001e e e e e e good evening and welcome to the final uh regular board meeting for Asheville City schools for the 2023 2024 school year thank you everyone for who is here tonight in person and I can imagine we have some people online as well uh we have a full house so um there are some extra seats here in the front if anyone wants to come find some seats here in the front we do have a packed house Pep's raising his hand you're welcome to come and join him here in the front um we do have a quorum tonight um I do want to mention that um Amy Ray would really wanted to be here tonight she is um sick um at home with the stomach bug she wanted me to say that explicitly
002I'm not sure why because it makes me feel a little nauseated but um but uh she wishes she could be here tonight um again we do have a quorum and we'll start tonight with our Equity statement read tonight by Sarah thornberg good evening 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 and next is our Pledge of [Music] Allegiance and it is uh well there it is I will do not
003have to announce it Pledge of legance alce to the flag of the United States of America and to theu for it stands one nation under God indivisible in liy and justice for all uh next I'll ask for uh an approval of tonight's an agenda and just very quickly before I um ask for that motion um I do want to note that we have on our agenda item an action item around uh the beot trail easement and I have um spoken earlier today uh with Mike Su with ason bikes uh and he has mentioned um we will hear from him later um tonight in public comment but he has mentioned um a desire to possibly pull um away from that project at this moment so there is the possibility of doing an amendment to tonight's um
004agenda um so I do want to offer that up if anyone wants to make a motion to amend tonight's agenda I'll make a motion that we amend uh tonight's agenda to remove the beot trail easement and yes second so uh a motion and a second to amend tonight's agenda all in favor I I any opposed all right uh so uh the uh motion an approval of an amended agenda so I'll ask for a motion to approve uh tonight's amended agenda that that removes that action item from our agenda so move second it's been moved and seconded all in favor I I any opposed right our agenda is approved and uh we start this evening with a good news with uh Dr Kim deckin we have a lot of good news this evening and so um
005I am gon to ask that when um it's your time to be recognized you come and stand at the front while you're um while you're being highlighted our first highlight tonight is do the right thing uh the 2024 do the right thing National ambassadors that will be traveling to Washington DC are Rosal Lee Allen and am day and congratulations to their teachers Leslie mure and Sonia Swinson and so at this time miss pet is going to come up and we are going to call out the students names and if you'll come up Miss uh pre will give you your certificate Rosalie Allen Evie [Applause] swinger Lou Beckman Marlo Sloop Kate Young Amber day [Applause] Hazel sheer attakus Carol Browning Ryden lumpkins Henry fan and Quin Smith [Applause] oh yeah yeah so we would also like
006to recognize the teachers who supported their students in this process and whose students were selected as finalist Kelly madkins Sonia [Applause] Swinson Rachel naeve Jennifer Ken and Leslie mure [Applause] love take piure thank you [Applause] I just want everyone to know that it's not every day that you get to say that your name or published work is inducted into the Library of Congress and I am very excited to say these two young peoples and their teachers will be inducted into the Library of Congress and they will be our 24 National d the right thing ambassadors for Asheville City [Applause] school and Miss pche has a little celebration reception for the teachers and the judges and the students in the training room with some cake on May 23rd uh the district recognized our educators of the
007year and we had a time to celebrate um our Asheville City School's uh teacher of the year 2025 teacher of the year who is Kelly madkins and our Communications team put together a video of the students speaking about their teachers my name is s and I'm in the fifth grade I'm Boomer and I'm in kindergarten my name's heav and I'm in second grade hello my name is catali I'm in first grade my name is r withth lams and I'm in eighth grade my name is Camden map and I'm in third grade hello my name is Carl and I'm in the fifth grade my name is B Bon and I'm a junior my name is Cory and I'm in first grade AA Merson and I'm in 10th Grade wh and safia Odin Coy for my name
008is Jaden and I'm in eighth grade Charlie Tomlinson 9th grade RJ and I'm in first grade my name is Andrew Eng Les and I'm a 10th grader and what I really love about Miss rby is that she's funny kind and sweet and when you need a hand she's always there and she's happy to help well we always wait for drama to be our specials and Tuesday is it for us and we always love Tuesdays so and she's so amazing and she's so awesome and she's really easygoing and it's just really amazing to be around you can always rely on her whenever you're in a bad mood the thing I like most about Miss Allen is that she's kind and supportive and she helps out with work and with just whatever is going on the work
009is not easy but it's also fun she's funny she likes tayor Swift um and yeah she's cool to hang out with I think she's a great teacher the thing I love most about her is that she takes her time with her students she also teaches in a fun way which makes it easy for us to learn that she's a really nice teacher she teaches fun stuff I think she's a good teacher because she is always there to help with my work she is always super nice to me and the other students um Miss Magna is great and a and a great teacher she's so nice her helps me when I get emotional or mad teach me how to take the breath she helps me with my walk and helps me calm down and stuff like
010that it makes her different oh being silly um she is a really fun teacher she helps us learn with math games that are really fun to play I mostly like Dad she's really fun and Missi she's also fun too like she's a beautiful wonderful teacher and she likes to teach us a lot I think Miss fman really like cares about what she's teaching she's really invested in English and it's just really nice to hear her talk about everything it's enjoyable to learn from her she's a very supportive person that kind of makes sure everyone hears each other and that sort of thing which is really nice she's really good at what she does and is really good at teaching people how to be better at writing when she's talking about things that she enjoys she's
011very excited to help teach it to other people s is a very understanding teacher she's always there for you when you need her and like she's very kind she's just like comforting and she's just such a sweet genuine person and like just being in her classroom is like being home she made me feel L cuz first when I got in her class I didn't really know like if I was going to like it or not but she really helped me a lot like she gave me a very motivated she motivated me Miss turel is the most deserving teacher she is so sweet she works so hard at her job and you can just tell she loves what she does and like that's a beautiful thing I Love Her Style and uh how energetic she is
012I like that she like can uplift students and uh uplift uplift me sometimes I can like be feeling down and she can like you know crack a joke and you know it just brightens my day her class is really different from others because it's colorful and it's like a really safe place to be she gets us to you know be better than we were before she takes care of her children in her classroom she lets us do a lot of crafts to make sure like when I'm down or something or having a bad morning a bad afternoon or in the middle ask me what's wrong or she will let me take a break she tells us before we start something if we don't understand something just raise our hand and then she'll tell us more
013about it you rock Miss Watkins we love you miss m we love you Miss Rock Miss wi side we love you Miss mkin see you next year in the PA we love you Mr you're fantastic Miss Alan please SP your rul I'm I'm in the fifth grade I'm bmer and I'm in I don't know if Miss Jefferson was able to join us this evening but please join us in congratulating our amazing Asheville High School assistant principal an Asheville class of 95 graduate Cil Jefferson who received the United Way of Asheville and bunkham County game Cher award the game changer award recognizes an individual who Embraces United ways guiding principles and the community school strategy by demonstrating outstanding leadership and improving systems for Equitable student learning and educational Excellence we couldn't think of a more deserving
014recipient of this honor thank you Miss Jefferson for all that you do each and every day for our students in our school district your dedication wisdom and kindness along with your commitment to supporting all students is nothing short of inspirational at this time I'd like for Miss hilard to come up on May 11th Lori hilard the Asheville High School theater educator and arts department chair was named the 2324 North Carolina Fine Arts Teacher of the Year award When You observe Miss Hillyard working with students you see an educator who recognizes and cultivates the innate Talent within them sometimes before they even recognize it themselves Miss hillyard's theater department at Asheville high and silsa is a space where students feel seen safe loved and supported Miss Hillyard thank you for pouring your whole heart into your
015students your classes and Productions create memories that will last a lifetime and we truly couldn't think of a more deserving recipient of this award and we are so grateful to have you as part of the ashel city schools family congratulations [Applause] Miss banan shared with me that Mrs Sweeney couldn't be here this evening either but we had 20 um we had five outstanding mathematics teacher awards given to our St uh teachers Anna Herring at Dixon Amber Holland at Arab Jones Caitlyn Sweeny at Hall Fletcher lovia Jackson at lucus Herring and bet KY at Claxton and I think I saw Bets with us um so if you want to come up or wait Caitlyn Sweeney has been chosen as our district winner and her application will be submitted to the Department of Public Instruction as part
016of the state competition thank you bets for your continued support at Claxton we appreciate it the Asheville City Schools education and Career Academy in partnership with our CTE Department hosted several incredibly special guests yes last week who discussed a world of opportunities available to our students I think Dr Johnson's here and I see Dr chins if y'all want to come up um land of Sky Regional Council and the Mountain Area Workforce Development board visited one-on-one and in small groups with students to discuss their paid summer youth work exploration program participating students discover new career paths gain hands-on experience and connect with local professionals after meeting with land of sky land of Sky students then had the opportunity to meet with the United States Attorney Dina J King and law enforcement coordinator of the Western District
017of North Carolina Fred Hudson thank you for bringing this opportunity to our students at the Academy thank you silsa and Asheville High School had the following students accepted into the North Carolina governor school program for the summer of 2024 and if you are with us this evening if you'll come forward Olivia Brown for Natural Science ASA Rogers for social science Aiden McLoud and English VA daer for theater Bella Smith Carswell for theater and Aiden short for theater the North Carolina Governor's School is a four-week summer residential program for gifted and talented high school students integrating academics disciplines arts and unique courses on each of the two campuses learning focuses on the exploration of these most recent ideas and Concepts in each discipline and it does not involve credit test or grades students are selected to
018attend through a competitive process after being nominated by their public school so sorry that they could be with us this evening but let's give them a big round of [Applause] applause do you want to come on up and represent your colleagues thank you SRO with the 2023 leadership and community policing award this is a award they earned for their exceptional dedication and service to our community these officers play an in indispensable role in ensuring the safety and well-being of our students faculty and staff within our school system through their dedication and compassion the Asheville City School's sro's set a shining example of law enforcement and community service their efforts contribute to creating a safer and more inclusive community where young people feel valued supported and empowered to make Positive Choices thank you officer Gul for
019everything you and all our sro's do to keep our students and staff [Applause] safe student build Club um the student this was a um a key passing ceremony for Habitat for Humanity where Isabella uh was able to pass the key off to a new family her efforts alongside with other student build club members have sponsored the building of an entire house since last October and then last month she had the chance to give a new homeowner Malik in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity their ceremonial key representing homeownership this would not have been possible without the efforts of Dr chins and the CTE Department who included student build in the construction grant program sponsoring approximately $88,000 towards this project so um I don't know if Isabelle is here and I guess Dr cheeks but uh let's
020give them a huge round of applause for making a positive impact on our [Applause] community district 7 western region bus rodeo is back uh it's been away for a couple couple of years and um our bus drivers always uh shine in this event uh the transportation district 7 western region bus rodeo had a Triumph return this spring the North Carolina school bus rodeo is a test of both the skill and knowledge of local drivers this year ACS was proudly represented by bus drivers Glenn beay and uh bears with us this evening if you want to stand up Chris ston is Chris with us this evening and the returning Champion Rick bigrick Stevenson not only did all three ACS drivers demonstrate great skill we also took home first and second place out of 20 s drivers
021congratulations to Chris and big Rick Chris will compete in the state bus radio competition in Raleigh on June the 12th go Chris thank you for everything that you do to get our kids to and from school and I might just throw my hat in the ring next year Crayola Lounge Makeover at Hall Fletcher Hall Fletcher Elementary School unveiled their brand new Teachers Lounge last month thanks to a makeover from Crayola education and Walmart employees digital Lead Teacher rain prow is is Miss prow with us this evening or okay I first heard about the sweep Stakes online and she submitted Hall Fletcher for consideration Hall Fletcher was one of only 12 schools selected from around the country to receive a complete makeover for their teacher Lounge as part of the cre Crayola creative creativity week's creative
022teacher sweep Stak say that 10 times to keep the creative fund going Beyond creative creativity week Crayola also provided Hall Fletcher with $1,000 worth of Crayola art supplies thank you so much to miss prow for leading the way and creating a more welcoming colorful space for educators at Hall Fletcher and if you Haven it go online and look at the before and after pictures it's pretty amazing on May 15th we celebrated graduating seniors and Rising ninth grade Avid students do we have any of our Avid students with us this evening okay let's give them a huge round of applause silsa scholarships Kiera Martin received the questbridge scholar full ride to the University of Penn are they with the Brody Bell received the chancellor scholar full ride to App State and Zasha Griffin received a full
023ride to East Carolina University are any of those students with us this evening okay all right undefeated AMS Ultimate Frisbee Club both the JV and varsity AMS ultimate Club teams were undefeated this season and the Middle School spring League walked away with the title at the tournament do we have any frisbee PE there we [Laughter] [Applause] go thank you for um helping with that grp do we have anybody else oh Tom's going to get a [Laughter] picture we want to is Noah Wallace with us this evening okay Noah um Noah Wallace is the ashel Middle School head baseball coach and cougar change ISS coordinator and he has just completed his bachelor's degree in communication from East Carolina University and we wanted to recognize him because he's a um a cougar alumni he attended Jones Elementary
024Ashville middle school and Asheville high school he went on to go to abtech and during Co he received a call from coach hiler who asked him to come and serve as an assistant baseball coach so he took the took on the offer and through the words of encouragement of teachers at Asheville High School in silsa and the coaching staff he decided after he got his associates degree at abtech through their encouragement to go back and get his bachelor's degree in communication from ECU so again that's just a testament to the power of our teachers and their words of encouragement to not only our current students but also to our former students and our alumni so thank you to everybody at Ash high and silsa who supported him and getting his uh teaching certificate Miss Landreth
025Joe landrith principal at Asheville Middle School recently completed the distinguished leadership and practice program it's a year-long leadership development program for practicing School principles from all regions of the state the program is designed and provided by the North Carolina principes and assistant principles Association and sponsored by the North Car Alliance for school leadership development and I'm happy to say that in a couple of weeks Miss Landreth will be defending her dissertation so let's send her a big round of applause as she takes on that [Applause] challenge we're getting close um we're going to recognize our band do we have anybody from our Band program this evening um Asheville City schools in May our Band program celebrated 100 continuous years of band in Ashville City Schools with a series of events and concerts by current and
026former students as well as former directors that led up to a performance by an alumni band on Sunday afternoon the members ranging from the Stevens Lee class of 1951 to current Asheville high school students the band met for the first time on Saturday morning so they just rehearsed that one day and then on the following day they performed eight pieces of music on that Sunday afternoon it was truly surprising how much Quality Music could be performed after just one day together a testament to the lifelong effects of a good music education TW 12 former and current Asheville City Schools directors from 1961 to current LED and performed in the band thanks to those who came out to the concerts and the events over that weekend on Thursday May 23rd we had cougar band day for
027our middle school students where we combined all of the rising seventh and eighth grade band students from Montford NorthStar Academy and ashel Middle School into two big concert bands to have a clinic and concert for parents the bands fit together like a glove from the first note the Middle School directors have done a great job matching the curriculum and pacing of our two middle schools over the last few years and it's obvious the students came musically prepared congratulations to our Rising seventh and eighth grade graders and their directors as many of you know we have an outstanding preschool program in Asheville City schools and the North Carolina Division of Child Development and Early Education monitors all licensed Child Care programs in the state of North Carolina and the programs are required to maintain a compliance
028history of 75% at all times and I'm proud to say that our preschools uh well exceed the 75% Asheville High prek 100% Luc s Herring 97% Ira B Jones 98% Dixon 99% and Hall Fletcher 96% this is evidence that prek programs are strong and thriving and meeting the needs of our students letters something that we've heard about for several years as of this June Asheville City Schools will have over 100 teachers who've completed either the full two volume which is 170 hours of letter training letters training or the one-year Early Childhood training and 2016 teachers have completed the 87 hours of volume 1 training Educators who complete the volume 1 this year will complete volume two next year that is roughly 20,000 hours that we have invested in the science of reading for our K5
029classroom teachers coaches and exceptional children Educators Ashville City Schools is in the third and final cohort of teacher Statewide who have completed this training I want any teacher who has uh completed the letters to come to the front and be recognized or admin or [Applause] admin this has been an incredibly heavy lift for our teachers administrators and coaches and we are so proud of the work they have done thank you [Applause] on Sunday June the 2nd Montford NorthStar Academy and as Miranda Montford NorthStar Academy held their farewell block party thank you so much to all of the students alumni staff Educators families and Community Partners who attended and made the event such as special memorable occasion an extra huge thank you to April Roland who led the event planning Jeremiah's Italian ice bear Smoke House
030Barbecue and the lefties for their awesome live music thank you to all of the Community Partners who help um help us with all of our events the Senior Walk is probably one of my favorite things in the school year it's so awesome to watch our seniors go back during the month of May in their caps and gowns and walk the hallways of their elementary schools it is a pretty powerful experience and to see those little kids they get so excited they've lined the hall they've made signs and they're cheering on our seniors and if you if you ever get to experience one of these there's never a dry eye so uh we're very thankful for this tradition and you can see our amazing class of 2024 we now have 328 new cougar alumni and um
031I can't wait to see all the great things that they do we are um the communications team is currently in the process of going through thousands and thousands and thousands of photographs so please be patient our goal is to have those up by the end of the week because I know families are eager to see the photos but I it was an amazing evening and then last but not least um our alumni Spotlight casile little who's from the class of 2019 she graduated from silsa in 2019 she was awarded the patteron family scholarship from the Asheville City Schools foundation and she took courses at Barton College she returned to her Alma modder and is currently working at irab Jones Elementary School she said being back in Asheville City Schools is important to me because I
032get to see the behind the scenes of what helped shaped shape and mold me into the person I am today it's also important because students get to see firsthand that there's someone here that has done it too I've been in Asheville City Schools all my life so it's good for students to see us coming back and working firsthand in our community as you can see there are so many great things happening in Asheville City schools and we're very blessed to work with all these 4,000 plus amazing students so thank you for your support and that concludes good news [Applause] thank you Dr Dean and thank you to our staff um that includes Educators that includes Transportation includes cafeteria thank you for everyone who helped these students their entire year thank everyone who is a part
033of that amazing graduation um and I'll speak more about that at the end of uh tonight moving on to our next uh item on our agenda is public comment um Board of Education greatly appreciates your interest in Asheville City schools and we welcome your comments to the board please be mindful of the following guidelines for public comment um per policy 2310 personnel and student matters are confidential and therefore are not appropriate for public comment if you have a concern about an employee or a student matter please contact or see the super attendant after the meeting um the board permits public comment on issues relevant to and within the jurisdiction of the school district although an individual May identify themselves as a candidate for any public office no person may use the public comment portion of
034a board meeting to actively campaign for or endorse a specific candidate running for public office persons are not limited from speaking on issues relevant to the official business of the school system for purposes of the this policy active campaigning includes but is not limited to asking for support for a candidate running for public office and or stating what a candidate will do if elected to public office unless otherwise approved by the board the total time for public comment shall not exceed 30 minutes for inperson and 15 minutes for virtual um board I'm going to recommend that we extend that time I'm seeing the list that we have um so I'll ask for that motion after I finish these um guidelines members of the public may speak for 3 minutes the time remaining will be indicated
035by lights in front of you at the podium multiple speakers from a group who are presenting on the same topic may choose to elect one speaker from the group if a single speaker is used by any group they shall be allocated five minutes instead of the three to address the board if your group chooses this option please identify everyone in the group when you sign up to speak um sub substitute speakers will not be permitted and speakers May not donate any portion of their time to another speaker please be respectful A disruption by any person or persons of a public meeting will not be tolerated and can be result in removal from the meeting incorrect or misleading information presented by a speaker may be responded to at the direction of the chairperson public comment allows
036you to provide the Board of Education with your thoughts and or relevant information concerning the Asheville City Schools therefore board board members will not normally respond to individuals who address the board except to request clarification uh and I believe that yeah actually that should wrap us up so um we will start with our in-person public comment and I do have my list right here takes a while oh yeah I'm sorry um so as I pull up the list um I'm going to see of course that list just disappeared um I'm going to ask the board for motion to extend that 30 minute time to cover our entire in person so moved second so it's been moved and seconded um all in favor to extend the time I any opposed all right so we'll extend that
037time to cover everyone and I'm sorry folks I had that pulled up and then I just closed it out so give me a moment as I pull up the list of folks who have signed up for in-person comment for my email to pull up of course technology is great when it works that's probably there we go all right thanks for your patience everyone so first up uh we have zakiah Bell Rogers zakiya I'm sorry thank you hey girl and Zakia you will have three minutes good afternoon I am Zaki Bell Rogers I am an Asheville High alumni class of 98 a community advocator advocator and a parent to all children who do not have an active adult to advocate for them I am here and not for a joyous occasion as our children have S
038celebrated their last day of school here we are to discuss what has not been done for our children we know that the educational Gap has not changed much we do know that a black qualified principal who is from our community who has applied multiple times who has been denied multiple times again was not hired we know that less than a month ago at the buckham county budget meeting you all did not have adequate strategy plans to address the Ed educational Gap what we do know is that your concern of a back Lane in a black neighborhood only increases the distrust that we have in your ability to Advocate and work for our children and community and that offering to name it after our beloved Mr Bat isn't going to make us want to have it
039that your allowance of disrespect to a black woman of this community by a visitor who questioned her knowledge of knowing what are the wants for her black community but what what else is required from this black neighborhood to give up for the joy of white people in buckham County we were given where was the community engagement to ask the community's input why are they not putting a bike lane up in North Asheville instead of taking away from an already already abused and used people how do you just explain the creation of three pres position and raises for people who failed in the school system in central office what lens was used because I assure you it was not the lens of equity but the one of white privilege in 2024 the ceas the harm audit
040was was released has the board been able to access read and and discuss this report I am most positive it was not and then I sat here and listened to your Equity statement that you so proudly present before each board member Community feedback it is lace with false promises and emotional manipulation you all have patronized us you have learned the language of equity and inclusion to lie and manipulate us and you have continued to ignore us but what you did not know is that we were watching and have been watching and we are here to see results and we want answers that's my [Applause] th thank you uh next we have Paul Howell and Paul you will have three minutes good evening my name is Paul Howell I'm a resident lifelong resident of Asheville North
041Carolina 1979 graduated Ash for high I'm a community advocate a community activist and and I'm a very disappointed black man in Asheville 70 years ago in 1954 America made one of its gravest mistakes ever integrating the schools why people felt it was the coming of Jesus Christ when in reality it set black students up for failure our education was basically taken out of the hands of black Educators and more or less placed in the hands of people that thought we were inferior people that they care nothing for teaching our failure with this educational system began as soon as these folks found we weren't so inferior after all how could this be how can these Negroes be so smart hatred proceeded with sabotage they lost their minds when they discovered how inferior they are to black
042athletes it became impossible for whites to crack the starting lineup so for 70 years the path has been traveled to sabotage or not teach our black children on the level of white students 70 years later we sit here with y'all in the place of the people that sit in the place of those that tried to keep the black students down now y'all sit in a position not caring about him back to my thing I freestyle our school boy wants to join this Mike sui person in the further invading of communities with their white with their white desires put your bike Lanes in your neighborhood residents of Ash it's pass time to start making example of our city council members our school board Commissioners whatever enough is enough y'all have taken us for granted okay so
043we are one of the only two places in the state where Commissioners for school boards and stuff are selected by people on the city council who many are friends of people that they put on the school board so hopefully within the next year so we'll be able to elect people that care about the students of the school as much as the teachers care about the students of the school and the community care about the students of school if y'all come through here putting this bike lane over in our neighborhood neighborhood it's not going to be pretty and for uh for Mike sui black people do not want their bike Lan in their community and if you want to do me like you did uh charl May I'm right here thank [Applause] you thank you uh
044next up we have Daniel wro and Daniel you'll have three minutes thank you in 1959 uh Wisconsin became the first state in the country to pass a law recognizing the right of public sector workers to unionize and this was a controversial thing at the time uh there was a lot of discussion over whether government workers should be able to enter into collective bargaining in the way the private sector workers could in the 65 years since then 47 other states have joined Wisconsin to recognize the right of public sector workers are unionized along with almost every other democracy on Earth uh we and South Carolina are the only two places left in our country where there is not a right for public sector workers to uh enter into collective bargaining and I say that because when
045acae comes to you when your staff when your PTO come to you asking for a meet and confer policy we're not asking for the same thing that almost every other educator on the planet has because it would be legally impossible for you to give that to us we are asking for something less than that but we are asking for what you can recognize we are asking for you to enter into an agreement with us to the extent that you can and we see the need for this across our district we see the need for this uh for the past 15 years that I've been working here if you set a policy that formally recognizes acae as our staff Union that formal that sets up a formal process by which you can hear our voices and
046by which we have real power in decision making then it sends a powerful message to staff to students to families to our community it says that when you talk about valuing Educators that's not just platitudes you really mean that you value US not just for the Dignity of humans and workers you value us for our experience our expertise our wisdom and our perspective and so I come to you tonight asking you I know you can't recognize Us in the same way that every other educator on the planet is recognized I'm asking for you to recognize us to the extent that you can and to set a policy approving the meet and confir policy thank [Applause] you thank you uh pepo and pepy you have three minutes three minutes okay yes um I'm going to speak
047in two hats I signed up as the PTO president um and I'll just fit that in uh my name is pepy aabo I'm speaking as the co-president of the PTO for the high schools um I want the board to understand that our parents and our teachers really do want a meet confir and collaborate policy we don't know exactly what that will look like but I ask you to work with acae to come up with something in the time frame that they've requested over the course of the summer so that you can act on it in the fall and that taking that hat off um as a member of the community who in August will have been attending these meetings for 10 years uh almost every single board meeting I pick up a lot of information
048along the way uh but there's also information that I bring from other experiences uh experiences as a camp director before that one of the things that I learned is many years ago in 1953 the Supreme Court of the united states invalidated the principle of enoo parentis for schools when I heard the discussion last week about cell phones and uh a board member talking about physically taking a cell phone from another student just keep in mind that staff members do not have parental rights and you put staff members In Harm's Way if you you have an expectation that they're going to physically take anything from a student instead please please talk with principles and teachers and acae about reasonable practices and allowing those principles and those teachers on school locations to determine what's going to work
049for best for them for different age groups because physically taking something from a student depending on the situation with the student can be considered assault in the state of North Carolina if it's on a um handicapp person it's uh felony assault on a handicapped person and we don't want to codify something like that and I don't think we want to use the workaround of modifying the school systems corporal punishment policy to be able to allow that I think what we want to do is call parents and have appropriate consequences that are determined and supported on the school level by all the teaching staff so just please consider that when you are talking about um uh cellone policies in the future thank you thank you next is Christina Mason and Christina you'll have three minutes my
050name's Christina Mason and my son Henry Heaton is a rising second grader at Isaac Dixon Elementary I'm here as a community supporter of acae the teacher Union and I'm here to back school staff in their request for meet and confer my family has been with the district since our kid was three years old and starting preschool it was the height of the pandemic and his teachers and School staff showed up for him and for all the students when it was risky and difficult because they were all in for our kids and their education and they continue showing up but they are fed up they are tired they feel ignored they've been before you many times and so they are leaving I think that teachers and School staff make or break a school district they are
051the main factor in whether students have a positive School experience we have seen incredible turmoil and staff and record staff turnover in the last four four years excellent teachers counselors Vice principls principals cafeteria managers custodians and bus drivers leave not just because they're underpaid but because they no longer hope that the situation in our district will improve they are the experts on the ground they are in the thick of it with students and they do not have influence over how the district is run if we tap into them as a resource our staff can help turn things around for ACS but we have to involve them from the beginning the board can stop reacting and begin working with the people who know students and their needs the best it doesn't have to be a guessing
052game ask the people who know meet and confer is how we stop the bleed of teachers and staff it can't wait we can't procrastinate on this ashel city schools will lose even more staff over the summer if you don't give a clear signal that you value their input and you take their demands seriously at Isaac Dixon teacher and staff turnover has caused major upheaval and instability a string of substitutes is no way to teach a child families are heading to Charters and private schools or homeschooling because they don't want to get another letter listing their kids teacher as TBD we were heartbroken to learn that one of my son's favorite teachers someone who is amazing with children who makes School a joyful and a safe space is leaving because they quote can't be both a
053social worker and a teacher and they don't feel heard or supported at ACS it is wonderful that some of you attend board meetings and that you're trying to listen to staff but it is not enough the old top- down model of running a district isn't working we trust our kids to our school staff every day these are the people who know them and their needs best please partner with them grab this opportunity to get ahead of issues that har the district and scare off our families with me and confer you'll have a Lifeline for our schools thank you Jonathan Wayne Scott and Jonathan you have three minutes three minutes and I'm familiar with this uh my name is Jonathan waycott and I came out to talk about the beot woods Asheville unpaved easement through the
054Asheville mid uh Middle School's property and there's a lot of things that concern me about that one is that this meeting that we're having right now is taking place in a neighborhood that was subjected to one of the biggest efforts of urban renewal in the country along with South French Broad uh neighborhood and so this white encroachment that is being talked about is very real and continues to this day and I know that mountain biking isn't an exclusively white activity but you know neither is hockey this just doesn't seem like something's you know welcomed by the community um another problem that I see for the uh Asheville City school systems this is your property and Mike Su of Ashville on bikes outlined a lot of different activities that this unpaved path would be used for
055not just biking you know bird watching and hiking and biking and riding a three- wheel bicycle and all that kind of stuff that's a daytime activities agenda and then we have the nighttime activities agenda which would include of course trespassing intervenous drug using overdosing sex trafficking assault rape murdering any of those types of things which are going to happen when we make these Woods more accessible to just anybody so just having anybody coming onto the school property is going to be problematic and when those things start happening depending on how tragic the situation might be you're going to be looking at an attractive nuisance situation it's going to put you liable for horrible things that happen on your property when you should have known better so this is just a misstep in many directions um
056you know and I would hope that some of my white folks would slow their role a little bit you know we're on the hook for colonization slavery Jim Crow raisins in the potato a salad and so you know let's just keep all of that in mind and and listen to the community when the community says that we don't want something and not drag you know another black person who happens to be of you know outdoor a color my Outdoors you know Simone Adams was mentioned hey I found this black person who actually likes the outdoors and and she doesn't live in Asheville she doesn't live in South French Broad neighborhood she doesn't live in Asheville or bunkham County so you know this is the community concerned it seems very much like they don't want it
057it seems like something that you shouldn't take on and you know I just came out to put in my little two cents there so thank you very much for [Applause] listening thank [Applause] you uh next we have uh Sarah Norris and Sarah uh you put here that you're speaking on behalf of uh Hall Fletcher PTO yeah you will have five minutes oh okay I mean I just need three thanks hey I'm Sarah Norris and I'm the parent of a rising second grader at our beloved Hall Fletcher and I'm also one of eight folks who co-lead the Hall Fletcher PTO family team and I am here speaking in support of acae 's proposed meet convert and collaborate policy because while this is about giving School staff a formal voice I already trust them every day with
058my child and I trust this Union to represent our interests as families I hope it will represent not just the white middle class families who are so often the ones likely to talk and be listened to but the black and brown families who have for Generations not gotten the education they Des serve in Asheville until all kids are well served our schools and all of us are part of producing and reproducing the racial Injustice that we are swimming in every day and I want better for all of us what I know as an educator for 15 years and now as a mental health worker is that whoever is most impacted by a problem is likely to have the best Solutions those closest to the pain should be closest to the power to change their conditions
059as an example of this in action from the past year at our school um at our sweet School the teachers got together and named that the one thing or that one thing they need to show up day after day as they want to with our students is a calm and lovely spot to step away for a moment of respit and gather themselves in the midst of caring for our kids the teachers designed and spearheaded a plan to make this happen they asked for PTO support in seeking funds we wrote a letter to the city schools Foundation pledging support and matching funds we are not a well-resourced PTO but we were we listen to them we know it matters and we were happy to do it and it happened so there's now this lovely space called
060the zenen they knew what they needed and I want to be clear this is not an example about individual choices about self-care this is a systemic working conditions issue and that's clearly a CommunityWide issue when we have such high teacher turnover in our district I want to be in a district where decisions about working conditions are made with staff power at the district level so so systemic issues don't have to be so solutions to systemic issues don't have to be developed outside of the district structure and bringing this back to why meet confer collaborate matters and matters for racial Justice in our district I see this policy as necessary for getting to the real change that comes from following the leadership of the most impacted I watch meetings and work sessions and a question I
061am often left with is how are y'all using this time to prioritize the belonging and learning and thriving of black and brown children to prioritize the belonging and retention and Leadership and compensation of black and brown staff I will say that is not really what I hear talked about yet in these meetings my deepest hope for meet confer collaborate is that it can be one step on an overdue path towards giving real power not perfunctory power to those who are closest to the problems you and all of us are trying to solve I'm on to quote coach Hill outside in a rally just a bit a little bit ago who called the legal prevention of collective bargaining the last Jim Crow law on the books with the acae majority we have a chance to work
062around that wrong so I ask you to do the right thing and pass this policy thank you next we have Mike Su uh and Mike you've uh written that you're representing Ash on bikes and so you'll have five minutes yes uh my name is Mike Su I'm the executive director of uh ashel on bikes and uh I'm here tonight to apologize last week during the work session uh when I presented on the ashalon pay coat Branch Trails my tone was strident and I also ignored the Charles Street community's concerns regarding neighborhood resiliency and genderation I personally apologize to miss Charlene Mayfield for challenge her directly during the meeting I acknowledge my disrespect I appreciate and thank the community leaders who held me to account and help me see that my exertion of privilege and its
063uh potential to perpetuate harm in Legacy neighborhoods thank you I am humbled and I am sorry I apologize [Applause] thank you next we have Kimberly Collins and Kimberly you have three minutes hello my name is Kimberly Collins I am a proud alumni of Asheville High School class of 1988 my son also graduated from Asheville High School class of 2017 I am also a community advocate and activist just consider me the fanny Lou Hammer of Ashville I want to start out by um just reading little Snippets of the irony okay one starts with your Equity statement in Asheville City Schools we are committed committed to equity and anti-racist policies go down to the very bottom during this meeting we we invite a pause if harm has taken place a moment to name the harm and space
064to practice repair then we go on to site and pledge the allegiance right one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all those two put together are just quite laughable coming from you all because you continue to perpetuate harm on our community first to you Mike Mr Asheville on bikes you're as as uh heartfelt as you thought your apology was we know why it came it came because you were told how your white privilege your white supremacy rang throughout that last meeting the unmitigated G of anyone to tell a black person what's best for them when they themselves are not black is laughable now you're pausing this and you're saying you're going to do this without having to go through the city well guess what you're only prolonging the harm and don't think
065we're going to forget we're not because if you try to slide in through the back door guess what we going to be right here again and your fear of the Blackness will be felt and it will be tangible I can guarantee you now my second point of harm that I would like to point out is the fact that we have Educators within our school system that are constantly being looked over because of white supremacy and white privilege you're allowing teachers to fail up and be placed in positions of leadership within the home office who are going to make decisions for our black and brown children we have to stop it you have a lot of Educators sitting here in this room who are more than capable of doing jobs that you are continuing to place
066white people in the fact that you don't do a robust um job at trying to recruit and retain black teachers is another issue who who Who's your search team I guarantee you they don't look like me and I guarantee you if you send white people to these HBCU to try to bring them to this school system with the uh the the the housing being just ridiculous and nobody being able to uh afford to live here and then they're looking at this white person who can afford to live here you're not going to attract them they're not going to come people gravitate towards people that look like them so I admonish you all to look deep within yourselves and in your white privilege and try to find the equity that you so eloquently site at every
067meeting because not to do so means that you intentionally seek to continue the harm thank [Applause] you thank you next we have Carolyn small uh and Caroline you put that you are representing Clon PTO so you will have five minutes thank you good evening my name is Carolyn small I'm the parent of two children at Claxton Elementary I'm also the incoming Claxton PTO co-president for the next two years I'm here to express my strong support for Claxton staff the overwhelming majority of whom are acae members today I'm also speaking on half of nine PTO across Asheville School Asheville City Schools who have signed on to a letter that I'll will pass up in support of AC's proposed meet confer and collaborate policy no doubt it is a very difficult time to be a North Carolina
068educator but is especially hard in Asheville right now last year Asheville City Schools reported the highest percentage of teacher turnover from any other school district in the state at 30.7% compared to 11.45% Statewide our Educators shape the future of our children and we simply cannot afford to lose them to neighboring counties or the private sector our District's in crisis and we urge you to act now to stabilize the school district we all know and love specifically as an ACS parent I'm very concerned by the lack of transparency and collaboration around the major decisions that ACS has made this year the the suddenness and lack of collaboration has led to needless turmoil and stress for the entire Asheville City Schools Community I'm far from alone in these sentiments new neighbors with the child at mford Northstar
069are now looking to transfer to a charter school for the upcoming school year their first experience with ACS has left them feeling has has left them feeling blindsided and betrayed a friend whose child is who is at Lucy Herring is facing stressful decisions about whether to keep her child at our neighborhood school during construction or move them to a charter across town staff are upset at a recent decision that instructional assistance will not be in every first Glade classroom next year most importantly the claxon staff with whom I speak with regularly are just not sure what's coming down the pipe from ACS next there's a real loss of trust between the community and Nashville city schools this year but what we're hearing from parents and staff that we serve is one step towards repairing that
070trust would be to involve the community including first and foremost teachers and staff in these major decisions in almost any other place in the country a union with majority membership would have a seat at the table and aay in the decisions affecting their future without such a voice workers do not feel respected heard or valued every day we entrust our children in the hands of school staff according ly we firmly believe that empowering AC to represent our interests as parents and ultimately the interests of our kids will lead to better outcomes for the entire Public School Community as parents and PTO leaders from nine Asheville City Schools we're asking the school board to pass a robust meet and confer and collaborate policy now thank you so much and if it's okay I'll I'll pass this
071letter up to you thank you [Applause] thank you next is Bill Robinson my name is Bill Robinson I'm the father of two daughters and the grandfather of two more as we go off to enjoy our lovely summer vacations as we go for trips to the beach backyard barbecues and celebrations of July forth things we've all known and looked forward to since we were small children please save a thought for seven dead girls this is Kylie Wilhelm Kylie Wilhelm was a 13-year-old seventh grader who hung herself last May 12th she was full of potential she was a good girl this is Sabria Boseman Sabria Boseman was a 16-year-old 10th grader who committed suicide last year don't forget these girls there are five more of them I'm trying to find out who they were and who their
072families were and I can't find out two these two were in bunkham county and the responsibility of bunkham County School Board there are undoubtedly some over here in the Asheville City School District so I'm trying to find out who they are and I want to find out who they are remember who these these children are because they didn't just up one day and decide to commit suicide there's a new bully in town and it's a suicide bully these kids text each other they force each other into committing suicide and it's like a game to them so pay attention this summer while you're enjoying yourselves and correspondingly the students proficiency scores continue to plummet I know there's a lot of good news and I saw some of it today it's wonderful there is always going to
073be good news but it shouldn't obate the bad news there's a reason why in our school districts students are committing suicide there are dozens of examples of attempted suicide every year there are I don't know how many countless attempts at self harm and it's happening because of the environment that's being being created in these schools so I just hope and pray that people can keep in mind that the schools are having a tough time teaching our children what they need to know and preparing them for the future I want to go because of the nature of some of the conversations tonight which I really they've been painful to hear but necessary I want to go back to a quote that I think is absolutely epic and I it it's from Amy Ray who sits on
074this board I've mentioned it before those challenges include a local school system that school board member Amy Ray told Asheville Watchdog quote has utterly failed black and brown students don't forget that hold them to account sue them if necessary thank you uh next up we have Timothy Lloyd and Tim you'll have three minutes good evening my name is Timothy Lloyd I am a custodian at Ash middle school and the elected president of acae ashel City Association of educators the union for all public school workers and Ashville City Schools I'm going to try to keep it short tonight not because what I'm saying tonight isn't important but because what I hold in my hands is much more powerful what I have here are over 50 handwritten letters from staff and Community supporters in asille City Schools
075speaking to our District's need to pass a formal board policy to create a formal voice for ash City School staff through our Union by establishing an ACS AC AE meet and confer collaborate team just before this board meeting members of acae and members of the astal city schools Community held a rally about our Union's belief that ACS staff need a seat at the decision-making table through our Union and through meeting for collaborate ACA represents a majority of all Astro City School staff across all job class classifications and a majority of all Astro City School staff signed onto our call for a real Union voice also as was said today honored and proud to announce that the PTO of every school and National City schools have unanimous unanimously signed onto a letter in support of me
076for collaborate to speak to these letters some of the reasons staff and community members gave in these handwritten letters include it will lead to a better sense of con Connection staff have to the district it will help prevent accidental oversight coming from District leadership not being in classrooms and ensure that that the perspectives of those most directly in touch with our students are Incorporated and this is an entirely free way to show ashro City School staff how appreciated and respected they are in our district lastly this has been said also before tonight want to make it clear that the law that bans us signing a collective bargaining agreement together as a union and a school district was adopted in 1959 by an allwhite reactionary legislature the North Carolina indac calls this the last Jim Crow
077law still remaining on the books and recognizing our Union through a meet and convert collaborate policy to the fullest extent of the law is one step Asal City Schools can take to counteract the history of white supremacy in our state the need for meet meet confirm collaborate policy is urgently felt by asro City School staff staff need a formal way to affect positive change in our schools our students need a voice at the table and we need as need our voice at the table and we need it as soon as possible so this is the ask of acae to the Ashville City Schools Board of Education we would like to ask you and and answer this yourselves will you commit to meet with members of acae over the summer to discuss this policy so that
078we can pick up discussions on policy we agree on as soon as the first work session of the school year thank you and I'll hand these out to youall thank [Applause] you next is Carol Smith Hill and Carol you have um said that you're representing acae so you will have three five minutes if you need it I don't think I'm GNA need five minutes because most of you have said what I needed to say uh my name is Carol Smith Hill most of the folks in the city know me as Carol Cunningham or as Mr Mr Miss Cunningham's daughter because both of my parents were ACS Educators they were also very active in the ncae Nea organiz ation I'm a 1979 graduate of Asheville high school and I'm the parent of a daughter at Asheville
079high school I have served as an ECI in ashal city schools for the past six years ashal City School likes to talk a lot about racial Equity but that's all it is most of the time talk coming from the district leadership they call us in the mandatory meetings and tell us how racism is bad but the problems aren't generally caused by individual staff members the problems are systemic racism and the ACs top- down approach to racial Equity seems to mean lots of talk and very little action they're not talking to the folks on the ground not making an effort to include input from stakeholders who are actually people of color and not actually taking any action to change the situation they love to talk about endlessly I'm one of the very few few black staff
080me members in every school that I work at there are no black teachers at mon for norstar this year only myself another IIA and two cafeteria staff even though I have a master's degree and teaching experience I continue to be passed over for PE teacher positions that I'm qualified for and continue to work as an IIA making below a living wage while a district talks loudly about anti-racism and hiring diverse staff looks to me like I'm a diverse staff but can't get that break what's happening my school is not an exception this is happening at all our schools I I mean it happens when our students of college see adults who look like them in ACS those adults who usually aren't teachers they're IAS cafeteria staff bus drivers or custodians what message is that sending
081to our kids we're telling our students of color that in the future their opportunities will be limited by their skin color that message is contrary to everything ACS ever says out loud but that's what's happening every day in our schools I remember being a black student in ACS and at that time at least half of the teachers and administrators in ACS were black too having teachers who looked like me was so important and what motivated me to pursue a higher education many of our students today can't have that same experience and District leadership does nothing tangible to change it when I've talked with students about this lately they notice it they notice that they don't have any teachers that look like them but they don't even they don't even realize that hasn't always always been
082the case to them this is just normal and they assume it must be like this everywhere well actually it isn't through the meet confir and collaborate policy a diverse group of Representatives elected through our Union will be able to have input into what racial Equity actually means and what tangible changes can be taken to see real change in our schools we will be able to have an impact on what prioritizing diversity in hiring actually means here and we would be able to see and discuss the real impacts on our students of color and that our mostly white leaders in central office may not even be aware of no matter how good they might be at their jobs folks who spend their days sitting in one of these offices are not the people who best understand
083the real needs of staff students and families in this District so in order to effectively practice the values that you preach I'm calling on our board members to support this policy in our Union if when you tell us you appreciate our work we want you to actually mean it you will commit to working with acae leaders on a final draft of this policy over the summer and then pass it as official board policy as soon as you reconvene in August listen to the people you spend with every day who spend every day with our kids listen to instructional assistants cafeteria staff teachers bus drivers custodian Ians counselors listen to parents and families just do the right thing thank you thank you next we have Charlene Mayfield [Music] as y'all know my name is Charlene Mayfield
084I hadn't planned on speaking this evening but having this spoken to you many times in the past and you know our position my family has lived on Charles Street since 1949 my parents myself my five siblings my children my our grandchildren that's four generations is three standing here now we've lived in this area and have all attended Asheville City schools and we're Tex taxpaying citizens but after I left the meeting last week I haven't really been able to sleep that night I woke up feeling so disappointed after Mike Shu spoke to me the way he did and none of y'all I mean none of y'all said anything when I asked the rebuttle oh send me an email my family has managed to survive survive Jim Crow urban renewal and when I stand before you today
085we are concerned about gentrification and displacement the response I've already received is well it's already happened this process is causing not only my family harm but the black community in Asheville as a whole because we live in the city and the school system that purport to support racial equity and racial Justice and time and time again the wishes of the black community is set aside in favor for more powerful interest groups I have an idea where this is going to go next week or if y'all put it off again or whatever but please please please just prove me wrong God bless you thank you that concludes uh inperson comment do we have anyone virtual uh normally with in person comment we don't as a board respond um I do want to acknowledge some things that
086have been brought up during public comment um and I think that um first of all just thank you to the community for showing up tonight um and saying what you said um I remember when we first as a board were debating our Equity statement and I remember um board member Liza Kelly raising the concern that if we said this at every board meeting would it become um would it just become something that just kind of fell into the the cracks like it would just become so rot that we wouldn't necessarily pay attention to it um and so uh Miss Mayfield especially to you you're right I as board chair I had the responsibility last week to uh to stop that harm and I did not and I had um the mo the the time and
087I should have have lived into the equ statement and I did not uh and so on behalf of the board I apologize that that was not done during that meeting uh and I apologize that you and so many others had to come and and take time tonight to come and say that to us in person um it should not have happened we should have invited pause we should have C it out as it happened um and we should have named that harm uh and that's not the only time it's happened um and so I'm inviting us as a board tonight um to reinvest in that commitment that we make every time that we say that Equity statement that we live into that Equity statement that we recognize when harm is um that harm is happening
088I um I there was a staff member who actually texted me during that moment and said I think harm is happening some of you know that I choose not to look at my phone during meetings because I know that not everybody has my number and I think it's inappropriate actually that some people have it and some people don't and I feel like if not everybody does I don't know if I should be looking at my phone but I'm actually going to change that like if somebody has the wherewithal to say hey there's some harm happening and text me and I can look at it because I might not be aware of it I want to be able to look at my phone so um I just want to I want to acknowledge that miss mayf
089that that we should have been living into that Equity statement as a board last last Monday um there's other things I want to say but I'm going to save them and then we'll invite a pause as well for thank you [Music] Jesse anyone else from the board want to share anything right now or else we can I mean there's other unfortunately there's always other things we have to get to as a board I'll have more to say when we get to our to my um board report at the end of the night um but if there's nothing more from the board I guess we'll move to our next agenda item which are our consent items um and so our consent items tonight um before I ask for a motion um we have draft minutes from
090work sessions from March um as um well as student releases there's plenty on there I'm not going to read them all but are there any questions about the consent items um I make a motion that we approve the consent items the items on the consent agenda second it's been moved and seconded any questions about the consent okay all in favor I I any opposed okay consent items are approved all right um next up our action items um first action item bable cities uh Feast Community Partnerships um that Melissa had presented to us yeah did she um I don't recall this yeah say was late getting this to us um so the Bountiful Feast um it Feast stands for fresh easy affordable sustainable and tasty um it's a program that several of our elementary schools are
091already using with their gardening um and their their school Gardens that they then use to this funds from the grant to um maintain their Garden they cook with this and they promote healthy eating choices so this contract is a renewal of what we've been using any questions about it from the board Dr Ferman this was just looking over it it's it's come to the board because it's over a certain amount correct or is this something that we normally because I like I don't remember seeing this and it could have just you know slipped under the radar but um it it looks pretty it looked pretty straightforward I just wanted to make sure there was nothing claring information about the contract it it was just inadvertently left off the work session agenda and it is a
092summer program so we wanted to bring it to you this evening Melissa was not able to be with us this evening so um James to your question I think um this is under the amount that's required for board approval okay so this is just I think for information for the board so it's an information item and we don't actually have to vote on it that is correct okay thank you for that clarification okay so do we need to agend amend the agenda again since it's sitting as an action item I put it as an action item because whenever someone doesn't get something to us in time time for the work session I want to provide an opportunity for them to present it to the board um but Melissa had to be out of town for
093a family illness okay and I don't think there's any need to amend the agenda um it's I mean you guys were taking information on it okay but it sounds like we don't need to take any action on it as well so okay there's your information everyone thank you so the um only thing on action item is the theory of action it's 5.3 underaction items yes I um will'll try to get it up here on the screen as well but um we talked about the theory of action at the last work session um or several work sessions so this is the final edits from the last work session um for the board and if there aren't any other questions or discussion um it's up for approval I noticed a change that I um wanted to check
094in with other board members about um I know that what we asked you for and I appreciate how you took our feedback and changed it and edit it thank you for that um but also there was a moment where we named the importance of a sense of Staff belonging in order for us to achieve these outcomes with students and um I see where that's been put into the sort of Preamble of the theory of action bullets uhhuh um well one of the things that I appreciated about the previous organization which I know we don't have it as a point of comparison is that it named that the board knows that when that all staff have a duty and responsibility to the outcomes for kids so that the previous organization had District leaders School leaders all
095educat ERS working together for these bullets and what's happened is they're all still named but some are now ensuring the sense of belonging and some are experiencing the sense of belonging and I I I don't know that I do think it's the responsibility of leaders I do think it is the responsibility of leaders to set tone and to create that um but it the way this is written it now becomes the responsibility like we're bifurcated one group has one group is creating the sense of belonging and the other group is doing what's in these bullets so while I I do want I do I really appreciate it that if staff don't have a sense of belonging and I think that's everyone who works in our district not just at a certain level right everyone yes
096and how do we cope create a sense of belonging but I think that's how we do it is co-create it there's a role for leadership for sure and so I don't mean to imply that it's not ultimately the duty of leaders to set that tone but um I thought you were going to magically make it its own bullet is what I thought and I couldn't grammatically figure out how that would happen trying to keep the bulleted statements focused on student students where that's why that that organization like hey here's what we're doing for our staff so that they can and create what we were hoping to see for our students that's why I put it up there I'm not I I think that after after what we've seen here tonight like there was a part
097of me that just was like this is this is good enough to strive on and I think I just wanted to check in with my colleagues about this notion of this where the staff belonging comes from how does it how is it created how is it maintained who owns it who benefits from it and are we all on the same page with this yes and just the theory of action is is really focused on student outcomes so all those other things can be you know designed and created as we flush out the Strategic plan and what happens in those areas that we focus there but this is really driving what we want to see the outcomes for our students to be well and I appreciate you saying that because James part of what was so
098great about the conversation last week is James bringing up the students code of student sucess and then we held that together and realized this is really about what do the adults in our school district do to bring about the outcomes we want for the students in our buildings like that makes a lot of sense to me and I like keeping it to that and so I think that's why it stood out to me that we started to create different buckets of adults yes yeah yeah yep [Music] I appreciate you lifting that up Rebecca I just think um given that we we know that a school year gets busy and things come up I I just I I want to make sure that it stays at the top of our minds or the top of the
099paper or whatever as we get into strategic planning that in addition to building a s of belonging for each student that we're also understanding that we are also building a sense of belonging for every single staff member Y and that is our big Focus next years we Implement staff crew yeah and I I know that in the professional world I come from this gets called The Parallel process that if what you want is a certain experience when there are layers of um staff and people and you have a a a type of experience you want for the ultimate people who receive it you you you create that as a parallel process meaning it happens at all levels because then it's embodied by the people who deliver it because they experience it from the people who
100support them and so I firmly believe that the way for our students to experience a sense of belonging is for the adults that are around them to experience a sense of belonging and I think that District leaders and school leaders need to experience a sense of belonging that's how they will create that and so um I'm I appreciate the moment the check-in thank you um because I don't I I don't I think as we consider how we will work as a district that we will when there are certain adults who have power to do things and other adults are on the receiving end that is a very different sort of dynamic than what I'd like to see us building and I think this we're all there so I'm not I'm not going to nitpick the
101words thank you anyone else questions comments so do we are we charged with accepting this as is or could we ask for additional revisions at this time you can I mean yeah you can ask for well I guess to to tag off of what Rebecca spoke into the room is you know I I I kept coming back to the the headline of agency and the you know the very clear ask from acae and supporting members of the The Wider Community um and you know asking very clearly for support of MCC and I I speaking for myself would like to see that included in some portion of this as a commitment to our staff will you say that again I'm sorry that I I would I'd like to see the ask of meet caner collaborate included
102in in some way in this this is Al editable going forward so I my recommendation would be not that that couldn't come in here but wait for the board to take action on that policy first and then embed it and make an edit because that policy still has to go through the whole review process so that that would just be my recommendation is that we accept it that the board accepts this and then as they move forward with meet and confer um if that's brought into policy that we can then reference it and make an edit then I'd like to just bring up too based on what lies as uplifting and that I hope will we can when we have this and like you said this isn't we're not etching this in stone this is
103something that we approve but we visit and re visit and that I could imagine ways where we use this as a jumping off place to further identify things we have that support or things we need and so that by having it we will be able to have shared language and say you know as as we look at what a meet and confer policy could look like that this becomes a tool for honoring the the type of agency we want to have in all the adults who work in our building and so um I agree that there's a process will follow that I don't think should hold this up but that there can be I feel energized by the idea of many pieces of like evidence that start backing this up so that this isn't just
104words on a page it's like how do we know it's really happening because we can we can go back and look at this new policy this changed policy this retired policy because we are grounded in these concepts of of what adults do to support kids as students yeah all right anything else for the word then I'll uh entertain a motion I move that we adopt the theory of action second that's been moved and seconded uh any other comments questions all right all in favor I any opposed great the action is approved we look forward to how that moves us forward Maggie and then we'll go ahead and move straight from that into your superintendent's report all right thank you so much Dr dein's going to pull this up um and first as she's pulling that
105up just wanted to highlight the amazing graduation that we had on Saturday I was able to capture the moment when our students turned their tassels and threw their hats in the air it was just such a wonderful event um to celebrate and just a beautiful place to celebrate and I think as I reflected on the graduation what really stood out for me were the speeches from our students and the words that they brought to the stage and to that moment really reflected what we hope our we want our students to demonstrate compassion they demonstrate a focus on equity and and really lifting into that space that this is the work that's ahead of us um so I thought they just did such an excellent job really lifting what we want to see from our students
106and it was just an amazing event um you can go to the next slide oh it's on the side if you want to hand me the the board it's right there thanks um um wish that more of our audience had stayed um I just wanted to lift into this space that I see our black community I hear the black community I acknowledge the the harm that has happened and that they are still seeing harm happening um and I acknowledge that and and promise that we will do better um what I've noticed throughout I've been here just a not even a year yet um there has been through the turnover through the changes a lot of things have fallen through the cracks and one of them has been how do we have a tool or a
107strategy to help us have those courageous conversations about race and we have a training coming up on Thursday and Friday of this week um beyond the diverse Beyond diversity training which comes from the work of Glenn Singleton and it is a protocol and it's training to help everyone when there is that harm to know to recognize when you see it and then be ready to take action um and that is some we've done the equity Equitable um Equity Institute and we need to take it further and Beyond diversity courageous conversations takes it to the next step to give everyone in our district tools to have those conversations ready to say hey this that that wasn't right we need to show up and show out better to support our black community and it is something that
108we will be doing ongoing trainings so that not just a small group but eventually this will be a a training that everyone in our school system will be able to attend and understand create that common language so when we start getting that feeling in your stomach when you see something happening you know okay here's the next steps I can take to help pause interrupt and stop um but then also how do we work on the repair you can pause and you can interrupt but then what do we do next and this is the first kind of phase into what is that repair look like how do we start repairing that harm and what are the protocols that we use and how do we examine the role and presence of whiteness in everything that happens in
109a in our school system it was created by white individuals it's created to benefit a certain group of people and this will help us interrogate that and understand as we write policy as a board as we look at our student results how do we interrogate the role and presence of whiteness so that we can recognize it and start building a more Equitable system for our students and for our staff so this is that next step to take the equity initiatives that we've done so far and take them further we we've got a lot of knowledge and there's a lot of knowing about but now what do we do when now that we know we have to take action and this is a tool and a protocol that will really help us take action um so
110I'm really excited about that um two-day session coming up Thursday and Friday um we're also taking our leadership um Retreat earlier this year so that after our teachers or after our staff have had this initial training they can then go into their school Improvement or or what we're now calling our school work plan process and embed that stuff in there so we're not waiting until August we're not waiting months after the year has ended our results are fresh we have the information we know what we need to do and we're ready to take action and interrogate the systems that we've put in place to ask are why are we getting the same results and when I talk about the same results that kind of jump into the end as we look at our student assessment
111results coming out from ele Elementary and Middle School it they are they're not different we are still seeing a staggering gap between the achievement of our black students and the achievement of our white students and it is a multi-layered intersectional outcome that is part of our responsibility and we need to engage with our community Asheville City Schools cannot address this on our own we need our community to invest in us and to invest in the work that we're doing so we can solve this problem together we are working with um students and staff that have been harmed and we have to help work through that process but we also need to hold people accountable um so we definitely need to understand that there's work ahead of us it has been a and I'll say as
112I've kind of listened and learned over the past 10 months Asheville is a very complicated Community with many layers and many different groups within groups so trying to take that time to listen and understand all those different perspectives has taken a long time um but I'm putting things in place we're taking action and we are moving forward to put some things in place to stop the harm to make sure we're ready to step up and interrupt harm when we see it and be ready to take steps to repair that harm and build back something better part of that is our strategic planning process um and I'll share a little a little bit more about that process but how we're engaging the community at the start so that we can build that plan so with internally
113accountable measures to hold us and me as the superintendent accountable for the results that we know we need to see in our community another um thing that I had put into place at a previous district and we'll be getting this gearing up and starting um coming up in September is our leadership development cohort we've heard about leaders in our school district we' seen leaders in our school district that are amazing and we want to help make sure that they have all the tools and all the things that we need so we can start moving people that are within our system up into leadership positions so working on a leadership development cohort to make sure that we are tagging um a diverse group of leaders and keeping the talent that we have here and getting them
114ready to take on really challenging leadership positions so couple things that are coming down the pipe um to work on on many of the issues that our community brought up this evening we're ready for the next slide if you want to put it back up so talking about strategic planning I reviewed the calendar at the last um meeting and just a review that we are now into phase two which is the community engagement piece and the first part of that Community engagement is bringing together our strategic planning steering committee um and I'm very excited to share the list of um community members and staff that have stepped up and agreed to serve on the steering committee um so you can see that list um of staff and um community members um that are willing to
115step up and help us do this work together because I know this group is going to help us do something really amazing and set thus on the right path um for what we're going to accomplish so what is the steering committee going to do so they are going to be my accountability partner so holding me accountable will meet monthly um to get updates to gather input from this um Team to hold me accountable to what we promise to do there also an oversight for this process to ensure that we are aligning what we put in our strategic plan with the values of our community and our stakeholders they'll also be supporting me with synthesizing information supporting the communication of the action steps um out to our greater Community but also recruiting helping me recruit community
116members when we get to other phases of participatory input sessions so this is the work of that team and like I said working with them on a monthly basis is my accountability piece to make sure that I am fulfilling the promise that I made my very first time at the podium here about engaging and listening to our stakeholders so excited about this process uh moving forward want to touch on budget um sure let's change change topics here um so the arrows this is the budget shortfall that we had projected to the board and to the public um when we were beginning the budget planning process so just to review some highlights here um we are anticipating $2.4 million in Revenue loss um but also anticipating with no other changes to our budget or additional staff
117um an increase in expenditures of $3.3 million which covers staff raises the local supplement um Insurance all those things that we really have no control over because of the way the state budget um has set um staff funding so our shortfall initially was $ 5.7 million um we have reviewed the county commissioner's recommended budget and they have um increased the appropriation to City Schools um about about 3.25% is the increase that results in an increase of about $632,000 they um same percent increase to bunkham County Schools so that creates a short fall for us of 5.6 5.06 million moving ahead into finalizing our budget um the state budget is still a big unknown we do not have the state budget I do we do not anticipate that it will be passed prior to June 30th
118um and we do have to take action and pass a resolution a spending resolution um as we move out of this fiscal year and into the next year um so we have that shortfall that we've got to figure out what to do um so of that shortfall the board has committed to adding um to pulling out $3 million of our um fund balance so that leaves us at about a little over2 million of a shortfall so what I've asked each of my um um central office departments is to review their budgets and their Staffing to identify where we can cut so we have to find $2 million somewhere to cut from our budget um we are in the process of really getting a better idea of what the actual savings were with um the cons
119validation of our two middle schools so that will help us that's not calculated in what we need um to come up with in the shortfall um but we do anticipate reducing more staff than we initially did um with the at central office and potentially not filling some open positions at the at the local schools so we still do have some tough decisions to um talk through and make decisions as we go through into um into finalizing our budget for next year um do the board have any questions on where we're going with the budget will you be able to have those uh I guess recommendations for us or at least a an idea for the meeting on the 27th correct yes okay yep can I clarify that the action step two evaluation of school allotment
120formula is to see if additional vacancies can go unfilled um you're not changing the allotment are you this you're not re-evaluating the form the no I'm not strategy right so yes that has gone into place but as we were um implementing the new Staffing allotment formula some positions um like one is the Stellar sub um some of those didn't have a staff to put into that position so they've just been sitting there open so right now I've told principal's pause on hiring those open positions because we need to see where we end up with this shortfall before we can hire any open position positions so we kind of are doing other than essential positions of hiring free basically question some of these recommendations can we go back to some of the old recommendations has already
121been done or do we are the all the new recommendations no we're revisiting those so some of them are looking at um savings at the central office through contracted positions that we can fulfill with our internal staff that we already have on hand um so that's we're yes we're looking at the playlist from previous years and seeing what we can use yeah and this previous year also correct I mean we looking okay yeah thanks um and if the state does pass additional raises for staff that shortfall will grow exponentially um so that is a a very a ver concern that they are going to pass additional raises any other questions on the budget and we'll bring updated numbers to the board at the um this June called border session at the end of the called
122meeting at the end um it is my distinct honor to um share with the board um well share with everyone that we have named the next principal for Asheville middle school and it is Mr Blair Johnson and he is sitting here in the back you want to wave Blair hey so Blair stood out among many candidates as someone who will be able to as like one of the new as the new principal to really take Asheville middle school and move it forward um we do want to thank Joe for her great work there as the principal um but some career highlights for um Blair is he has been an assistant principal at Asheville middle since 2019 does serve on the district Equity team team um he's been the Middle School athletics director he has a
123master's of school administration from Western Carolina I'm also the Middle School um Summer School director he's an NC principal fellow um at earlier in his career he worked as a curriculum consultant with us doing stem development um and was a fourth grade teacher at fance um Blair has spent every single year of his career working in Ashville City Schools um so we're excited to to add Blair to our principal team um we did have a very rigorous interview process um and I'm sure Blair could tell you that um it started with a round one interview of a very diverse panel a large group with an interview process and then the second interview was a smaller subset of Staff members um including Dr Dickerson Brian poek um Kelly madkins and Gretchen from monford um and they
124shared and after they finished their interview with that team they came and presented their 90-day plan to me um and I can tell you that Blair really came out showing his knowledge of middle school students his passion towards Equity um and really utilizing the staff in the room to help make leadership decisions so as we think about this ask for meet and confer that is Blair's approach to leadership is really using the smart people in the room to help make decisions and that distributive leadership so let's give I wanted to give Blair a round of applause and we will meet with the Asheville um middle school and moner staff together tomorrow at um Asheville middle school and introduce him to his staff and we'll have a press release and some communication coming out from Blair
125um tomorrow as well and that concludes my um presentation for the board this month questions or discussion thank you Maggie um I'll make my board chair report fairly quick um first of all Maggie um congratulations on a first full year as our superintendent um and a very um very full one um I wanted to highlight a couple of things that the board has done over the past month most of that around um around graduation and um how much the board board members were there for a lot of things that were happening to celebrate the end of the year um whether it was showing up at the elementary schools as you know as we showed at the very beginning of the board meeting as our seniors walked through the elementary schools for the Senior Walk which
126is always an exciting time um to see those students walk through their old elementary schools and to see the students and staff especially those staff who actually taught those students um way back then to be able to celebrate them um as they walk through their old elementary schools um in other end of the Year celebrations whether it was the IRL celebration um at the middle school back at the be was that the toward the end of May yeah sometime in May um or those of us who were able to attend graduation um just on Saturday and um Maggie already said it but I also just want to um also highlight how amazing our um the student speeches are uh this is um I believe principal Kush reminded me this is the third year that um
127students select the um the student speakers um as opposed to just being the validator or the sorian who give the student speeches um any student can submit a speech um and it's student Representatives who then or student the student body then selects who the student speakers are going to be um and those are powerful speeches um full of um of course humor um full of wisdom um but also full of uh real understanding of what it is to be to to live in Asheville and to understand what um what it is to live in a in the modern world and you know to understand what Justice is um what it is to move out beyond the walls of Asheville High and silsa um Jesse and I were talking about it before this meeting but if
128there's a way Maggie for us to um you know with the students consent to to project those um speeches out to the broader Community because they are powerful um you know the more we can share those out with with the broader Community um I'd love to share them because those students are phenomenal um and again just the fact that it's the students themselves who are choosing the students who are going to speak for them um I think it's something Ashville high does that's pretty unique um it's certainly unique in our region um and it's a very student centered graduation I mean Derek Edwards spoke probably more than I've ever heard him speak at graduation because his son was graduating and he's worked with those students um across the the years um but otherwise the students
129kind of guide that so um so thank you um to the board for showing up for all of those things throughout this last month as we've been celebrating our students as they've closed out the year um I just want to acknowledge the the um the things that we've accomplished over the year I mean we've had some um we we've we've dealt with a lot of things over the course of the year um we spent some time discussing for example sp49 um and really wrestled with language in our policies to make sure that they um that we threaded the needle um as best we could with what the state was telling us we had to do and what we understood our students needed and our families needed um we um of course made a decision that
130we know that still um families are feeling around merging our two middle schools um we um you know it's one of the few times that we on the board didn't have a consensus and um and that's going to happen right um and yet we still work together as a team um and we understand that we then move forward and figure out what does that then mean for us in the next meeting the next meeting Beyond and how we then call ourselves to account for what does this mean for student outcomes um and um and it came up in public comment today at the very first meeting of the year we did look at the achievement Gap and and then because work became work um and it's and I take responsibility for it we didn't look
131at it again for rest of the year um and so I do task us as we move into the next year that we make sure that we are looking at this we are looking at our achievement Gap and we are we are um connecting what we are doing to the student outcomes um I know Maggie that's what your focus is as well um that as we move into our strategic planning process as we move into the decisions that we make starting in August and for the rest of the next school year that we are attaching that to student outcomes and especially to this achievement Gap that is um you know that is that precedes you precedes all of us on this board that that we are tasked with working on um and so we um
132we will meet one more time as a board U before we technically are on break for the summer and that's for um to to work on this budget one last time that's the end of the of June but when we come back in August we come with that focus on working on the Strategic plan a refocus on the things that we heard about tonight um that we are um focused on these youth um the students that we support and the decisions we are making are on student outcomes um and whatever we can do to make sure that we are making this District the best we can for every single student who walks through our doors uh and for every single staff member who walks through our doors as well thank you to the staff for
133the entire year that you've put in with us um thank you especially those of us those of you who have been with us for those late night meetings that go till 10:30 at night or longer um and just want to thank the board for your work for this year and with that uh if there's anything else in the board otherwise I'll ask for a motion to adjourn so moved second it's been moved and seconded all in favor I I any opposed and thank you all we are adjourned