special tax into early childhood education, and if they give us 11 cents, we would take that the last cent of that, and put it into the pool for the early childhood education and development fund, and allow the county to distribute that to preschool providers that are within our school district, which could be grants back to us, or could be grants to other partner organizations. So, that's what how I'm looking at it because
056I can't see closing the gaps without closing the early childhood education gap. So, I'm at 11 cents also. Not knowing exactly how that plays out, but that's my thinking. Looking down this side of the table. I'll go. Um I'm going to go out on a limb here, and ask that we get those signs back out that that ask for the the 2 cents above 10 cents, and ask for 12 cents. I think um advocating for earmark funds for pre-K, um investment in early math initiatives similar to the letters training that has shown success in literacy, um and full funding for EC and student support, um in addition to the specific district needs that Maggie presented to us, which total 5.9 million. Um Those things we know can close the achievement gap and the gaps in
057discipline data as well. Um so, yeah, ask for 12. Oh, heart, don't believe we're going to come you're going to get consensus. Um I I it it really a few things really bother me. Um An acknowledgement, Amy, what you said about the the county choosing to do this reappraisal or reappraisal at this moment in our county's history. Um >> [clears throat] >> And what that means, especially for legacy neighborhoods and legacy homeowners. And so, that troubles me that um that the framing by the county is that um the way to make things right I mean, and I understand this is what they're saying, but this is what I'm hearing. That the way thing to make things right is to reduce our um special tax for our district that voters approved almost a century ago. Um
058and now there's I'll admit there's kind of problems with that, that it was a century ago that it was approved. I mean, I understand we might be opening up a can of worms, but does does every homeowner within our district continue to want that tax? I don't know. Um [clears throat] But, to stick with the 11 cents, I I I would just want to acknowledge what that would mean for families for whom this tax appraisal is a real kick in the gut. And from what from very anecdotal evidence of a loved one who works in the county, I don't know if I trust that the county has really put in place the most effective way for those reappraisals to be reconsidered. The hoops that folks have to jump through. Um I I don't know how
059easy it's going to be for homeowners to access those resources to ask for a reduction in that rate, and that bothers me as well. >> [clears throat] >> And so, I say all that to say that I really hate that the county has put us in this position by even proposing this. It also really troubles me that we are asked like how to make this equitable with Buncombe County Schools when obviously we have a special tax. Like I I don't To me, that doesn't compute. I don't quite understand what Avril is asking because it's laid out there in law that the residents of this district have asked for this. Of course, it's going to be inequitable. It's written in the code that it is inequitable. Um [clears throat] So, that that feels almost like a
060um a distraction from what we really have to decide. I say this with with with very little confidence, especially given the families that could be impacted by this reappraisal, and I want to be very clear that it's a reappraisal. It's not the Buncombe it's not the Asheville City Schools special tax. K- I am in favor of keeping at 11 cents, understanding that because of that reappraisal, that because the reappraisal, not because of the Asheville City School tax, that that will severely impact some of our legacy families. And sorry, I know I've already said 11, but I want to make one other point. And to Liza's point, to Peppy's point, to Amy's point, and also to Jesse, to your point, what this district needs, what our students need, what our family needs, I don't know if
061that's going to be solved by dropping it down to 1 8.1. I'm up. I think I find the history of this tax very compelling and important part of the conversation. Um I too, like George said, find it frustrating that the narrative there that there are folks who want the narrative to be about why should students in Asheville City Schools get more than students in Buncombe County Schools, and that's uh it's an offensive question because the reality is Buncombe County students also deserve more. And us wanting more is not us having an electorate during a time of economic hardship that said, we are deciding that we want a school district that serves students with more resources is a beautiful thing. And I think that there's opportunity for Buncombe County to explore that, and they maybe should,
062right? So, I don't like that pitting. I think that's inaccurate. Um and not helpful. Um when I look at But, also I think about the reality of the history of this tax. We've learned this tax was once set at 20 cents per $100 of value. Nobody's talking about asking for 20 cents right now. We're anchored to a certain part of history, but maybe not the full history. And what I think I understand is that when it went from 12 to 10 6 2, that was also part of a reset because that's how tax rates work. Right now, there's no talk of keeping our tax rates at the levels they are now for the other taxes. Will Will they go down to revenue neutral? Probably not, but nobody's talking about Hey, I mean, that's that's the
063panic that's been created is I just got this reevaluation and I know my rate which will cause my tax rate my tax bill to go to jump and it's it's not that's not how property taxes has ever worked. So I think therein my segue to my concerns about displacement, gentrification, affordability, and the direction of our city as a place that families can live and raise their kids. And so while I believe there's no limit to what our kids deserve. They deserve it all. Um I think as I look at the numbers and think about what are these needs not just what do we already pay for but what could we put at risk? I'm drawn to the fact that our resource officers are going to be much more expensive and that our after-school programming we
064don't have a source identified to replace that. What I don't want to see is us lose things that our students benefit from. Um and I am very frustrated by what's going on with EC services and so my back of the envelope is that it's not 8.14. It might be somewhere closer to nine and change to give us something closer to 2 million by these estimates. I think I've seen some calculation of what that would look like and I don't have I I could get there in my emails maybe up to a number that is between it's higher than what you've put forward but it's not 11. Thanks everyone. I don't have a lot to say cuz I've already talked a lot. Um She what? She said She said 12. 12 Um I feel very comfortable
065that this tax exists has existed for 60 years. I don't think we need to apologize that it exists. I think we're all elected and people will vote us out if they don't like what we do. But I don't just like Buncombe County and Asheville City are going to lower their tax rates so that people's are not they're not revenue neutral but they're finding middle ground and that's where I am. Um I'm I'm I I'm not saying our kids don't deserve every cent. I'm not sure this tax that property tax that property owners bear in our particular district is the way for me. So sort of where Rebecca is um I could do 9 cents which is what Maggie recommended. I could do 9 and a half. Um we're never going to know the exact number
066so but I'm not at 11 for myself. So I I just want to say by my count we do have four people who are at 11 cents or higher. Um so there there's certainly consensus around that and then three of us who are lower than that. Um I don't I want to manage this process but at this point it's appropriate to have a motion and you know depending on who makes the motion. >> a question because I didn't know this was news to me that they're going to lower the tax rates. So who how do we I mean We don't know yet. I mean it's I mean it's so like it's that's the this is frustrating to me. Like this is maddening to me to be told oh they're going to lower their tax rates
067and so we should too which actually I agree with. If they're going to lower their tax rates then I'm much more likely to agree that okay now I will say I know a number of people who have already successfully appealed easily and gotten significant reductions. So I am not confident that these appraisals are going to stick where they think they are. That said um I I that's just news to me. So I it's frustrating to me that like I would like to have their information before we vote and this has come up in like a heartbeat. We were told we had to make this recommendation in a matter of weeks. We haven't gotten a lot of information. Now at the last second there's a suggestion that they're going to lower it and the city's going
068to lower it and they probably won't be revenue neutral. I mean I just feel like I don't have enough information. I'm just going to speak to this. I don't think I think it is an imperfect system and we're we are never going to get to have all the information ahead of our vote. This is no different than any other year except it's a reappraisal year. Drew and What's his name? Parker had social media posts where the the big message from the county commissioners is to make sure taxpayers understand just because their property values went up does not mean their taxes are going to go up right? That's that whole thing. I think they've been pretty clear in signaling they're going to find middle ground but no they haven't made any decisions yet. We don't know.
069And the timing is they're waiting to hear from us on April 10th with our number. I mean I understand all your frustration. I can't change the system. Well I I understand that but I think somebody should articulate that it's a little bit of a problem when you know in the past it is not the case. We've always assumed that their rate was basically going to stay the same or go up. That they were not going to lower the rate until now because they've done this massive reassessment but I'm saying this is a different year and the circumstances are quite different and so asking us to make a recommendation is fine. We can make it and we're but we're going to make it with inadequate information and and granted we always do but this is that
070on steroids. Well say one thing so last time reassessment came they did lower their tax rate and it is required for them to present the revenue neutral tax rate for all taxing entities anytime there's a reassessment. And the counties just seem to take that perspective that this is where we're going to start. You know and and not to say they have to stay there obviously and there's a lot of needs and everybody's talking about all those needs but some counties are adamant because of their taxpayer feedback that they're not going to go beyond that. You know they're the the taxpayers are already paying for the reassessment. That's enough. We're not going to increase the rate too but they are statutorily required to provide this to everybody and then make the decisions from there. But this
071is for one year right? Correct. For one year? Uh [snorts] we're going for this coming year and asking what supplemental tax rate and it's a request. Just to point out what makes us a little different is both the county and the city get to set their own rate. They don't have to get approval from anybody right? We are different. We have to go and ask for it and they can say yes or no. And can I can I just add I know Peppy has her hand up that six out of our county commissioners don't represent this district right? So they are the ones who are going to be making this decision. Six of whom am I am I right? Am I doing the math right? At least four of them five five of them don't
072represent Asheville City School District. It just it's talk about another thing that just kind of Understood. >> Bugs me. Okay Peppy. So Asheville Watchdog has um uh put out a news story with their review pointing out that because commercial properties went up not as much as residential. Um and then uh the residential properties and I would say before um uh the second half of last year went up so much more um that the burden the tax burden currently before people appeal shifts the burden from commercial properties to um residential properties and that's something for us to also advocate about. I will say that I personally am helping a lot of just random people. Some of them are teachers. Some of them are neighbors filing uh assessment appeals and I plan to do about 20 appeals.
073And anybody who is a taxpayer um of personal property tax car tax whatever tax in Buncombe County is legally able to file an appeal for any property. And so we've got a really convoluted thing situation. My perspective in this moment is I would love 12 cents. I would suggest that until the appraisals are all done and the dust is all settled that sticking with 11 cents is the approach that I would take. And that's you know it just explaining it that way that we need the the appeals to all settle. Like we can't set a rate different from 11 cents in this moment because we have no idea what the actual valuations are going to turn out to be. And I certainly would be uncomfortable with 9 cents. I just think that we're going to
074wind up um underwater if we go for 9 cents. Can you clear one thing for me? Maggie can you go back next year and ask again? If we don't get the 11 cent right? But you can go back and ask. Every year we can go back and ask. I think in the in the interest of consensus I'm just going to make a motion. And I'm going to move that we ask for a 10%. 10 cents. Not 10%. Give us 10% of the house value, darn it. Um, 10 cents. That's just to try to get us to some place of consensus, if possible. It may be impossible, but I'm going to try that. I think that's hearing everybody. Uh, and uh, and believing that there will be an increase in the tax base, even with the
075appeals. There will be a significant increase. That's my motion. Would you be willing to change that initial motion to 11 cents? I just made a motion. Okay. Do y'all know who I'm going to die for like in a second here? That's fine. I know. Guys, that's good. I'm good. I'm not hearing a second. So. Any other motions, folks? I'd just like to point out that last year our request for 12 cents, our request was the only one that wasn't met as requested. >> [snorts] >> Um, which Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and all of all of the other Buncombe County districts that requested an increase all got their request, except for us. Um, which that that kind of informs my um, inclination to ask for 12 cents, anticipating that they're not going to give us
076what we are asking for. It's kind of go bigger go home in my mind. Can I interpret that as a motion? Yes. I Liza has made a motion for 12 cents. Is there a second? >> [snorts and laughter] >> Um, I'll I'll second the motion. 12 cents is before I'm just going to call for a vote, and I'll I'm just trying to look at everybody, but all those in favor, please say I. I. All those opposed. Nay. Nay. Nay. Sorry. May I make a motion for 11 cents? There's a motion for 11 cents. I feel like a poker dealer. Second. And >> [laughter] >> and I would say We just give a number. Okay. You don't get to give any more guidance. So, there's a motion and a second for 11 cents. All those in
077favor. I. I. Okay, there is a time limit. Okay, all those opposed. Nay. Nay. Nay. Yes, nay. Sorry, 11 cents fails. Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. It was the same two people said yes. Yeah. Right? Okay. Oh, sorry. Liza's to 12 cents and 11. Correct? You haven't voted different. Yep. You Okay. 10 cents. The 10 cents motion failed for lack of a second. I would ask then, um, can George and Amy clarify why they were in favor of 11 cents and now not a in favor of 11 cents? No. >> [laughter] >> Okay. >> have. I I want I want to get to consensus. I've already said that. So, I'm trying to I'm trying to figure out where these two people might move, and they're not indicating yet, but I'm hoping they're going to move
078off of 9%. Yeah, uh, Peppy, I'll be happy to to try to clarify because I'm I'm as you can anybody who's watching me is just seeing like how much I'm like wrestling with this. I'm so like >> [sighs] >> I'm going to reiterate how frustrated I am that the county put us in this position. Right? And I also want to reiterate something Amy said, how quickly they've been asked or we've been asked to make this decision. It It reminds me of the decision that the county made post-election to pull back $4.4 million and how quickly we had to reconvene after that because it was announced on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, right? The the the rapidity at which we have to operate is really frustrating to me. And so, when I think about 11 cents
079now that we've had all these conversations, I think about how somewhat to your point, Peppy, but just everything that's been said, how long some of these reevaluations could take. And so, therefore, what 11 cents again, I keep I know I keep harping on this, but what it might mean for our legacy homeowners. Right? [clears throat] And so, that's why for me right now 11 cents feels as unfair as it feels to me that we have to make that choice. Because the county's put us in this position. It feels to me like a that it could be a real burden on our legacy homeowners if we are still at 11% given sorry, 11 cents given [clears throat] these new evaluations. So, that's why. So, it but if we make no recommendation, Okay. We don't get to
080say what we're going to do with the money. It doesn't That's They want a number. It's a tax rate. It's on a tax bill. It's your motion. I've been listening and considering, and one thing that hadn't been as part of my where I I'm sitting with 9.5, but I am what I'm thinking about is what we've shared, what folks here have shared about the moving target, which is also what I talked to Martin Moore about, and the uncertainty of where this will all land. And I think it would be irresponsible to shortchange our kids in that space. So, while it got no second before, I'm going to to take my 9.5 up to 10 with an expectation that we you Look what you gave us to work with. When we get it that tax rates
081come down as valuations go up. That's how taxing works. I make a motion for 10 cents. I'll second. Okay, all those in favor of 10 cents. I. I. I. Nay. >> Nay. Nay. Okay. Okay, I'm I don't know that I'm even trying to do this. I'm making a motion for 9.5 cents. Can die for lack of a second. Folks, we got to come to a decision. I'd be I mean I Second. Second. Okay. I think it's going to fail, but all those in favor of 9.5 cents. I. I. Who votes nay? Nay. Nay. Nay. Okay. So, we are stuck. I move that we request 10.5 cents. >> [laughter] >> Can we have an Uh, I'm sorry. Can we have another like clarifying round? Is that helpful? But I In the interest of time, I I
082At the end of the day, this is going to take the time it it takes, folks, but I do know of people in this room and listening who have Holy Week services tonight and Passover seders. Like there's people have things to do tonight. But we have to reach a decision. You're going to correct me if I'm wrong. This is my summary. I think Jesse's pretty steady at 8.14 revenue neutral. Okay, I think that's pretty clear, and he hasn't come up yet. I think Amy is willing to find a middle ground. Not below 10. Okay, thank you. That's clarifying. So, Amy's sort of bottomed at 10. I think you guys are at 11 and 12. Although, you just went to 10.5. So, we got 10.5. We're not below 10. I guess the the question is whether
083people at 11 and 12 will not >> go below 11 because I think we are in jeopardy if we do. Okay, this is And my suggestion is that we communicate that we're asking for 11 this year, then we will know what the what the um, valuation numbers actually wind up to be. I hear you. I'm not sure we can do that. Rebecca, what's your range? Would it also be helpful if you knew an amount? So, 10 cents would bring us in an additional $2.8 million. >> [clears throat] >> That's only That assumes that we get what was valuated? Well, also know that I think they built a cushion in on the evaluation knowing that there would be reassessments and appeals. Not as much as what I'm seeing, but I'm seeing 15-20% is what I expect
084it to drop. Yeah, I don't know. I'm still Did you say If you want to 10 cents is 2.8 10 cents based on their calculator is 2.8 million. Is there any other tax rate you would like me to punch into the calculator? 9.5. I have a question. Um, Sarah and Rebecca, the county co- 2.1. Okay. 2.1 million at 9.5. 2 million is sort of where I'm sitting. I'd feel most comfortable if we're getting 2 million. That's kind of what's in rolling around for me. Yes, Jesse. >> Did the county commissioner say what they would give? They didn't? No. No matter what we do, we have no idea if they're going to do it or not. It's their call. That's true. We just have to ask for >> We can ask Liza has said, you know,
085we can ask for 11, they might give us 9.5, they might say no, you get 8.14. It's completely their call. But will this one get 8.14? Yeah, I don't Maybe. That's what they've recommended. I I don't see it going that way anyway. That's what Avril recommended. Wait, Al is in there. And Al is in our district, right? He's our commissioner within our district as for city, right? Avril is what she said. Avril Pender who is the Oh, okay. Okay. I thought you meant it was okay. But but Sarah's point is right that they're unlikely to go below what Avril recommends. She's conservative in her recommendations. I think that's fair. I just wanted to make clear that the county commissioners themselves haven't recommend a recommendation. The county It's Avril or her finance team. It's she gets
086the number from and saying it's revenue neutral. With the she is required by law to give us 8.14 14 8.14 yes 8.14 8.14 cents per $100 of value. She's required to tell us that number. every year And I'm just going to But just based on the revaluations as they were sent out. With the knowledge that fully funding the district needs as presented by Maggie including EC funding summer school after school and Saturday school, SROs and enhancement teachers from K to 12 um totaling $6 million dollars um and knowing that the supplemental tax is shared with the charters Maggie, would you run the calculator with 12 cents? I'm just curious to see if we if if 5.9 Oh. I'd also like to have a point of clarification from presentation that you shared. I could see the
087like very clearly the cost of our school resource officers is not going up by some small inflationary rate. It's going up by a lot. That is a big jump that we wouldn't have expected necessarily. Similarly, our after school programming, we don't have a plan yet to backfill that. But things like enhancement teachers at schools that have been there for years these are you know, those costs increase but I I don't want to conflate some of the numbers you provided us as like a budget deficit that we're looking at though. Okay. Uh Maggie, question. Is there a reason why we can't get a a grant to help out with the SRO just like the county is doing right now? We well, not the one that the county uses. >> I mean, not the one the county
088uses but can >> We can always apply for any kind of grants that we we can find. Um but the other thing about grants is you got to reapply reapply reapply. It's not guaranteed. I don't I don't believe in funding positions through grants. Not [clears throat] even if they're going to help us. I mean, not even >> you can to try to make ends meet but it just is not sustainable. Let me I do understand grants but I mean, it may help for one year but then we'll be right back at the table the next year if we if you don't get a grant or that grant expires. And I don't know of any grants out there anyways. I mean, but the grants that I had when I was in nonprofit world long time ago
089and Rebecca probably can speak to this more accurately or others on this panel Georgia Mever but usually it's like a one to three year cycle, right? And then once that cycle's over, you might get it again but often they're just trying to give you a grant to get you to the next place where you can fund it yourself. Is that I mean, that was my experience. So you you just can't guarantee depending on the source. Okay. I'm I mentioned this to Amy. We just need to get to a number. I can get to 10 cents if that changes anything. >> I'd like to make a motion that we put forward 10 cents. Is there a second? >> I'll second that motion. Okay. All those in favor. Aye. Aye. Opposed. Nay. Nay. Okay. I do think
090it was four to three at 10 cents. Did KJ did you get that? Okay. Okay. We did it and we'll see what the county does. It's out of our hands. So thanks everybody. If we could and this shouldn't take us long could we Maggie can we turn to calendar? You got what you needed from us, right? >> I'm ready for calendar. >> Thanks everybody. mental anguish All right. So yes, we took the information that we got the feedback took that back to the calendar committee. Just there's some reminders here about all the legislation reminders what we have with calendars, clarification on what we have for instructional days and how many minutes we get to log each day um So the recommendation from the calendar committee after feeling that is going ahead and moving that spring
091break to align with Buncombe County for the 27 26 27 school year. The other thing they recommended is this is a recommendation that would be coming forward with the new 27 28 calendar is to add a late start once a month so that the high school middle schools can do professional learning and data dives. This was 26 27? That's what the calendar say. Yeah. I'm so sorry. I thought I heard you say 27 28. The late starts? Okay. So to yeah. So the calendar committee currently is working on the 27 28 calendar. They went back and looked again at 26 27 because of the board's request. So because of this opportunity for an different for a change to be put forward for 26 27, they wanted to also move that recommendation instead of waiting until
09227 28 to pull it to this It would be I think. It would be. Yes, so it would be. So that's their request is that the board would change the spring breaks to align but then also approve a late start in September, October, November, December, January, February, March and April and May just for secondary schools so that they have time to do professional learning and planning which is very difficult particularly for the high school um because they all over the place with planning doing after school planning is very difficult because of their the sports and the kids. So um the those two >> right Maggie? Say. A little different. We have done this before. Yes. So and the board could approve both of those, one of those or neither of those. As a clarifying question,
093the last time we did this, we included was it two late starts a month and we also included elementary? We did include elementary. The concern was for parents finding child care where I'm on board. I'm on board but I just >> were not planning on doing secondary. Elementary already has some pretty decent time embedded before or after or during the day for PD that they can get together. So that's why we were really focusing on the needs for the high school and middle school will benefit from this because they also they ride the same bus route. So And but last time we had it twice a month or we were shooting for twice a month. Is that accurate? >> We're starting with once a month just to see what we can get done. >> Last
094time. Yes. Oh, I don't know what was done last time. It was it was too much. I'm very comfortable with what you've proposed. This is really solid. Maggie, do you have a sense I'm thinking about pri- elementary on a regular bus schedule and then secondary on a late start bus schedule. How that could impact our bus drivers in terms of their workload and that kind of thing? The concern was for dual employees this IAs that are also but we're actually also moving away from having dual employees so this won't be as much of an issue. So we are moving towards like you're a bus driver, you're a bus driver. Custodian custodian. Bus drivers aren't as much of a problem but the IAs what we find is they miss their routes a lot and are not
095able to do their routes or they're missing out on things at schools. We're trying to separate those two anyways. For example, a bus driver who's driving you know 4:32 Yeah. Um >> [clears throat] >> typically you know, he's dropping off at whatever schools and then and then immediately going back out. >> Right. So now they'll have some downtime. Are we do we have a sense of what that might mean like payroll wise like if they have their downtime >> on the clock. Okay. Yeah, that's fine. I mean, it's fine by me. I just wanted to make sure. That's all right. Okay. It wouldn't affect their pay negatively. I'm generally in favor of going where the committee is recommending and that stays true and I I do think that we did cuz I had an elementary
096schooler and a middle schooler when they weren't like the elementary school didn't get the late start and the middle school did and I have a memory that there were some lessons learned about what didn't work about that. So if there's anybody with institutional memory so that we don't just try something we tried and then repeat what didn't work about it because everything you're saying makes sense to me. I I remember that they were all on a late start. And there was a time where my middle schooler was home and my elementary schooler was. Yeah, got you. So just if that if there's something there that can be looked at but cuz I it makes it does make so much sense. I'm in favor. I don't know if April or anyone has some memory of that.
097I don't know. I think I was your child's principal when that happened and I don't I don't remember it the same way. When I was there. Okay. I'm sorry. I don't re- Melissa do you do you Sorry, I wasn't on my I had a different email. And if I'm wrong that's totally fine. I just I think Sorry Rebecca. wanting to make sure that when things have been tried and there's lessons learned that we we don't lose those lessons. I make a motion that we adopt both. Second. All those in favor. I. I. I. Any opposed? It is unanimous. May May I ask that staff look at for families that need to drop off early in some situations for the particularly for the middle school that we just explore what kind of options might be available.
098Okay. Um I'm calling the question. There was talk of adding something to the agenda. Is that still relevant? I mean happy wanted to add to the agenda. I was requesting 5 to 10 minutes to either get a brief overview of civil enforcement for school bus arm violations. Um I'm really moved by a video that was in the presentation. Is there a second for this to be discussed tonight? >> Second. The person I would like to talk to just principal. Okay. That would be the person I would like But I can I can I was with her. I can I'll help I'll help her with that. Okay, there's a motion and a second. Do we want to amend the agenda to add a discussion of the um the rules around guns on school buses to tonight's
099agenda. >> It's it's not guns. It's not guns. I'm sorry. He said stop arm violations. It it's it's Arms. Arms. Arms. I will just say that that's so funny. I'm sorry. You're just wonderful. [laughter] I'm going to say that there is no way in the world that this board is going to discuss that in 5 to 10 minutes and I have this is the first week in a million years and I'm it was hard for me to cast that vote a minute ago about the calendar because I really don't like spring break during Holy Week. That's important to me. So, I am going to church tonight and I'm and this is the first time I've been able to go many time years to Monday Thursday, so I am going to vote no. Okay. Okay, so
100we have a motion and a second. Just so you know, you've got three no's right here. So, I'm looking at George and Rebecca. We going to Just No. Okay. No. So, we will take it up at another meeting. Yeah, we'll figure out how right. Folks, hold on. We got one more motion and I swear to God it better be unanimous. I am pointing everybody to the announcements on your agenda and is there a motion to adjourn? I move that we adjourn. Second. All those in favor. I. I. I. Thanks everybody. Yeah.