001Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here. I'm going to um call our meeting to order and uh board member Pepia Sabbo will start by reading our equity statement. 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 ACS community. We will model our commitment to equity through our practices and decisions. 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. Um, board member Amy Ray is sick and is not able to join us tonight, but we otherwise have a quorum. And at this time, we will stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge
002of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic >> for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. I have um three proposed um amendments to our agenda before we approve it. And one of those is noting that action, excuse me, paragraph 5.1, policies on first read, is not an action item. We'll discuss it and then it'll go on for second read next month. But just clarifying, it's not an action item, but we will be adding uh 5.2, which will be a nomination to the schoolboard association's legislative committee. So, we will take that up. And then the last um requested change is to move the board chair comments from the very end to the very beginning just so I can
003lead with some updates. >> Is there a motion? >> Move that we approve the agenda as amended. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> There's a second. All in favor? >> I opposed. Okay. Thanks everyone. Um so at this time made myself the beginning of the agenda. Um, just wanted to update folks on a couple things. Apologies while I, uh, get my notes. Um, one of them is, um, and board members had seen this in an email, but just wanted to let everybody know. Um, there's been a lot of discussion about alignment of the school calendar. And so, the, uh, district calendar committee has been asked to relook at this issue about spring break for 2027. The calendar committee meets next Monday, the 16th. Um, so we will hear back from them after that. So that
004was just an update I wanted to give you. Um, and I'm so sorry. There are three things and I've at the moment forgotten the second one. >> Oh, thank you. Uh, the second one is just an update and an apology. Um, I sat down there last week and talked about the meet, confer, collaborate meeting and said it was last Wednesday and I apologize to the board members who tked over there because I was wrong. Um, and so it is this Wednesday. Um, and so, uh, Liza is going and Pepe and then either George or myself will attend. Amy was going to go last week, but she cannot go this week. So, just wanted to clarify about the MCC and my apologies about that. Um, the last thing I just wanted to give everybody an update
005about is we had an excellent um, meeting on February 20th with a group of alumni from the Stevens, excuse me, South French Broad High School alumni group. It was the folks who had signed, you all will remember, um, there was a letter submitted in 2020 asking for a marker for the um, acknowledging the existence and the history of South French Broad High School. um and nothing moved forward in 2020. This board met last fall and we approved the marker. And so with the help of a lot of people um Maggie and myself and several others met with a group of I don't know 18 or 20 folks and heard from them about what they want on this marker. Um, and it was a really good meeting and I think there's a lot of um, things
006that we can do to acknowledge that this was a high school that existed and was part of our district but is mostly um, people don't know that history. Um, so we are gathering more information about the marker. Um, and I'll be making more reports back to you, but just wanted you to know that moving forward. So that's it for board chair comments. Um, so at this time I will turn it over to Kim Deck for good news. >> Good evening board. Dr. Ferman, we have a lot of good news this evening. And first of all, we want to start off with each year the Asheville City Schools Foundation host a community event that reminds us of the vital role our public local public schools play in our community. And this year's ed talks where education
007is freedom. It was a powerful testament to our collective power when we choose to invest in public education. This TEDex style event invited our community to reimagine public education as the heartbeat of our democracy, centering the voices of educators and students through powerful talks, multimedia experiences, and a district-wide art show that showcased our students creative interpretations of justice and freedom. We had the distinct privilege of hearing from four of our outstanding educators, Mr. Jerome Hughes, Mr. Jesse Pit, and Miss Jessica Williams. And congratulations to the now Dr. Gabriel Alshir, uh, whose wisdom reminded us that when we invest in our educators and uplift student voices, we are building a brighter and more equitable future for all. We want to expand extend a special thank you to Copeland Rudolph, the foundation executive director, the entire Ashallc
008Schools Foundation team for all of the hard work and hours that went into putting this event together, and to our incredible educators who shared their stories and spoke from the heart and for the many students and staff whose hard work made this celebration of public education and freedom possible. So, if um the teachers and Copelan who were involved in TEDex will come to the front and we're going to get a picture of you at the board. All right. And Gabriel, just be prepared. Your students will ask you now if you can do surgery. They have they equate this with like you have your doctorate, so this means you can do surgery. So, we also want to congratulate Heidi Karns. Our chief financial officer was one of uh was one out of 11 recognized at the
009Southeastern Association of School Business Officials for exemplifying distinction and leadership. Heidi met and exceeded the required qualification in experience, education, professional development, and leadership. Congratulations to Heidi. If you'll stand and be recognized. Michelle could not be with us this evening, but she let Maril Lee know that she will be watching uh our live stream. And so we are proud to recognize Michelle Dang, French teacher at Asheville High School for receiving the CEL teacher travel scholarship from the Southern Conference on Language Teaching. This summer she will travel to Strawburg, France for a two-week residency to deepen her linguistic and cultural cultural expertise. Miss Delang will share her insights through an article in the SCOL talk and a digital resource for world language educators. In addition, she will receive she has received a $500 world languages grant
010for her project phenomenonbased learning in the French classroom which is scheduled for April and May. We are proud of her dedication and pursuit of excellence. In February, Asheville City Schools participated in a historic statewide event organized by the Duke School of Medicine to break the world record for handsonly CPR training. While the global record remains, we are thrilled to announce that North Carolina successfully trained 19,739 people, the most ever trained in a single day in the United States, and the largest coordinated CPR event in world history. Our district played a pivotal role in this success. With 548 students and staff at Asheville High School, William Randolph, and Isaac Dixon Elementary receiving these life-saving skills, Asheville City Schools accounted for 89% of the individuals trained in Bunkham County alone. Significantly enhancing enhancing the safety and resilience
011of our community. We would like for Josh Riggsby to stand and extend a special thanks to our district safety OFFICER for his leadership in spearheading this initiative. Thank you, Josh. Last week was Read Across America Week, a nationwide tribute to the joy of reading and the foundational power of literacy. From our primary classrooms to our secondaries, the schools, the week was filled with literacy activities as we welcomed guest authors, central office staff, board members, and parent volunteers who read their favorite books aloud with their students. We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to every volunteer and educator who helped turn our hallways into hubs of imagination, proving that when our community reads together, we grow together. Several of us had the opportunity to go over to Lucia's hearing this past Friday for the ribbon
012cutting and we got to see the cutest little kids in the world. Um Asheville City Schools is proud to host the formal ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open our new infant and toddler classroom at Lucy Serring Elementary. This is a huge milestone for our district, welcoming our youngest learners, ages six to 18 months old. We are honored to welcome these tiny cougars into our care and look forward to watching them grow with us. I thought Dr. Ferman was going to put one in her pocket and take it home with her. We want to thank our preschool director, Susanna Smith, along with our dedicated prek and infant toddler staff, whose hard work and expertise have brought this classroom to life, as well as our maintenance team who work diligently to ensure this space is safe and
013perfectly equipped for our youngest learners. So, if Susanna and will come up to the front and be recognized, and we would love to get your picture as well. And and uh if doc Dr. Frank will join him too. Thank you. We got one more coming. And if you haven't already noticed, we have some Frisbee players in the house. Um, we are proud to celebrate the Asheville Middle School Ultimate Frisbee Varsity Team for their historic victory at the middle school state championship in Raleigh. The team went undefeated with a 6-0 record, marking the first time an Asheville team has ever won a tournament in the triangle. A region re renowned for elite competition, this championship is a testament to the in students dedication. Many of these athletes began in the developmental division two years ago and
014practiced year round to reach this incredible milestone. Additionally, the JV team showed great promise by going 3-2 and breaking seed in their very first tournament. We congratulate these student athletes and their coaches for their perseverance and look forward to the start of the spring season. If you'll come on up and have your picture made at the board a And while you're getting your picture made, I want to say thank you to all your parents who are here to support you. That's amazing. And and for getting you to and from practice. >> Okay. Thank you. Last week, Asheville School celebrated National School Social Worker Week. Our school social workers serve as the essential bridge between home, school, and the community. They are champions for equity, expert navigators of community resources, and fierce advocates for our families
015during their most challenging moments. We are deeply grateful for their expertise, their compassion, and their unwavering love for our students. At this time, I would like for Leette Campbell and Kim Robinson to come up. Oh, you're fine. >> Good evening. >> As Dr. Deck mentioned, last week was school social worker week. Uh, also recognizing this whole month is social worker month. And so, um, our school social worker of the year who, um, I guess if they look around, see that they're the only extra student services person and see Dr. Cob right here. I think they figured out that they're school social worker of the year. So, if Miss Abby would come UP HERE, Miss Abby is not feeling well today, but she showed up as always. Miss Abby is a constant and consistent, deeply committed
016to supporting families as she serves them. She const um consistently demonstrates professionalism and models and care of the ethic values of social work in her daily practice. Abby approaches her work with integrity, compassion, and respect, ensuring that families feel supported and valued. Her dedication, reliability, and ethical approach make her a strong advocate for students and families and a positive example within the profession. Thank you, Miss Abby, for your years of service and how you continue to show up, good days, bad days, with a smile. She can get a little grumpy, but she but Miss Abby always comes back around and says, "I'm sorry. I was just, you know, and I never take it personal cuz you don't mean any harm." Thank you so much for your years of dedication. >> Thank you. I am very
017excited that I get a chance to say something um about Miss Abby, who I think is the best social worker ever. Miss Abby keeps all of us in line, staff, students, parents, you name it, she keeps us all in line. Miss Abby, um you do you show up in a very unwavering way. You come to work every day, smile on your face, you say good morning to everyone. You're out in the car line in the morning greeting families. And then you come in the building. You help to bring such sunshine and light into the work that we do every day. You have such a great heart. And I know that whatever you do, you do it with love and passion um for all the families. And I appreciate you. I appreciate all that you've done
018for the Jones community. We love you so much, Miss Abby. Oh, yeah. And Claxton, too. Sure. We have this thing with Miss Abby when she's at our school, she can't wear any um Claxton t-shirt. And we always tell her she has to represent our school and she always has to say there's no place like Jones. So, Miss Abby, we love you very much. >> Yes. Miss Abby, we do love you. I have to tell this one quick thing. I will never forget when I was doing my junior my internship with Miss Abby and she called me at like 7:06. Levette, what are they doing? I said, Miss Abby is seven. We have to pick up the kids then Kleinike. I said, well, I'll go to Klondike and you go to Hillrest. I said, what is
019she doing? and Miss Abby. It was like we were the Asheville City School transportation little kids. It was a first grader called Miss Abby said, "My mom won't wake up and I miss the bus, but I want to come to school." So, it's not it wasn't a week that went by that you didn't get a call like that. And so, what you did, you gave the student your number and said, "Your mama don't wake up. You call me." And guess what he did? Called you. and we went over there plenty of times to get him ready for school and bring him to the school. So, that's just part of the behind the scenes that goes on in the social worker world. So, thank you, Miss Abby. >> Thank you, Miss Abby. Give it to me.
020And last but not least, be a champion for public schools. um to every month. This is just a sampling, a tiny sampling of all the amazing things that are happening in our within our school district from our educators to our classrooms to our students. And so, please go and support public schools. And you can follow us on at on Instagram and on Facebook and see every day all the amazing things that are happening in Asheville City Schools. And uh we hope that before you leave here today, if you're not following us, you'll get your phones out and follow us on both of these um social media platforms. Um thank you. And that concludes good news for the month of March. Thank you. We will now move to public comment. Um, the board of education greatly
021appreciates your interest in Asheville City Schools and we welcome your comments to the board. The guidelines are set out in policy 2310. A reminder that personnel and student matters are confidential and are therefore 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. And we have two individuals signed up for public comment. And so they will get three minutes each. And first is Laura Gznell. >> Good evening. My name is Laura Gznell and I'm the mom of two students with Asheville City Schools. One will be a freshman and one will be a senior next year at Asheville High School. I also teach for Bunkome County High or Bunkome County Schools as a middle school teacher. I'm here tonight to
022request the board and I was happy to hear that the calendar committee will be taking another look at the 2627 school year calendar as it pertains to spring break. I know calendar committees work really hard to balance a variety of needs for our community. I do question the wisdom of how early they made their scheduled decisions and I'm happy to hear they're taking another look. It is my understanding that Bunkham County schools align their spring break with ABTH as many of their students do attend ABTH. I also know many Asheville High School students attend ABT. And in fact, it's put out there as a shining star of why you should enroll your students at Asheville High School. A Tech's right there. They can just walk up and take their classes. I have a rising senior
023who plans to take advantage of that next year. If the school district decides to leave spring break where it is, our family faces a senior with no spring break at all and us missing our last spring break with our son at home. It seems that there are three entities here, AB Techch, Bunkome County Schools, and Asheville City Schools that work really closely with one another and sure work really closely with one another to create a calendar that works for educators and their families. My kids are high schoolers. We're not changing their school, but I can confidently say that if they were younger, our family would look at one of two options. moving them into Bunkham County schools where I work or honestly and we would hate to do this because we work hard to have
024our kids at school every day that school's in session but pull them the week of my spring break so we could vacation together. We won't because they're high schoolers, but I know that families with younger kids may look at these options. So again, I'm happy to hear you're reooking at it. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Next we have Sally Growl. Hello, Superintendent of Asheville City Schools Board of Education. Thank you so much for the hard work you do for our students and thank you for taking the time to listen to me today. My name is Sally Grow and I have two kids at Claxton Elementary. They are eight and 10 years old. Um, I recognize that much of the work you do is big picture work with committees, budgets, annual reports, etc.
025What I'm asking you to do today is think of families. The calendar mismatch impacts, as you pointed out last night, only a small percentage of APS, ACS families, but those families are real kids and parents. My family is one of them. My next door neighbor has one child in ACS and two kids in BCS. Um, my neighbor down the street teaches for Bunkham County like um my this um other commenter and her two young daughters are in ACS. She's a single mom. You know, there are layers of complexity here with this calendar mismatch. And again, these are just a few examples of families who cross school districts. Um, I emailed you, um, and thank you again for reading all of my emails. Um, dozens of examples and comments from other families who are impacted. Um,
026spring break means a lot to parents. It's the one week between Christmas break and summer break that we get to be with our kids. Um, if the calendar mismatch is not resolved, we would we don't get that time. Um, kids and parents are busy. School, work, activities, sports. Sometimes it feels like we don't have a moment to just be together. What spring break gives families is little moments. Having time to get up a little later, read on the couch with our kids in everyone's pajamas, make chocolate chip pancakes, take a walk to the park to roller skate. Just little things. And And we don't have to get up with our 6 a.m. alarm and go in a million directions. We can just have time together. No one is trying to disrespect the hard work of
027the calendar committee. That committee didn't have the dates of the Bunkham County spring break when it created the Asheville City Schools 2026 27 calendar. If they had and if they had been aware of the greater impact to the community, I imagine they would have chosen to prioritize aligning the spring breaks. Spring break 2027 is still over a year away. There is plenty of time to make this change and there's no reason not to. Please consider the families that will be impacted by your decision. It's such a small ask and it would be such a huge gesture to the families who are impacted. Thank you again for taking the time to listen to me today. And my eight and 10 yearear-olds say they would really miss mom. Thank you. We appreciate everyone's comments tonight. Um that
028concludes our in-person public comment. Um, and at this time I'm going to turn us to our consent agenda with uh just a reminder about what is included. We have draft minutes from our February 2nd meeting, excuse me, our February 2nd work session. Um, our close session minutes from February 2nd, our regular meeting on February 9th. We have the approval of the Danish exchange program that we heard about last week. We also have um three contracts and memorandum, excuse me, three contracts um for approval that we discussed last week. One is with Capital Chevrolet for the fleet vehicles. One is with Trafera for the next um set of seems like we're always I can't find what they're called. Chromebooks, that's what they're called. Um and then last one that we spent a particular time talking about
029last week is to approve um the contract with Vanoi Construction for the renovations at Hall Fletcher. And we went through that in great detail about the coming from our local capital. So, oh, and I'm sorry, and last on the person, excuse me, last on the consent agenda is the personnel report from our March meeting. So, all of these are before us on the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. >> Second. There's a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> I. >> Yep. Okay. The consent agenda items are approved unanimously. >> He said I. You said I, right, Pebb? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yes. It just took me a moment to turn on my mic. >> Um, so at this time we're going to move to
030item 5.1, which is not an action item, but just to talk about the revised policy code 3000. and I will turn it over to Maggie if I can. Uh yes, so we um did the policy. This is policy first read. Um it is available if the board wants to go ahead and move it forward and approve it tonight. There's no I mean we can do that tonight. There's no need to rush it through. Um but yeah, this is the the revisions that we looked at at the work session a week ago. And um any questions or updates or um discussion from the board on that one? I I'll tell other board members. I had two small grammatical edits that I sent Maggie this weekend and she made them. Um they were small. But other comments,
031board members, >> there there are a few nitpicky details like using the Oxford comma in the last paragraph because we're using it elsewhere. Um, and I did have some questions about um the bit about uh ability to read, write, and speak the English language. um whether we want to specify that that's for diverse I don't know exactly the right words but you know whether we want for you know personal and professional or we want to be more expansive about that um and um I wanted to ask um our superintendent about the exploring core disciplinary ary concepts um had whether that was the conversation that we had last week about interdisciplinary concepts >> because I'm I'm I'm not recalling >> exploring I mean I love talking about approaches to discipline but I don't think that's what
032you what you have in mind >> yeah sorry I missed that one and then um the English language one I mean that's something that the board would if they want to discuss they can but thank you for the discipline one I I realiz Realize I missed that one. >> Okay. >> And I'm sorry. I just Can you catch me up to that what you all are talking about? Is it something that's not here that should be I'm not I didn't follow that >> the English language. >> No, the other one. >> The other one >> something about explore and something >> there was like interdisciplinary but it says broad disciplinary and it just needs to be inter instead of broad. >> Okay. Y >> So it's a change we talked about last week that didn't
033get made. Okay. Sorry I just couldn't track that one. Uh there's a little bit of a noise thing from where I'm sitting from where you're sitting. Um so I didn't quite catch that. Um it's perhaps changing the word disciplinary to interdisciplinary. Um and then the other thing was um there is a statement about uh demonstrate proficiency not only on grade level instruction standards as outlined by the state board of education but also a a deeper uh understanding across and between all disciplines including but not limited to the ability to read, write and speak the English language. the fundamental mathematics and physical science to function effectively in a complex and changing society. And there's something in there that makes the English language piece seem really basic, but I think that the the goal there is to
034expand upon the basics. So, it just struck me as odd. If you were to leave it where it is, it does need an extra and before the the fundamentals, but I don't know if you want to be more expansive about the ability to function on multiple levels or however because read, write, speak is it seems like it's it's not the the level that you're going for. But, you know, I don't know exactly what the what the intent is. And I'll also say this is really good and I'm excited about this. I know Maggie's looking some things up. I just to remind everybody, this came from feedback from lots of con stakeholder groups. Um, and as we talked about last week, it all just kind of got cut and pasted in there. And I think what
035we're doing now is just some cleanup. So, I think if I've followed um, Pepe's question to the board is on that particular bullet point and I I went to open policy 3000 and now I don't have it in front of me, but it's the one that talks about the English language. Um, I think he's noting that either there's some grammatical syntax or something that needs to be corrected or did we mean to be saying more about English language? Okay, so I'm going to I mean I need to hear from other board members what y'all are thinking. I appreciate >> you asking those questions, Pepe. And one question that stuck out to me as I read this was the mention of the English language specifically but not foreign language um with the knowledge that you know
036not only are students going to be here but elsewhere too and as as global citizens. And so just overall I'm fine with this moving on to second read and leaving it in the hands of the superintendent to tweak. Um it could be striking the English language piece and the rest of it reading something like the fundamentals of mathematics, physical science, language >> and arts and then other things are covered elsewhere or it could be something different. But I just at this point I'm comfortable leaving it in the superintendent's hands. >> I one of the things that I just wanted to elevate as part of this conversation and I'm if I'm misremembering it, correct me. You know, we've we've been looking at this for a while and what I have our current policy 3000 which is
037not very inspiring and that that was where we started. We are and we are required to have policy 3000. every LEA must have it and most just have this uninspiring sound basic education language and what we're choosing to do is say our students deserve so much more. So we're taking what I think is what we're legally required to have and saying we will elevate it. So I'm curious if there's elements that must be there because they are the first bullet on the state required one is develop sufficient ability to read, write and speak the English language. That's where that sits right now in our current policy. Um and then as well as mathematics and physical science. And so if it's I guess I'd propose that if the language is starting to feel wonky, maybe we
038separate it so that it's clear we're complying, but we're also elevating because that's that's what we're bringing together, right? I I appreciate that, Rebecca. Um and then having the perspective of where our current policy sits is helpful. Um, I'm just recalling our our meeting with the student advisory council last week where the push was the a desire for engaging curriculum >> and joy in the classroom and the arts and and foreign language and and the whole experience is where that lies. So, I just I feel like it it just needed to be e either fleshed out um or worded in a way that's more comprehensive just to convey. appreciating um Rebecca's insight, perhaps we can have it all with um something along the lines of demonstrate proficiency not only on grade level instructional standards as
039outlined by the state board of education and the ability to read, write and speak the English language. you know, put those together, but also a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of mathematics, uh, physical science, um, uh, arts and language to, etc., etc. But there might be a way to group it differently where we put the requirements and then extend from there. First, I hate that I was not here last week um to hear from those students. So, I know that I might be coming in a little uh a little more blind. That's not the way to say that. Um I think in general this bullet point that we're f focusing on, it's just it's a clunky sentence, so it's hard to kind of parse out. So, to everybody's point, um, if it needs to be
040separated out into an extra bullet point, yeah, to to Pepe's point, I'm happy to charge the superintendent, her staff to kind of clean up that language. I do have, having just said that, I do have a a sticking point or question about the difference between the word on and in. So proficiency on to me feels like it's about passing a test whereas proficiency in to me feels like a more holistic understanding of and demon uh you know there are different ways to demonstrate. So I understand that's a very nitpicky word but I would uplift that we're asking for students to be proficient in something not just on it. any other comments? And what I'm gathering is on that particular bullet point, which may be broken into more than one bullet point, um we're going to
041let Maggie and her staff do it, but knowing that we'll have a chance to see it next month and again do some, you know, minor edits as needed. Are you all comfortable with this going on to second read? I'm just looking for heads to nod. Okay, great. Maggie, we really appreciate your help with this. Um, we know how important these reform policies are. Um, okay. Next, uh, one action item. Board members, I had, this had gotten past me, but I went back and found it. Um, on January 29th, we all got an email from the, um, North Carolina School Board Association. They're forming a legislative committee and each local school board can nominate one member to serve as an atlarge member on that committee. Um, and so, uh, George has indicated a desire to serve
042on that committee. And so it requires our action tonight. >> I'd like to make a motion that we nominate George Seabourg to serve on the SBA legislative committee. >> Thank you. >> And I'll second. >> Thank you. Is there any discussion about that? I I would just like to say I'm also interested, but George, take one for the team and and uh and uh I understand it's a very hard job. Um and thank you for stepping up to do it. >> I appreciate that, Pepe. I I'll be honest that that email initially escaped my notice. Uh, and at the course I was at last week in Chapel Hill with other elected officials, there was a schoolboard member from one of our western counties who approached me and said, you know, the West doesn't have a
043great um presence on this legislative committee. And so, they recommended that someone from our um board join it. And yes, I'm I'm happy to do it. I I think um yeah having some voice from the western part of the state would be helpful to have um for for those who the larger community we h I have to apply. There's no guarantee that just putting that name forward means that I would sit on that committee. So I will have an application that's due by March 27th. I'll get that completed and then we'll go from there if again if my nomination is is accepted. Um, I'm about to call for a vote, but George, just so I don't forget, if you will work with KJ about anything you need officially from us, I think she can help
044move that forward. Correct. I get I don't know what you need from us, but >> um, so we have a motion and a second in front of us. All those in favor of George serving on the legislative committee, >> I unanimous. Give them hell, George. >> Um, is that what I'm supposed to do? Sure. Um the uh I think it's I lost the last of my agenda, but I think it's the last item on our agenda is the superintendent report. >> All right, good evening board and everyone here this evening. A few remarks for tonight. I wanted to give an overview. We've collected some data. Um Dr. Jackson shared a very similar presentation with his board. Um and linking into meet, confer, collaborate, they have asked or they will be asking this Wednesday that the
045board um consider writing a um what do you call it? Not a petition of support, >> a resolution. Thank you. A resolution to send in saying um you know, kind of sharing with legislators that our EC funding formula needs to be addressed sooner than later. So, I'm going to share some data with the board on our current funding and then give a quick update on strategic plan. Um, so in Asheville City Schools, we have 640 um school age students with special education needs from a on a variety of different levels of support. Some may be speechonly students. Some may be students that just need, you know, small consultative services to students that are having pretty significant needs and um get a lot of interventions and support throughout the school day. Um so just so kind
046of show you some numbers. Uh this year in our EC program, we have 35 preschool students. Um and we also serve students aged kindergarten through 21 and that is 640 students which is 16 almost 17% of our total um ADM. But then just looking at our school age student or um taking in three that whole total it's 675. So you can see we're got a pretty significant portion of our um students needing services of some or another. Uh last year just for comparison we had 45 students in prek. For kindergarten through age 21 we had um which was 14 5% and then 3 to 21 was 586. Um so you can see the percentages there. So just as a comparison we decreased by 10 students in prek um but we've increased about 100 students um
047kindergarten through 21 and 89 students 3 through 21. So seeing growth in our number of students that we're serving and then looking at our aotment that we get from the state. There's also federal funds that come in for this, but this is really just looking at the state. So our initial aotment last year was just over $3 million. Um and they did an a midyear adjustment at some point and we got another hund just over $100,000 for a final aotment for EC students of just $3.1 million. Um this year we kind of start off with a little bit more that 3.103,16,000. Um but we haven't had any midyear aotment adjustments this year. So that stays the same. So when you look at our aotment compared to last year, and remember we're serving about 100 more
048students, it looks like we got about 86 from the initial aotment. When we look at the final aotment, we're actually getting less money um for EC services this year than we got last year by about $25,000. Um so because we the state funds us at only 13%. So if we have more than 13% of the students receiving EC services, we get zero extra dollars for that. So they say they look at the overall kind of um funds that come in through to the account is 500 and quote for up to 13%. We get that $5,593 per student but because it's capped at 13 we have to make that per pupil aotment go further. Um so we really only receive 5,136. And I'm going to try to make eye contact with Heidi so she can correct
049me if I get anything wrong. Um so taking that even further looking at kind of where well where are we short on students so or short on you know what we would hope to have funding for. So like I said we get 13% is the funding cap. We're have about 16.7 of our students. So it's a pretty significant gap. Um so number-wise that's 140 EC students that we're not getting ser funding from the state for. So, a shortfall of about 700,000. Um, but then looking at last year's per pupil, what we actually spent at the end of the year, we spent over $13,000 per EC student. Now, some of them it's a lot more, some of them it may not be. Um, but just depending on our overall budget, um, you can see that we
050are spending um, just over $13,000 per student when we look at all the staffing and services that we provide. So just kind of a capture here, we are supposed to earn 5,500 per student, but when we divide up that per pupil across all the students, it's more like 5,100 and then what we actually spend is 13.4 13,400. So, so you can kind of just see the difference in what we're spending and investing in our EC programming versus what we're actually earning from the state. Um, so wanted to share that with the board. Um at the meet confer collaborate meeting this Wednesday we are going to talk about they're going to recommend a a resolution. They bringing a copy I also have the copy of the Bunkham County one. So if this is something the board
051would like to endorse or or review we can bring this um to a future meeting for our board as well. >> Maggie, can I ask a question? >> Yes. >> Between uh let's see where am I? I think it's between slide eight and nine. >> Mhm. So, I'm showing on nine it says a shortfall of 783,000 and then on eight it says a shortfall of 938,000. So, >> Heidi helped me update some numbers. So, >> I'll send you updated. Yeah, closer to >> 700. Okay. It's still significant. I just want >> Still significant. Yes. Yeah. >> So, those two numbers, it's is it one number or the other or do you add them together or is there overlap? >> Forget about the one that said closer to a million dollars. Forget that cuz the way
052we c the way like Holly had worked on this and calculated some numbers and then Heidi took a look and updated it for me. >> And the updated numbers are in the 783,000. >> Yes. From about the 700. >> Okay. Thank you for clarifying. >> Yep. You're welcome. Do you know, Dr. Ferman, I I um had the experience of hearing Heidi describe a there's some advocacy towards it's not gone anywhere yet, but towards EC funding looking more like paying for services rather than these student caps. Is that going to be part is that part of the BCS resolution at all? This switching to a different funding model? >> Yeah, I haven't read their resolution what they're advocating for. I've got a copy in my inbox to take a look at it. Um, but I will
053look at that and the board wants we can draft a resolution that we can bring for your consideration. >> Great. >> I would be open to um uh addressing that resolution at the board retreat if we if the rest of the board is okay with that. Um, I know that Bunkham County Schools passed theirs last week >> and I would like for us to be able to match up with their effort and and complement their effort if we can do so in a timely manner. >> Okay. >> I'll see if we have time to put some language together. I don't know that I will or that we have time on the agenda, but we'll do see what we can do. >> Yeah, I'm sure it's going to depend on what what happens at MCC. I
054just wanted to ask a a clarifying question. Um, so the the funding per EC student is the 5,593 number that's not on top of per pupil. Heidi, will you clarify that for me? Thank you. It probably is on time. So um Holly and Connie gave the basic numbers to Dr. for Maggie which was the 032 main state aotment and then also looking at the number all the student counts you know they keep up with that on a daily basis but um if we give you um we and we have given you in the past the more detailed number each year throughout the year we get special little pots of EC money as Dr. Maggie mentioned a minute ago, we have the federal pot. We also get the Medicaid reimbursement. So, if we go into the
055nitty-gritty detail of this, it's a lot more complicated. So, the the shortfall was just addressing that that main state pot of money. But back to the point about the services model, if it's not in the Buckham resolution, which I would hope that it is, we definitely should consider adding it in ours because that would make them the biggest impact the most quickly is if they would make some movement toward that servicesbased model because like Dr. Maggie said, some speech only kids don't cost us nearly $13,000. within an autistic or other service driven child that needs multiple services might cost us $50,000. So, um that that would be imperative to getting this gap in the funding fixed. >> I appreciate you clarifying that. That's what I suspected, but I wanted to make sure that everybody following
056along at home was aware of that. Um, okay. This is strategic plan. We have been rocking and rolling and um working on some communications, packaging, getting the marketing part ready for our strategic plan. Um and have been getting a lot of positive feedback on our campaign model, which is you can get it all in Asheville City Schools. So, we're happy about that. Um we are getting ready to land this strategic planning plan. Um getting getting right there to the to the cusp of things. Um so we are still building action plans. We have a meeting next week to kind of put all that put stuff together on the action plans um which will then inform and get our presentation ready for April 13th which is the work session in April. Um which will be we're
057kind of using that April 13th as the launch date for strategic planning. Um, and that following week, we're going to be doing a lot of communications, a lot of social media, getting people aware that that is coming out. And we're also going to picked a date for a town hall presentation. Um, so trying to get some more logistics on that so we can make sure everyone is aware and um, understands what's in the plan and and provide feedback before it comes back to the board for approval in May. Um it was really exciting last week to do the student vision setting session. Um we had about 20 of our 25 student advisory council members come and they did a visualization and then they started putting their ideas on paper and then they got in pairs
058and started grouping it and really then coming up with some clusters or what sometimes are called vision elements. Um, and then we're able to really clearly pick five elements that they feel should be in our vision as a school system. Um, you will get a copy of what they created at our retreat on the 19th. Um, and that what they're working on now and in between then is looking at all they created and actually going to be drafting some vision statements for the board's consideration on the 19th. So, really exciting. and and Liza and Rebecca had an opportunity to um join us to kind of set the agenda for the 19th um for the vision setting component and got to hear from two amazing students. Um and they are just full of energy and excitement
059and have a very clear idea about what they want to see in our school system um when it comes to what they what education means to them. So really exciting work on that and it was just a joy to be a part of their team that day. Um, so that that concludes my remarks for this evening. Any questions or further discussion? >> Um, can we get a copy of that uh maybe at least the day before so we can pre-eread? >> It's embedded in the with the work we're doing. So, she's got a very particular kind of way she's going to roll this out for you guys um and how you're going to then add on to their work. So, she's going to share that with you at the at the meeting on the 19th.
060>> Okay. Well, it's it's my request to be able to read the this work that has been done maybe the day before. So, that's my request. >> I know that I don't make the decision. >> Just um just on that note to remind folks about the retreat. Um, you got the agenda today. Part of the retreat is looking at some performance indicators and doing some other work. And then Kathleen Oto will be back with us one more time to finish the work. Um, we started the year with the mission statement. The uh student group has been working on the vision statement and that will come back to us and then our group us worked on the um core values. So part At my request, uh Rebecca and Liza participated last week so that the two
061of them could start to pull this together for the board so that we do not have to reinvent the wheel on this. I'm um I think strategic planning is almost done. It's ready to be launched. It's very exciting and speaking just for myself, I don't want us to die in the details at the end. Um and so that is the hope is that Liza and Rebecca will work on getting as something um as a board. So just reminding folks about that. Um but very grateful for all the work that the strategic planning folks have done over the past many months. Um we are at the end of the agenda. I would point your attention to announcements and future meetings listed. Um, I know some people are excited about spring break. Um, and we will meet
062again as a board at our retreat. >> Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Move that we adjourn. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? And thanks everyone.