Asheville City Schools, Board of Education, Special Called Meeting, 2/27/24

001check one2 excuse me everyone excuse me excuse EXC me everyone excuse me um we're not going to start just yet but I am noticing how many folks are gathered at the back and there are a couple of seats up front um so please raise your hand if you have a seat next to you U where someone can come seat sit because we have a lot of people standing in the back going to share with the board please give them to Kimberly good evening good evening and welcome to this special called session of the Ashville City School Board um to hear public comment regarding um possible reconfiguration of Asheville middle schools um we we will start with our Equity statement and um I'm going to ask Amy if you would read that please in Asheville City

002Schools 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 through our 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 thank you um we do have a quorum tonight and so I'll ask for an approval of tonight's agenda so move second it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I any opposed all right um so again we are here tonight to for our second meeting um to hear public comment regarding the middle schools and we will start as we did with

003our at our last meeting last Monday with a presentation from Dr Maggie Ferman all right good evening everyone welcome I'm going to go through this presentation pretty quickly it's been out there for a while um so we'll just kind of touch the highlights there's been a couple Corrections and some additional information and I'll touch on that um as you recall the two charges that the board gave me was to assess the feasibility of consolidation of schools um to look at improving academic Effectiveness operational efficiency and long-term sustainability for the board um and the other goal the board um determined is a top top priority is finding space on a um Asheville City Schools facilities on a campus that we own for our education and Career Academy to make sure that we're providing programming for meeting

004the diverse needs of our students we did some initial analysis April you can go to the next slide three thank you it's okay we did some initial analysis and the analysis revealed that all uh all of our facilities are under capacity to varying degrees um that Aces has lost about 600 students since 20145 but we continue to have the same number of staff that we did in 1415 um our state and local Revenue sources are not able to sustain a rate of expenditures and we have seen that our initial prediction is that we're going to have a budget shortfall of about $4.5 million for fy2 budget so we started exploring various considerations um of consolidation such as decreasing from five elementary schools to four two middle schools to one combining both of high schools into

005one campus into one school um as well as other configuration options including looking at K2 35 68 and 912 campuses a K8 School option a 612 option and then that K12 option to include that specialized programming for students um we are also deep into adjusting and our staffing allotment formula at our schools and at central office um and we've also been underway to examine ways that we can potentially increase student enrollment through marketing um and understanding why families have left Asheville City Schools um as a deeper Capacity Analysis um we do not expect the official capacity study to come in from Cooperative strategies until the end of March um so right now we do not have those numbers but I do have an update some updated numbers nothing changed in our elementary numbers um Asheville

006Middle School nothing has changed there um but I did want to touch on the enroll on the capacity number for Montford Northstar so the capacity number that was there before was 765 because that's what is in the latest facility study that we had completed when it was Randolph school so still that capacity but we don't haven't ever used that maximum capacity number for our school but we had no other number for Montford Northstar so we just had the number we had um and then on our report we had uh calculated there's a formula on dpi's website about calculating DPI space so when they initially took those numbers and put them into the DPI formula they put in all 20 some classrooms to use for space well we know you don't have all of 20 classrooms

007of you know F filled with students all at one time so there's space in that building for 17 home rooms so we've plugged in the 17 home rooms into that formula which gives us a DPI capacity of 442 students um so that number is updated we've updated it on the uh append what do you call them the attach exhibits as well with a note on why that Corrections been made and where that number has come from um we also see Asheville High School um with its capacity numbers I did touch on last time the Haywood campus um is not categorized as a school um I actually toured that building today and attended a meeting for the feasibility study that we've been doing with bunkham County and we'll have more information to share about what's coming

008from that feasibility study at a subsequent meeting also central office um we did look at what would it take to upgrade central office for student capacity um because it is not to code um and it is also a significant um Financial upgrade to get this building ready to take students on a full-time basis and I'll have those numbers to share at the March 4th meeting as well so we had all these options we needed to identify certain options that were tenable for immediate action um so as we looked through and tried to decide what are some places where we could potentially take some immediate action um we looked at our some elementary schools where we could potentially create a K8 option um and we looked at Lucy Herring and Ira B Jones we also as

009potentials there and we're still looking at those also we realized that for those no none of those schools are set up for 68 so it would require some upgrade and facilities for that um also looked at downsizing our middle our elementary schools um going from 5 to four um but kind of moved that off the docket um for immediate action as having to engage with those five communities and determining which of the five schools would be the one to take offline um we know we also want to demonstrate Financial stewardship so keeping that as what of the options would be most financially would create the most long-term sustainability for our school system and then also always putting first and foremost making sure that we have an equitable learning environment for every student in our district

010regardless of what school or classroom that they're in um so we identified reconfiguration of middle schools is one of the potential options for immediate action um and the rationale for that is it as we looked at the number number of students that attend Ashville Middle School it was fewer than the number that attend the high school it was fewer than the number of all of our elementary schools together we also felt like that was going to be a manageable lift for admin to complete by the start of next year and it also provided space um for our ECA programming um at a facility so we make sure that we can offer those students the the space that they need and it also was also checking the box for financial stability um but also we are

011not forgetting about our staffing a lot M so we contined to review our staffing allocations for central office and for our schools to find out where we can do some increased deficiency when it comes to the number of Staff employed across Asheville City Schools we've been plugging numbers away and we are looking at some updated numbers to share at the March 4th meeting um and then we also went ahead and marched uh launched the marketing campaign and as I shared last time this was at no additional cost to the district we reallocated a salary for a staff member who was working in community ations to pay for the um Consulting work that we've been doing for marketing so that brings us to the three considerations that the board is evaluating um that they will again

012get updated information on for next week and first the option is that we don't change that we leave both schools as is um with that though knowing we do have to find a space for the education and Career Academy as for a permanent location so that is still somewhere we'd have to find Space um and we'll be providing some options for what that could look like if the board chooses option one um the other option is move Montford into another site whether it be one of our elementary schools or into Asheville middle school but still maintaining it as a separate School within another building um and then the third option is transitioning from two middle schools to one um just a quick review of the timeline and where we are and just what's not captured

013on this timeline is that this conversation began at board meetings back in November at the November I think third work session um we started initially sharing this information after we realized um that the district was not in the best financial situation and we would need to take some immediate actions um and the last slide is just make sure that you are staying informed this website uh there is a website version of this linked on our Ashville City Schools web page um we are going to be updating it as we go along if you've looked at the most recent page we already have some updates dates in there and at the very end the very last part of the web page is here are the updates to the version and here's why we made those updates

014so you can follow along as stuff gets updated um I want to share my commendations for our community and sharing your input and your questions you've helped us make sure that we're reflecting what questions you have we are taking your input into consideration um and know that the board has not made a decision and we are still evaluating all options that's all I have thank you Dr Ferman uh any regarding that any questions from the board uh I do want to um let everyone know who's in the room those of you who were not um able to join us either virtually or in person on Monday following Dr furman's presentation that was similar to what she just shared with us tonight we had um presentations from both Montford Northstar PTO and asille middle school PTO

015presenting here in the room I'm not asking to go look at that right now because we're in the meeting but I would encourage you um at the close of this meeting to go check that out on our website um to view those two presentations and with that we will begin with our um public comment and as you all know I have to give these public comment guidelines so the Board of Education greatly appreciates your interest in the Asheville City schools and we welcome your comments to the board please be mindful of the following guidelines per policy 2310 unless otherwise approved by the board the total time for public comment shall not exceed 30 minutes for in person and 15 for virtual speakers um I'll let you know board that looking at the list we might

016want to go ahead um after I read these comments and make a motion to extend that time so everyone can be heard members of the public may speak for 3 minutes the time remaining is indicated by lights directly in front of you at the podium multiple speakers for a group who are presenting on the same topic may choose to elect one speaker for the group if a single speaker is used by any group they shall be allocated five minutes instead of three to address the board if your group chooses this option please identify everyone in the group when you sign up to speak um 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 the

017public meeting will not be tolerated and can result in removal from the the meeting incorrect or misleading information presented by a speaker may be responded to at the direction of me uh and finally public comment allows you to provide the Board of Education with your thoughts and or Rel relevant information concerning Asheville City schools and specific to this meeting uh to the configuration of our two middle schools um therefore board members will not normally respond to individuals who address the board except to request clarification uh and I said this at the close of the last meeting I'll say it here now um our job tonight is to listen and that's what we're all here for we are here to listen to you community members parents students uh whoever else is is uh asking to speak

018finally and I don't believe this will be an issue but I just want to remind you all that confidential student and Personnel matters may not be discussed during public comment and the board does not accept Personnel complaints through public comment if you do have a concern about an employee or a student matter we ask you to see the superintendent after the meeting or reach out to her and with that we'll go ahead and start with public comment now I do uh I've been informed that there was some uh confusion with signing up so I want to let you know that I have the list right here of people who have signed up in person um we then at once that list have been exhausted I'm going to read through the virtual um names because I

019think some folks actually are here in person as opposed to online virtually and so we'll go through those names next for in person comment and then anyone else will then um switch over to Virtual comment before we start that I do want to again I'm seeing all the faces in the room looking at this list and I do want to see from the board's perspective if we want to extend that time I move that we extend the time for public comment to accommodate all speakers second it's been moved and seconded all in favor I any opposed great so we will permission to speak sure um I'd like to make a motion um to table the reconfiguration discussion um [Applause] we um so LZ I appreciate that one one thing is with this meeting um we

020have listed that no action is going to be taken um so I appreciate the motion I mean we could um you could ask for a motion to amend the agenda to allow for Action to be taken I guess I actually don't know our lawyer is not here with us to to confirm trying to snag them before um I move that we amend the agenda as written to include the possibility for Action I'm not following Liza can you explain can can you say again Liza what you're trying to do um I'd like to amend the agenda so that we could make space for possible action to be taken an action on tabling the discussion on reconfiguration until when right indefinitely um I mean if if there's need to to outlay a a particular timeline on that

021um I I'd like to say two years from now well first of all there's a motion on the table to amend the agenda to be able to take action again as as dated in the original um notice out to the public no action was going to be taken at this meeting um just because this is a bit unorthodox I'm going to explain why I'm not going to Second your motion I feel like we've put it out there that tonight is when we hear public comment and people have come and we ought to hear it I think we have um a a timeline whether we take action or not we have to receive this input and I don't think we've made any decision about what we're going to do with that um and I also feel

022like as we head into um budget discussions later this spring I'm not sure we've served ourselves well by just delaying so I I'm just not comfortable seconding it because it's come as a surprise to me but that's just giving you my opinion about that and so I I appreciate the motion I don't I don't hear a second um thank you for the motion but we will um continue while with public comment uh and so we do have um quite a few folks we do have quite a few folks um listed for public comment so we'll start with our first one um Adrien Bernardi and Adrian you'll have three minutes okay thank you I um I have renewed hope so thank you for making that motion even though we um are going to continue together public

023comment I think it's very important and I appreciate this opportunity very much we have been an ACS family for more than a decade uh the ability for students to choose a school based on their needs and best fit has kept my family here in the district uh my children have attended different elementary schools and both AMS and Montford NorthStar Academy as well as Asheville high and silsa maintaining options across elementary middle and high schools um is truly the best way to attract and maintain students your current digital marketing campaign and social media advertisements do reflect this uh you tout rigorous academics schools of choice in Asheville engaging steam curriculum I especially love the message that ACS is empowering students to learn discover C and Thrive and I have shared this um and forwarded this along

024knowing that on March 11th the registration deadline for the next school year also happens to be the very date that this board will vote on the future of that middle school choice and mon for Northstar stem program I truly hope that you consider how reducing acs's only stem-based Middle School option and potentially eliminating middle school choice will impact the future Financial stability and academic effectiveness of this District I do have some questions for the board um I'm wondering if you have spent time at Montford Northstar this school semester and if not when was the last time you visited our middle schools both of them um how can you possibly assume that the schools can merge well in terms of academics and culture if you're not really familiar or have firsthand experience please spend some time

025in our schools so you can make an informed decision um I also wanted to note thank you so much for updating the reconfiguration website I was there this morning it was still dated back to the 20th so I was glad to see that you have made some adjustments um on those faulty capacity numbers that were previously reported um one thing you still have not addressed is how your proposed tenable options will be academically effective as a core stated objective um I have only heard back from one board member regarding noted concerns surrounding the misinformation and inaccuracies of your analysis and solutions um under consideration previously and before you take any further action I truly hope that you will explore alter alternatives to 90 mford Avenue for ECA and more thoroughly evaluate the true costs of

026your decision on the students within Asheville City Schools thank you I'm next up we have David Rogers and David you left 3 minutes all right thank you board members when you hired Dr Ferman you got a leader experienced in community building and strategic planning reading the article on her transition to Asheville last July in the Asheville Watchdog I was excited for the future of Asheville City schools here are a few of the comments that made me hopeful for the future of Asheville City Schools Dr Ferman quote the thing I'm most proud of in my superintendency developing a really good framework for our strategic plan to guide deater School in the next 5 years end quote question from the Ashville Watchdog what was the process in terms of getting public input in other stakeholder input Dr

027furman's quote we did several things we did some open Town Halls open to the community everyone was invited and in those several meetings we talked about your typical SWAT analysis strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats end quote she goes on outlining how extensive this process was please read the article if you haven't I'll boil it down to this there was a lot of public engagement a lot building support from the community for the path forward Dr Ferman quote I'll tell you oh hold on Asheville Watchdog are you thinking of employing the same sort of process in Asheville Dr furman's quote I'll tell you I see a very engaged community in Asheville as well and I can tell you that they are not going to want a superintendent and their team to close the door develop a

028plan and announce the plan so I see engaging the community really actively plugging in with stakeholders to get their input where do they want to see asille City schools in 5 years what are the priorities they want to focus on end quote spoton superintendent I see we don't want a rush plan made with less than 60 days of public notice voting March 11th to emerge without real engagement and limited data on cost and benefits of all options does not build support it undermines the goals of building trust in the community how much does it cost to operate the Montford Northstar building with just 30 kids in it if you put ECA in there if ECA is ramped up how much does it cost what is the net savings if you get rid of Montford Northstar

029and you put ECA in the same building one last question anyone really made a plan and figured out how to put two schools in one building if you vote to merge the schools on March 11th there are just 168 days left until the start of school 20 on the 26th of August just 111 11 work days with kids in school 57 of these with 54 days to merge the school after school ends on June 7th unless you're working weekends and holidays it seems difficult at best to merge both schools use the skills that Dr Ferman has to map out a strategic plan as she did in decar building trust again in Asheville City Schools truly engaging to find Solutions we are all here to help you we support you please use a leader that you

030hired thank you thank you uh next up is Emily [Applause] first how do I how do I do this you can take it out okay there you go you have three minutes Emily Okay so so we all know that enrollment is down in ASO schools the district wants to save money you want to save money and that might mean closing Montford and but like if Montford is closed School uh K kids from there who don't want to go to AMS or wherever you put us we'll go to Charter Schools instead and you guys will lose even more money for our district so uh that's that's because a lot of monford students don't want to go to AMS or leave our building and that's nothing against AMS it's simply because a lot of monford students chose

031to go there because it's a smaller environment and has fewer people on the other end of that Montford or not Montford AMS has almost as many students in each grade as Montford has in its entire student body that's a lot of people and if we put Montford in AMS that would be like adding a whole fourth grade into AMS that's like a lot of people um either way it would be done there will be more students in each classroom and I think that would be hard for students and teachers and so AMS students might even leave our school district because there's not a choice for middle schools anymore if that would happen um the next thing I want to talk about is Montford I love Montford and I know a lot of people who go

032there do too um our building is special our teachers are special our students are special when I walk in our front door in the morning I know I am walking into a place that is a community a place where I can be myself a place where I am pushed to do my best but also supported through it um hold on uh uh everyone matters at Montford and uh I love Montford the the final thing I want to address is mental health middle school is hard um there's gossip drama people are trying to make friends um trying to figure out who they are and not to mention going through puberty yes I said it um uh oh uh uh I'm only in sixth grade myself um and it's already hard for me uh I know I

033know a lot of people at Montford who struggle with things like anxiety or who are neurodiverse and uh I don't know what it's like at AMS but I'm worried that if we combine like it might be harder for people like that um also I know that people feel safe at Montford and they feel seen um we have a lot of options to consider when uh deciding what to do with our Middle School situation for these reasons and more closing monford should not be the one we go with thank you thank you [Applause] next we have cor first and cor you'll also have three minutes um yeah I'm cor um I am in eighth grade at Montford and I know I'm not alone in my beliefs that Montford should stay open as its own entity in

034its current building people should still have the um presently available choice to go to Montford or AMS uh we make that choice for many reasons but the um sorry but the biggest reason for someone to choose Montford is that it offers both a smaller building and a smaller Community um both schools offer good and different things and I won't say either one is better however not everyone can thrive or even just have a positive um sorry positive healthy relationship um in uh different School environments uh taking away the choice between the two options will mean a percentage of students being required to attend a school that they can't be successful in not because the school is bad but simply because it's not the right fit um as someone who's been at mford for three years

035the small size is essential to our school's Community as a whole and as individuals with fewer people in smaller classes where able to develop strong relationships with our peers and our teachers classroom environments and learning feel personal and it is easy to ask questions and ask for help mford is more than a school it's a community in which everyone is important everyone is seen for themsel and everyone belongs shutting down mford will shut down that sense of belonging and and sense of individual and group significance for all those reasons I strongly believe Montford should remain open and how it is thank you thank you uh next up is Robin [Music] maylor and Robin you'll have three minutes thank you I'm gonna have to look at my can you'all hear me okay there we go I

036have to look at have to look at my phone um because it was that kind of day I didn't even get to print out my notes um and it was that kind of day trying to get here too um and that touches on one thing I'd like to talk about um but I better get to stick to this first okay I'm Robin maylor um thank you Dr Ferman and board members for hearing all of us I don't envy being in your position a budget is a budget we H it's it has to be done in a household it has to be managed at this level um thank you for just listening to us as you consider all of these options um I am a parent of two ACS students one at Montford Northstar and one

037at Asheville High I was recently a full-time Asheville City Schools employee for 5 years three of those as an Elementary classroom teacher the reasons I decided to leave the classroom are complicated in a conversation for another time but my experience very much informs my views on the proposed Middle School consolidation plan and though I've transitioned into a new career this year I've also had the privilege this year of working eight hours a week as an academic support teacher at Montford NorthStar Academy I want to just talk for a moment about public education it is very messy people are messy it's beautiful and it's messy when we open our doors to any and all children we invite in all of society's challenges and the burden of meeting many of these child's children's needs excuse me is

038unduly put on our schools while Montford Northstar is an amazing school I'm going to be honest it is not without its share of students with very challenging Behavior patterns but what I see when I'm present in that building twice a week and when working with some of those students myself is that their needs are being intentionally and effectively Andre addressed due to the strong relationship that staff have with these students the high expectations that admin consistently adhere to in the intimate nature of this school Community I can't speak to the number of behaviorally challenged students that are at AMS but I'd say it's a similar proportion of their student body I fully believe that putting all 800 plus ACS middle school students in the same building with higher student teacher Student Admin student counselor stud

039student behavioral specialist r r ratios will negatively impact not only the students who desperately need more intervention and support but it will create more of the stressful unsustainable learning and working environment that leads to teacher burnout and causes families to seek other options because their child's classroom is chaotic another thing um school choice you could argue that it's a privilege I kind of think it is if I lived a mile from where I do right now we wouldn't even question where my child would go to school they would just go where they're zoned but I just want to speak to the precedent that's been set by ACS I don't want us to sound like whiny privileged parents we're just going with the president um and what has set ACS apart is that there has been

040Choice from K through 12 for so long so to resend on that choice I ask you just as we've said over and over please hit the pause button and please just take longer to consider all of the options thank you good luck [Applause] uh next is Lea Keel hi good evening ACS community and board I've been a special education teacher for over 10 years and joined mon Northstar in 2017 since then I have met or exceeded expected growth every year was voted Teacher of the Year and have served two years on the educator advisory Council where we discussed issues affecting our district the students I work with at monford chose this school for its Project based learning approach and smaller fuel my parents state that they chose monford because it was the right fit for

041their child who needed a smaller setting due to their child's Disability and Special learning needs I worked directly with my grade level team and because of moner's small size I am able to interact with all students and get to know everybody this allows students with disabilities not to feel singled out when I work with them they're just going to work with Miss Keel the teacher whose classroom is right across from Miss Cobalts not miss Keel that special education lady who pulls those kids out every Tuesday for 30 minutes because of our smaller size students are able to get a unique approach to learning we are able to cater to very specific social emots needs that a larger school would not be able to address I would even like to think that our efforts and interventions

042have provided some students with more extreme needs the support that helped them stay in our school as opposed to needing a more restrictive environment provided through the ECA I would love for any of you to come visit our school and see the amazing work that we are doing there I sympathize with the board's financial crisis I appreciate Dr furman's work to reconfigure central office and become more financially stable I also sympathize with the eca's need to find a permanent home I was told that right now they need five classrooms for 32 students that's it five so I understand that the intention is to expand the program but at the moment they don't need that space why is there this rush to close a nationally recognized school that currently serves about a third of the district's

043middle school students to house less than 1% of the students enrolled in this District the plans that is being discussed does not make sense the thought of closing one functional celebrated and successful Middle School to provide space for a program that maybe will expand at some point in the future seem shortsighted and financially unsound as has been stated many times there have been better more logical Solutions proposed and if given more time I believe you all will make an informed decision I am a veteran special education teacher who chose to work at moner norstar are I am one of many teachers who will not be working for Asheville City Schools if monford does not stay where it is I feel incredibly fortunate to have such a supportive team I love the fact that every single

044student I know in the building even though I only directly teach 40 this is not an experience that can just be picked up and moved students have choices at the elementary school level they have choices at the high school level they deserve the same opportunity for choice at the middle school level please make an informed decision not a rushed one thank you thank [Applause] you uh next speaking on behalf of M for Northstar students we have Clara Nunan claa you'll have five minutes and yes please make sure you're speaking into the mic we're getting some we the sound isn't great tonight thank you hello thank you for having us this evening we'd like to start out we'd like to start by pointing out that AMS and mnsa both have amazing teachers and amazing opportunities although

045though AMS has a larger campus some students pre prefer a smaller campus monford provides that for us the smaller learning environment allows us to excel both academically and socially our close-nit community allows each and every student to get the care that they need in our opinion having the option between sixth between schools in Sixth 7eventh and e8th grade is a very important asset to middle schoolers many studies show that small schools like mon for Northstar produce overall higher academic achievement than larger schools and are less likely to have fights vandalism and students being absent or dropping out AMS might not be the best fit for some kids who need smaller learning environment to succeed schools are not one size fits all everybody needs something different to be the best that they can be and having

046two middle schools for options is very important for everyone to succeed the students at mnsa choose to go to mnsa and our school is doing very well you can't expect all of us to do well when move to a big Middle School like AMS one of the most important things that I learned at monford is how to make decisions not based on how it will affect the current moment but how it will affect the future too so please think about how your decision will affect the future students why is closing in an essay the only option on the table we have five elementary school schools some of which could be Consolidated there's also the old Ashville primary building and central office where ECA could be housed so once again closing mnsa cannot be the only

047way to save money we created a survey asking sixth grade students if mnsa were to close would they go to AMS or Charter School out of the 51 responses 29 said that they would go to AMS 23 said that they would go to Charter School or bonam County school and 16 said said that they didn't know where they would go or they would go anywhere but AMS or that they didn't believe that this board was close our school that is only a small portion of our school that responded but it should give you an idea of how many kids you will lose by closing our school by closing monford Northstar ACS will not gain money enrollment will go down because people will move and go to Charter Schools or private schools AMS is not the

048only option for Middle School in Asheville so we ask you to stop and give this more thought don't just think about how about the money but how this will affect the students and teachers as well how will this affect us so please hit the pause button and look for other options thank you thank you [Applause] next is Katherine [Music] Hardy Katherine you'll have three minutes sorry I think can you hear me okay good evening board and Dr Ferman thank you again for having this listening session I hope that you're listening um and I don't mean that as not nice as it sounded um so we've heard that choice is the biggest thing and one of the biggest points for all of our families here as a teacher it is number one if you want student

049engagement you give students choices if you want parent engagement you give parents choices I find it very interesting that our big thing that we advertise about our district is choice but we're here talking about removing choice at the most difficult time in anyone's life anyone who's been to Middle School which is all of us it's hard for us not to chuckle because we all know what those experiences are like a lot of us didn't have the choice if it were up to me every Middle School would be Ted at 300 kids because it is the most important time in a kid's life and we need to provide them the most support when they're going through the most change but we as a district are talking about removing that support from them they're not going to

050have the same support at a larger school because there's just not enough adults to go around I am disheartened by the way this has been handled our superintendent has a lovely new message where we belong here these actions do not show that the staff students or families belong in this District it is the antithesis of creating a sense of belonging I am frustrated and disheartened by the amount of information that was discussed on social media by board shars that is not Equitable people are not on social media but lots of information has been said by many many individuals it's not fair to those that don't have access we're here to talk about our most atrisk students that is what the board Champions over and over so why are we not having more open discussions why

051are we not having more open town halls I understand budgets I think every adult in this room understands a budget however it's made to appear that eca's needs are more important than the students of mford I understand that ECA needs a place and needs a home but not at the expense of mford students one student in this district is not more important than another so I would encourage you to pause and really think about the decisions you're making before you make a rush decision thank you thank you [Applause] next is Carol Smith Hill and Carol you'll have um three minutes thank my name is Carol Smith Hill and I'm an sectional children's instructional assistant and M for norstar I also served as a health and physical education teacher here before I was called to serve

052in Desert Shield Desert Storm I would like to start by saying that this city has taken away so many things from the black citizens of Asheville I'm sorry Carol I hate to interrupt you will you make sure you're talking into the mic thank you okay should I start over please yeah you you yes you may we we'll restart it yeah okay thank you okay my name is Carol Smith Hill I'm an exceptional children's instructional assistant in mford Northstar I also served as a health and physical education teacher here before I was called to ser serve in Desert Shield desert stormm I would like to start by saying that this city has taken away so many things from the black citizens of Asheville and ACS has had a hand in that I'm going to try to

053sum it up quickly so that I can get to the real problem all of the schools that the black kids could go to were named for the street where they live they were located Livingston Street Burton Street Hill Street South French Broad and finally Mountain Street this historical bu building was occupied by some of the brightest black kids in the city why because they were taught by knowledgeable black leaders in the city of Asheville one of those leaders was my mother stie Cunningham so so the picture that you have been given is actually a picture of where she taught a she had an assembly program for all of her students and the two pictures below it are the classroom that she occupied downstairs in this very building so I know all about this building we

054were here used to go in the back and play we had Mayday and may poll and all kind of celebrations so I know this is an outstanding uh institution one of those other leaders uh was my father Wardell Cunningham Jr he's also a teacher in the district not to mention Nea president ncae president art leader everything there have been countless successful students who have passed through this historical building and it is in the historical East End Valley Street neighborhood it makes sense for you to to house the ECA program in this historical building so that they will have a sense of belonging not to mention they may have some ancestors that were students in this very building ACS has taken away all the other historic schools Hill Street Middle School Burton Street Elementary School lson

055Street Elementary School School South fren Brad High School also known as South frenchbo Junior High School also known as Ash Junior High School also known as Ashville middle are you going to take that away from our ECA students just like our other neighborhood schools are you going to take away mnsa where things are working for the students parents and the staff in the school why does the board not want to locate themselves in the various schools throughout the district since you are adding more positions to the chain of command tree there are many more places for you to move into so that you can truly be an asset to the students that you serve why can't you uh after all we're the ones who supported you in the elections how are you going to show

056your support for your constituents thank you thank you uh next speaking on behalf of asille high and silsa PTO is [Applause] pepo and pep you'll have F five minutes and please do speak into the mic okay I appreciate the offer for five minutes I don't have a Cadre with me as we saw with the uh fantastic speaker um uh representing the students of mford NorthStar Academy so I'll just limit myself to three um so I'm putting on my Asheville High School silsa parent teacher organization hat and speaking from that Vantage Point um as the co-president of the parent teacher organization uh I am I am concerned about moving the education and Career Academy into the mford NorthStar Academy building I understand the pain and the agony of closing the Rolph school that was upstairs and

057took over the whole building after the district failed to support the kip Academy that was downstairs we have had a history of good programs in that building um right now the ECA the education and Career Academy which is I think at 30 students their vision is to tightly integrate with uh abtech and to be able to use a shortened uh just slightly shortened um graduation path for their students and at the same time have those students be able to access courses over at AB Tech and this is a really important piece for getting those students to feel like they belong and they're valuable and they're successful so from my vantage point wearing the hat that I'm wearing at this moment it makes sense to have ECA either on the Asheville High campus with all of

058the challenges that are involved or on the abtech campus and work with the County Commissioners to make that happen or have it right nearby so that those students can access the abtech campus without barriers and where appropriate access the Asheville High campus without barriers uh I do not see that we're going to be able to roll back back the clock and put the Randolph um William Randolph school back in that building because this is a different program and I think this this ECA to have a fighting chance to grow needs it needs to be at a location where it's going to have the resources that it needs and that's what I came here to say tonight and I appreciate you folks um listening to that thank you thank you uh next up Chris Saunders and

059Chris you'll have three minutes okay can you hear me okay uh thank you Bard and Dr Ferman for allowing me time and hearing all of us tonight four years ago um my family and I we moved here so we aren't from here no connections here so this was an adventure to us and um we came in August and so one of the first things I was tasked with was to get the kids enrolled in in a school um we lived in West Asheville but one of the things that we heard from a lot of different people was you need to send them to a county school um we be but we became quickly enamored with and chose Asheville City Schools we were struck by The District's commitment to diversity and equity and those were real

060ideals that were stressed in our kids' classrooms every day we love the idea of trying to appeal to individualize Learners through their interest which we saw from from the very beginning of our uh time here eventually we bought a home in it's in South Asheville which is in the bunkham county um School District School System friends and neighbors and co-workers they all told us oh man you guys are now in a coveted School District uh but our kids uh said in no uncertain terms we want to stay in the city schools and we supported them and we agreed so we believe in you guys so much that every every year I have to run around and do the paperwork and pay the money so that they come to the city schools uh and we love

061doing that because it feels like home to us our daughter chose Asheville Middle School uh and our son chose Montford each child attended the middle school that was best suited for them my daughter loved the big school environment of AMS lots of people all the time swirling activity uh in the halls and in the classrooms my son who's 2 years younger than her uh chose Montford the Middle School uh he felt was for him the Project based learning model speaks to who he is as a learner he needs to move around and engage in tactile learning activities and the smaller environment allows him to be a part of his school without feeling overwhelmed by crowds of students but if you entertain an option that takes away Montford takes away our son's choice to attend that

062school that he knows is right you're taking away a lot of those experiences and a lot of the good stuff that I know that we all as parents and former Educators and on the board cherish the last study of capacity was in 2020 from best I can tell according to a November 22nd 2023 Mountain Express article there were admittedly inaccuracies found in that data according to Cooperative strategies per Dr Ferman this was yet again confirmed by a recent wos interview where our superintendent stated accurate information was needed and tonight where more numbers came in so there's certainly a fluid uh flow to the stuff yet we can't wait for more accurate data it seems doing so and and voting in March well the best I can say about that is is analogy of every Friday

063I log into power school and check my kids grades as we often do and sometimes I get to tell them good job but sometimes I have to tell them work is missing I'd like to be able to tell you guys that good job but I'm here to tell you work is missing and this is incomplete I believe that you all are care uh care about using data to make a a well-informed decision and I would ask that you wait until more data that's reliable stable and accurate comes in thank you thank you thank you next speaking on behalf of monford Northstar PTO Sarah Armstrong I'd like to start by saying thank you to the board for being here tonight to taking the time to listen to the community that you serve um last week I

064presented the Montford Northstar PTO information and detailed potential negative effects of dismantling our successful in demand school tonight I'd like to briefly recap for you and the rest of the ACs Community what was shared we began by talking about Montford Northstar as a success story Montford Northstar is one of three Grade B schools in Asheville City schools with a current enrollment cap of 240 students a number historically supported by central office Montford NorthStar Academy is over 90% enrolled Montford NorthStar Academy is one of only two schools in Asheville City schools that is actively closing the achievement Gap Montford norstar was also just named a school to watch which is a national award recognizing outstanding schools who have established successful practices and are on a trajectory for continued success monford NorthStar Academy is also home to

06530% of the middle schoolers in Ashville City Schools potential impacts to that 30% of middle schoolers if we were consolidated with AMS include risking social and emotional well-being of 30% of our middle schools in this middle schoolers in this District we also risk an overall reduction in their academic achievement we risk massive long-lasting enrollment loss which equals long-term financial implications for the entire District in a survey of mnsa families when asked what decision they would make if Montford were to consolidate with AMS only 133% of respondents were sure that they would send their student to AMS s of the 133 respondents over 45% said that they will leave the district another 41% remained unsure about what their decision will be we risk even losing even more trust in this District to make good thorough datadriven

066decisions we risk losing amazing teachers who once gone from ACS will not come back monford Northstar PTO agrees that ECA desperately needs a home but let's be clear Montford NorthStar Academy is not the only option for that home why aren't we exploring every option for ECA and not just one we've been told through multiple sources that Elementary School consolidations are coming next as a parent of an elementary school student in this District I hate the thought of any school closing but I can understand that it may make sense Elementary School enrollment in our district is down 26% since 2017 most of these schools including my child's School are graded as a c by the North Carolina School report card this is a decision that I would not like but I could understand closing a successful

067and nearly fully enrolled program does not make sense we have heard that Lucy Herring is slated to undergo massive Renovations starting this fall why not renovate that school with the intention to make it a home for ECA isn't this better than waiting a year or two to consolidate an elementary school and then we have a vacant building over and over again I'm hearing from our community that this process does not make sense and it is moving too fast it does not make sense to close down a school that is by all measures one of the most successful in the district if the goal is to gain academic Effectiveness operational efficiency and long-term Financial stability for ACS dismantling mnsa will not accomplish these goals closing monford will not contribute to either academic Effectiveness nor will it

068create long-term Financial stability when we suffer massive enrollment losses additionally this process is moving at a Breakneck Pace consolidation discussions did not start with Fidelity with Community engagement until mid January and this board plans to make a decision by early March there has been little public engagement and much of the community input opportunities have resulted in data that cannot be used due to issues Gathering that data to put this in perspective I'd like to talk for a moment about toilets or to be precise one toilet follow me as many of you have heard the city of Asheville moved this month to a proven installation of a public restroom downtown the city spent 2 years on deliberations for a single public restroom downtown half a million dollars were allocated in May 2022 by the city council

069but they only voted on this February of this year to authorize the purchase and installation in that time votes were tabled public comment was made available multiple times in-person meetings were held a survey was issued online and its results were made available project updates were posted on the city's website letters of support were gathered from different Community organizations concept sketches were developed for various design options all for one Standalone public restroom can we not treat this Middle School reconfiguration process with at least some of the same respect that we treat a public restroom Fair it's that three minutes or five we beg you to press pause until we have explored the impacts of every option on the table including consolidating elementary schools updating central office to once again be classified as a school until an

070accurate capacity study has been completed and shared with the public as it stands now we will not have an accurate capacity study completed until well after this decision is meant to be made please press pause into until we have more accessible Community engagement sessions by only holding these sessions at 5:00 on a weekday you are excluding a huge percentage of working ACS [Applause] families and I'm I'm sure that we can all understand that there is virtual comment available but if anyone here has tried to navigate the Asheville City Schools website you will find very little to get you to the virtual public comment you must first look to the bottom right corner where there will be a small red exclamation point five minutes has passed that was three oh it's fine yeah wait it's did

071the did the budger but go it did okay okay yeah okay will will you finish your sentence can you do that it's a long sentence you got it okay go ahead go ahead finish it to find this information on the website you need to click on the tiny exclamation point button and once you do you will see information pop up about reconfiguration comma and a phrase that says to register for Public public comment click on this link but there is no link and there has not been a link the entire time and that has been brought to the attention of folks who are in charge of this and there is still no link so please forgive us when we say we want you to press pause until we have accessible Community engagement sessions thank you

072for your time and consideration next is jennif Fel and Jennifer you have five minutes thank you um I actually first want to say that I'm just like so in love with the fact that this many people care about the school that my kids goes to and and I want you guys to see that too and know that like I moved here right at the beginning at the end of August at two days to get her enrolled in school but the reason I moved here was because I'm a for Northstar and I lived in Boon we had no choice in schools k through eight and then they all went to the same high school and that was not a successful model as far as I could see with the kids that were left living there so

073we moved here and I had to ended up having to get out of you know get put into the county from out of District had to go through all those Hoops she almost didn't make it in but she did and we were so relieved and so I actually heard about this just a couple weeks ago and I'm a parent at the school and it to me it was heartbreaking I mean and I know it was to my child too this is the first time she's 13 years old this is the first time that she's like told me I like this school I like school and to and I just want to hear that the rest of her schooling you know and I'm going to like do everything that I can to do that and I

074know that the kids and and the the academy also need that too but I feel like there's better places they can get that abtech for example is to me makes the most sense they already have high school kids there they already have you know they have things like that already going on there and that they have the resources to ensure that everybody that comes into that school can take some classes toward College development they can do the things that they need to do and not interrupt these young kids that just like you know it's such a weird age and a hard age and you know I I just remember being that age and and how hard it was to make friends and keep friends and moving them around at this point is not going to

075serve anyone at all because I honestly don't see also where any like immediate savings is going to come from this immediate decision I think that if we really think it out we can find find something that's going to be more financially viable and helpful to the students and the board and Asheville City schools and enrollment because I for one would be one less enrollment if if Montford wasn't here so um really that's all I had to say as far as that went but I I do I do ask you to please please like take your time think about this I was sick for two years before I moved here I had lymphoma didn't think I was going to make it and my daughter suffered because of that so I don't want her to suffer anymore

076like I want her to have a good leg so thank you thank you next is Christopher bicker thank you and Chris you have three minutes thank you my name is Chris biart I'm an instructional assistant in Astro City schools and have been for almost exactly three years I'm a proud father of two girls one a freshman at silsa and one a sixth grader at ashro middle ACS is all they've ever known my family members and I are all stakeholders in my heart where to start let me begin I'm just trying to work out the wacky State we're in I'm rapping to the board cuz the city's broke and contrary to the tone you know this isn't a joke we're a city of kids we got a city of heart we have a city that can

077Bridge what used to be a part but I don't mean throwing everybody together and I don't mean disc discarding at the change of the weather we're talking about thriving in diversity from the preschool all the way to the university we got a good thing why would we throw it away that doesn't have to be the aest way so let's talk about the case in question I ain't the smart person in the room I'm probably guessing though the city's bursting out the seams we can't keep kids in our school do you know what that means no because there haven't been reliable studies a page of loose digits and a message gets muddy do we know why the students go no exit interviews to analyze the flow they say there's no bad PR that it ain't exactly

078true revolving door leaders mismanaged funds shoot from the hit policies bloated Administration lack of proper studies when it comes to Serious decisions regarding the displacing of students during one of the most pivotal times of their lives tell me what would you do seriously if you were a parent at a with a middle school child right now in this situation how would you feel and what would you do you would probably leave so how can we get them to stay it takes more than PR to keep them from running away it will take drastic change it will take lots of work it will take them believing ACS is a perk we need to be what we sell to fill those spaces and cracks we need to let the children know that we all have their backs

079transparency all the way from the top if we're ready to decide today then we should stop seriously is it already a done deal no we need more time we need more studies we need to properly address the money floating around in the Upper Crust of this District instead of being distributed to where it is needed with our teachers and students these are human beings with lives built around their work in schools if we close Montford Northstar or even combine it with Ash middle we will lose a whole Community the hash the ACs way will ever stink of an organization that time and time again would rather give up and find the easy way out than stand up and say you know what we could and should do a lot better we need to wait on

080all school closing options until we know better and can do better if this school closes it will most ass surely be the nail in the coffin for ACS we will probably be subsumed by bunam County just like my evil twin tried to do to me in the womb Chris Bart out thank you next up we have Gretchen Ross sorry you have to follow that gretan I don't want thank you Gretchen Gretchen only have three minutes thank you so much my mom's listening so I can't say what I want to say but all right anyway um so I wanted everyone in this room and listening online I wanted to let them know how much I appreciate them I appreciate the board I've fallen in love with Dr Maggie I appreciate that she comes in her jeans

081on Fridays and sometimes and comes and hangs out and it just really means so much we've needed you and we're glad you're here um look at all these Navigators here raise your hand if you're a navigator you've been you've been courageous and passionate tonight you show you shared your voices about our school to my co-workers and administrators I'm honored to work for you they call us a team but we're a family as I've gone to the shareholder meeting in January the PTO meeting the NCA meetings the board meetings both of these open board meetings and heard daily comments and worries from the hearts and minds of our brilliant Montford kid Kow and their parents I've been trying to unpack this it doesn't make sense it is clear no one wants to close monford Northstar except

082a small few and it's confusing I have now heard the heartbreaking words from people that I this is a quote I've heard mnsa should have never been opened in the first place from a couple of folks in our district and since most of those per people who said that are sitting in this room I'm going to be as kind and professional as I possibly can right now I want you to hear me we were opened families wanted a choice for middle schools the district took a chance on us the district supported us and watched us as we blossomed we've all seen the data and the accolades mord Northstar has over and over and over and over again proven that we are a gy and a valuable part of this District I don't get it this

083looming and serpent uncertainty and growing stress has taken its toll on the students their families prospective families staff and the administration we've proven year after year relentlessly that maford deserves more than to be put through this we as teachers are weary but Relentless in our devotion to a school that we believe in and we have the hope that this District can settle this sooner than later closing monford isn't the we easy way out monford should not be the brunt of the mistakes made in the past let's not serve the local Charter and private schools our kids on a Sil platter on purpose thank you it breaks my heart to continue to fill out recommendations for kids who are preparing to leave our districts in case you all close this please lay this to bed leave

084our Northstar family alone we've earned it and it's clear you can't afford the fall Fallout thank thank [Applause] [Music] you next is Joy Catalina Gilpin if you can hear me clap once if you can hear me clap twice how we all doing tonight there's a little tension in here um anyway just wanted to start with that shake my nerves off okay good evening Dr Ferman members of the board ACS community and fellow students thank you for this opportunity to speak I'm truly grateful for your time consideration and service my name is Joy Catalina Gilpin and my children are in Sixth and fourth grade in the ACs system I'm hopeful that all members of the board take the following into consideration when you meet again on March 4th and again on March 11th I understand the

085reality of financial stewardship but please don't let it overshadow what you've heard tonight and at the previous hearing let's be proactive not reactive let's hit the pause button to fully understand the root issues and how to address the best best way to move forward I will close with two ideas y'all might want to write this one down okay and Dr Ferman I think that you'll appreciate this having your bachelors in anthropology dunbar's number this is a range but let's just call it 150 this number is the number of people that is the limit of which members of any social group lose their ability to function effectively in Social relationships meaning if we either put the two schools together or completely shut down Montford Northstar we are effectively losing all these amazing social relationships that we've

086heard about tonight now the second idea that I will leave you with you're probably wondering what I have on my head everyone has one of these this is the the white uh the gray matter the susai of our brains now some people might think oh no but it looks like intestines so I'll leave you with this we all make decisions with our brains some people more so than others there's also something called the gut brain axis and that's what I like to say when I wear this hat because it also represents intestines it looks kind of like large large and small intestines so please on March 4th and March 11th use your brain and your gut but most importantly your heart when you put this decision out there and understand the short-term and on long-term

087implications thank you so much thank you [Applause] Tera Sweeny Terry you'll have three minutes um and please do speak into the mic thank you okay um hoping to get um my backup singers but I think they're stuck outside so I'm just going to read what I've got um I'd like to thank our sorry I'm kidding kiding no um I'd like to thank our presenter that have shown um extremely compelling evidence and data uh that demonstrates how necessary it is to keep Montford Northstar operating as it is currently um and the importance of recognizing its teachers who are among the most satisfied with their jobs in our district um as the assets that they are um right now many are facing a lot of anxiety over whether where they're going to be this coming August um

088and they may not they may decide not to return next year which would be a huge loss for our district um as an ACS parent I have a student at Montford Northstar um with teachers that she would absolutely follow to the ends of the Earth and we are out of District we've chosen um ACS among our available options um we appreciate the stem Focus um and the opportunities in mford Northstar on the social emotional learning curriculum uh because they also have a kindergartener who came home celebrating civil rights uh leaders this month um I appreciate that our teachers can wear black lives matters t-shirts to school and still have their jobs because that is not possible everywhere across our state um I have a huge appreciation for our ACS teachers who have taken the equity

089part of the ACs Mission and are putting that into the practice in their classrooms because it hasn't always been that way um I was I was an ACS student um I went to segregated elementary schools at Claxton and at Randolph before the 1991 Federal desegregation order um I went to middle school at Hill Street and Mer and which later merged with h Fletcher and was reorganized into Ashville Middle School um I had the great Fortune to have uh Francine Delaney as my principal at Asheville alternative as well before it became Isaac Dixon um but in the beginning of my freshman year we were called to an assembly and we were told to look to our left to look to our right and that only one of us would graduate whichever administrator told us that was

090putting this District's failure directly on us as students they didn't take responsibility uh or give give us much of a chance instead they were preparing us to meet our faith um and this has always stuck with me because four years later that number those numbers were born out and 2third of us didn't cross the stage um it was sometime after I graduated that Equity landed squarely in the ACs Mission which means that every decision that you make has to focus on the best outcome for all students and that they are given what they need to develop their full potential if this board is genuinely committed to equity I question why we're having this time pressure on this on our decision um there's no no denying that we have a critical budget issue but taking away

091resources from our students is a defeat all of our middle schoolers uh will then have larger classes they'll have more restricted as access to resources like counselors and EC staff uh this also places a burden on our teachers which as I understand are currently in short supply everywhere and are suffering um and are suffering uh right now um are rising middle schoolers next year sat out second third or fourth grade at home and need more resources rather more than a lot of previous cohorts have had in the past um I think we need to beg borrow and steal ideas give our students more support and consistency rather than less and make a decision that is rooted in equity thank [Applause] you next up is Forest Weaver Forest Weaver no I'm sorry it's it's the time

092is for Forest Weaver timeny did you hear him out there no okay so we we'll we'll move on and if forest does show up I'll I'll make time for him so um next is shiffer aers and shiffer all have three minutes what does it look like when you close a thriving and beloved and supported school it looks like this Asheville City Schools Board of Education failed my family during the egregious closure of Asheville primary school we left with about a million dollars of taxpayer dollars that were supposed to go to education in the district and our six children now attend homeschool charter schools and private schools in the last two years I have personally assisted over 50 families in helping find schools outside the district for their children surely you now realize the information you

093presented was flawed and your decision was a bad one when you closed Asheville primary school there were countless times that your feasibility studies provided incorrect information including the capacity of the building and the cost of running the school does this sound familiar to anybody you have displaced hundreds of students that was two years ago be very careful that you don't do it again children have been profoundly affected why don't your studies include questions about the mental health effects of students having to fight and Advocate to save their schools why are you not supporting the families that have undergone such hardships there are families at Montford Northstar that have already lost Asheville Primary School how much much savings arose from the closure of aps why are there hundreds of students less today than there were three

094years ago does it have anything to do with a mass Exodus from A system that has disrespected the families of this District this is Asheville we like our individuality stop trying to homogenize our schools we like the uniqueness of them and we celebrate our diversity also I beg you George please do not ridicule the families who have had multiple students come up to advocate for their school that's simply not okay last time there was a closure hearing some of you spoke the previous board some of you which were a part of that provided falsified information was dismissive of parents was tone deaf to the taxpaying citizens of the district and bunkham County Commission approached us in December of 2021 with a question the question was what do you think of an Asheville bunam District at

095that time we all said no way if you want Asheville City Schools to continue I implore you to listen to these amazing students to listen to these dedicated teachers and understand that this is not a school and this is not this is not a school this is part of our community and these kids deserve to have the school that they are in and it's just absolutely wrong that we're doing this all over again with the exact same Miss information we all deserve better please hold yourselves to higher standards this time than what we did two years ago thank you thank you next we have Patricia Simpson [Applause] and you have three minutes good evening everyone and thank you for allowing me to have this time I am a parent of a child with different abilities

096who now attends mord Northstar I really felt like I had won the lottery when they informed me that my choice for mord Northstar would be granted that's how much it meant to me to have my son go into a smaller environment where people would see him not his different abilities but see him in what he could do what he could accomplish the first day we arrived there and I uh rolled him in I said how you feeling he say I'm a little nervous a little anxious but let me tell you when I picked him up he said I had a great day he felt included he felt seen and he felt a connection and he's a special young man he was there he entered in the sixth grade he's in the seventh grade currently and

097he is excelling he's been on the a onoro ever since he started at M North I attribute that to the teachers to his one1 who is here there he is Mr luska for pushing him to do more that he can and to encourage him he's been so encouraged I feel like they've gone over and Beyond to include him Coach O was the sixth grade coach there and my son was included as a honorary Jersey and all football team member they rolled him out on the field to their games I can't explain how he lit up to feel like he was included in that I don't have anything against ashual Middle School at all on southr Broad as my sister said there which we're all sisters in case you didn't know that they have taken a

098lot from the africanamerican community I attended this very school and I was here from the first grade through the seventh grade middle school at that time or Junior High was 8th and ninth grade and then you went 10th 11th and 12th and I think that it was nothing wrong with that system not a thing wrong with that system I think pushing the little ninth graders into high school with the 10th 11th it's a little it's a little early to do that but you know that's for another day I'm here to ask asked you to please pause if not just table the idea of touching that school my son only has one more year there and I would love for him to finish there because like so many others that have spoken there's no way I

099can send him into Asheville Middle School there's too many students there's not enough faculty to meet the needs of the students that have the different abilities so I would truly like for you to just table look at other options besides monford Northstar they say that there's 30 students in the other smaller school that's more career oriented um there's plenty of room here if it housed the black community back then it can definitely house 30 students thank you thank you next is honor Moore honor you'll have three minutes thank you George uh can you hear me okay um some of you might wonder why a mom whose kids have already graduated they're in college now why would she show up to a meeting like this to Advocate to save a middle school some of you know

100that for the last three years I've founded and managed the Asheville City Schools districtwide parent group we're slowly getting new folks um new parents to help out um in fact um Miss Hill hello she her mom was my kindergartener and first grade teacher and um her mom taught me how to read and her mom yeah your mom's amazing yeah um her mom was part of the first wave of the Asheville City Schools black teachers who started out in the 70s early '70s and it was a time period of creativity and growth in new educational ideas and Concepts the 70s was like actually an amazing time in education in general and the school that I also went to Newton Elementary became eventually sort of the early Isaac Dixon concept it was the first open school concept

101and I guess my commentary today there's so many good people up here I know you guys hate being in this position that you're in I don't envy you all and I thank you all for having to be in this position because I would not want to be in your position right now okay this is a loving group of Educators my daughter and Son's principal is sitting over there miss Kain she was my Jones principal amazing wonderful lady so I I think it's really important that we see and observe where're a Community everyone in here cares and I'm just advocating for these smart people up here to do the best they can see if you can figure it out see if you can find the money the Republicans are getting us aren't they these charter schools

102are able to open up right and left and that's unfortunate and that's part of the problem that we're having right now we need to acknowledge that and this is a unique middle school and people want want smaller class sizes right they do it's just natural at these ages all these great kids spoke boy they're going to run the world one day aren't they yeah yeah anyway I really appreciate you all I saw this happen with Asheville primary school please try not to do that again if you can thanks thank you next is Daniel [Music] shley and Daniel you'll have three minutes thank you first of all thank you and please speak into the mic thanks okay right thank you first of all thank you Dr Ferman and the board for allowing me to speak I

103want to acknowledge the budget strains that is on public education today there's seems to be more Avenues to take money out of public school systems than there are to bring in most schools are trying to find ways to deal with this we as Asheville City parents and I am born and raised from bunkham County I've heard this for years of the strains from Asheville City schools and the budget crisis that they've been under numbers have been presented to us by the community to the community as hard reasons that consolidation is needed but in the past two months we have refuted every single one of these numbers that monford Northstar needs to be closed at some point the mismanagement of Ashville City school system has to become the burden of the students and not where it

104lies which is with the board and at central office the decisions made at ACS board and the instability at central office have caused several wounds in this community and for our students and those run deep it is not the students fault that we have had four superintendents in the last five 5 years and they all left with a very Hefty severance package that is a fact it is not the students fault that time and time again that the community has asked for feedback and this feedback is ignored that is a fact it is not our students fault that Innovative programs such as APS which we were not part of but watched grow and develop thrived achieved success and then the doors were shuttered and here we are again these are significant losses in our community

105monford Northstar is not just a school for kids it is a safe haven and a second home where students are modeled and nurtured by their staff students and other members around them closing monford will negatively affect 30% of Asheville City Schools but will have a 100% impact on all of Middle School in Asheville City we are not the Asheville City Primary as I said but watch as it was dismantled closing this school was to solve all of our budget problems including the sell of the building which is still sitting there vacant I may add this closure resulted in nothing more than losing children who instead of being a part of the Asheville school systems is now in a downtown Charter that is our competition and taking money out of our system these are facts you

106already know that school choice is important to families quote School of Choice at all grade levels end quote is your current marketing campaign that we've paid money for But Here We Are Tonight begging for a choice for Middle School enrollment drops when alignment of goals hope in the school system erodes and families are leaving when they feel that their schools are not representing their children effectively and despite phenomenal education we have across the city the school system here we are trying to beg for support for all of them I ask and implore upon you to pause take effect of this and look at what the numbers are presenting we are here to support you help us do that and Dr Ferman we are so happy you're here and we hope you will be a light

107that can guide us in front of this thank you thank [Applause] you uh next we have Dana beton Court and Daniel have three minutes okay there's so much hope in this room I wrote kind of a depressing speech um so my eyes are going here um I don't know why I'm to be honest I'm feeling pretty hopeless about all this I've been through it before with Asel primary like a lot of the other folks here and I basically see the same thing now that there was before um it feels like the central office has a plan they know it's going to happen you guys are going to endorse that plan and this is just sort of checking the box of community input the plan will happen um you decide on March 11th then we can

108focus on cleaning up the financials for Asheville City schools and hopefully we can save some of the central office jobs so that when the merger happens between bunkham County and Asheville City they don't all lose their jobs and this seems like sort of that's that's the feeling I have I feel like I've been through it before and it feel I feel kind of hopeless about it but so many great hopeful responses here it feels like maybe something could change um but Schoolboard your job is not to protect central office it's for the kids it's for the kids of this community um I know you need to maintain your relationships with central office that's important you need that um but I know that what we why you're here is to look after the children and and

109that's the reason why we elected you I know you understand that all kids learn differently I know you all know that education is not a one-sized fits-all situation I know you understand that the value of a big school for some kids and the value of a small school for others and I know you all know the particular vulnerability of the middle school years what I don't know and I still don't know this but I'm I'm starting to think maybe you will I don't know that you'll do the right thing for the kids like I say I came from the Asheville primary experience and that was that was terrible um when we take a step back and look around we see right now a school closing potentially a library closing a pool closing and all this

110has happened in the past we've gone through this before and these are all P this is all public infrastructure for the children of our community meanwhile in Asheville we're raking in the dough with $3 billion a year in a tourism industry and our school our city school budget the the shortfall is about 4 and a half million that's only 1700th of the money that this town brings in in tourism 1700th that's tiny and here we are it's embarrassing that we're here when this much money is flowing into this town and we're doing all this work to see if we can keep a school open I mean it's just what where are our priorities as a community I looked at the comprehensive plan for Asheville's future the living Asheville plan 39 points it's 150 Pages 175

111Pages something like that nothing in there mentions schools nothing mentions children the city council's annual long-term goals nothing in there mentions children or schools it's as if kids don't exist I looked at the Asheville City schools and looked for their strategic plan they don't have one it expired four years ago there's no plan like you guys you school board members you're it you're all we have you're the only ones in our government right now who represent children who can look after children we need you to press pause on this project change is coming anyway the merger is probably going to happen do we need to have this change and then another change just do the right thing okay thank you next is Jessica the B Court and Jessica you have three [Music] minutes hello board

112and District leadership I have lived in Asheville for 29 years I'm a parent of two Asheville City school students I'm also an educator my oldest daughter attended Asheville primary for kindergarten through fourth grade and endured a painful School closure if mford closes my child and her Asheville primary peers at monford will have been forced to attend four different schools in four years what an absolute failure Asheville City schools has been for those kids I feel like the only reason we are still looking at potentially closing mford is because we have to do something before the end of the school year and no one has taken the time or the energy to truly look at other options that would be less disruptive and destructive before this decision is made I want to see a projection of

113what the financial savings would actually look like if we lose large percentage of our Middle School population every year to Charter Schools and other options I don't believe much savings will be realized and if there's a small Improvement in Asheville City's financials I certainly don't think it'll be worth the damage this decision causes to Asheville City School's reputation and Community the teachers and families of this District are tired of watching The Board of Education make decisions that hurt our schools while there are far too many people who work in this building receiving six figure Sal salaries and no one is talking seriously about down sizing our bloated leadership I looked up some of our central office salaries and was shocked by the size of the raises our central office staff has recently received many of

114their salaries have increased by well over $330,000 in just the past year and a half all while we are in a budget crisis our former executive director of finances salary jumped up 30% our Deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction received a 35% increase and our executive director of operations received a 37% increase in that same time period of just a year and a half and the list goes on and I worked as a Lead Teacher and an instructional assistant in public schools for 12 years and I make less than $30,000 far less than the raises being given to our central office staff the hard fought 2% increase to the supplement comes out to about $500 annually for me we are fighting for pennies and for our colleagues to to keep their jobs and work in

115the schools that they love without the threat of closure while the people in this building are getting huge raises make it make sense please do not close schools and cut student facing positions look at how we can streamline our central office cut the overspending of the top and increase enrollment by truly providing excellent School options at every level including Middle School our students and teachers deserve better the families and teachers of Asheville City Schools wanted an elected board so that our voices would be heard instead of just a few voices in central office controlling all of the decisions and the direction of our schools if you don't listen to the people who elected you the consequence will be a mass Exodus of families and teachers it is up to you to make decisions that don't

116drive teachers and families away we are in an enrollment and teacher retention crisis closing successful schools is a death sentence for Asheville City Schools if that is the decision you make you will be the ones to blame for the destruction of our school district thank you next is John EML thank you everybody and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak we're talking here about a financial crisis but there's been relatively zero discussion on the cause of dropping enrollment so uh let my family be one small sample of the reasons enrollment is dropping I am the proud father of seven kids representing over 1.1 million dollar in funding to this District over their Public School lifetime uh like shiff uh before who spoke but I have opted out of public schools for my youngest

117five children parents choose schools that one provide an excellent education two make policy decisions based on parents concerns and three don't brainwash their kids or indoctrinate them against their parents way of life so how does ACS measure up on these three points shutting down the top performing mid Middle School kind of shows that Excellence is not the priority making major decisions shutting down schools without surveying parents like me who opt out without conducting exit interviews shows policy is not based on parents or outcomes or any data at all but just bad management what about point three schools brainwashing kids my dog daugh is 50% Hispanic in her eighth grade social studies class on page 65 of the critical race Theory book called stamped my daughter learned that qu and I quote the book here learning

118math adopting trades getting married staying away from vices like drinking and smoking are basically living like white people it is unbelievable to me that I had to explain to my daughter no people of color can aspire to a great education and to stable fulfilling married life without alcohol and smoking that that is not just white but it's not just critical race theory that has been shoved down my throat woke ideology transgenderism lgbtq agenda pushed against my child attacks on my Catholic faith and on men generally the patriarchy are my daughter's everyday reality in public school now I want ACS to know that I send my child to school for an education not indoctrination that is way outside their scope of practice and training so if you want to know why enrollment is dropping even if

119you agree with my politics know that 40% of constituents in this area vote Republican and feel the way I do that is why homeschooling has increased by 10 times since 2020 these parents would rather invest countless hours and labor and educating their child than risk sending them to public school think about that level of distrust these parents feel thank you very much thank [Applause] you next is Amy sheer and Amy you'll have three minutes hi my name is Amy sheer I have worked at Asheville middle school for the last 24 years I have two daughters who also went through Asheville Middle School um first I'd like to thank you for our 2% supplement increase as we try to stabilize our district we need to pay our teachers and faculty so I appreciate that we are

12046th in the nation for teacher or student per pupil pay we want to stand here and blame the board for what's happening tonight we need to look at what's happening in Raleigh nobody wants to shut down monford including the teachers and students at Asheville middle school but we need to come up with $4.5 million and that's the reality so I'm here to say that Asheville middle school has amazing students amazing staff an amazing building we have amazing programs like Avid like chorus like the orchestra and band we have a science lab on every build on every level we have the hardest working administrators I've ever worked for in my 27 years we have the hardest working principle we all want the same thing for our kids if we have to merge and maybe a when

121we have to merge if we keep hearing that charter schools and private schools are taking our Public School tax dollars if we have to merge I ask that you please consider expanding the alternative education program to our middle school students we have to provide an alternative and education for a small portion of our students not just our high school students if we have to merge I ask that you take the idea of a school within a school off the table we do not need two schools in the same building it's decis or divisive we see that in another building in this District it should not be an option if we have to merge I ask that you figure out how we're going to reac reallocate staff and we can say attrition but we need to

122have a clear Plan before we uproot the staff in this District if we merge I ask that we figure out a detailed plan on how to welcome monford students and families into our dist our building the staff at astral Middle School will welcome you the admins at Asheville Middle School will welcome you we are professionals we are not monsters thank you thank [Applause] you next is Tabitha Williams and Tabitha you'll have three minutes hi there everyone um thank you for the opportunity to speak um so my daughter is a seventh grader at monford Northstar she's doing well there and she's happy there we love and respect Montford North Star um our child is part of the wonderful Science Olympiad team at mford led by Miss Ross who spoke earlier and we are very excited to

123go to the state finals after those kids did so well at the regional competition um we are so thankful for the education our daughter is receiving at monford um the proposed consolidation would be destructive to our family and to many other families um disrupting these children's education at this crucial time in their development should be avoided and this wonderful school should be preserved for future students please please preserve Montford Northstar thank you so much for your time thank you Annie Garrett well well I mean they are listed but if you'd like I can go ahead and push them up and then and then your turn if you want to do that I'm okay with that so um so yeah so next uh next are the mford Northstar 7th grade reps um martinia acres is the

124name on the list oh understood okay understood and since you're speaking on on behalf of a group you'll have uh five minutes uh hello can you hear me yes all right hello everybody and I just wanted to say that I think that we should keep momer open because I love going to school every day knowing that I can be loved and also be comfortable there learning and I love the environment there too it very nice knowing that every teacher there and everybody there can love me and I can learn there safely I also love the band program very much and I've learned so much going to all district and everything like that and I just wanted to say that I would really like to to reconsider closing mfort thank you we have another one that

125wants to say a couple words I think personally that it's very very important to be able to keep mord Northstar as an option for middle school students I I love the staff I love the teachers I love everyone who works there I love them I would hate having to move to a different school and not be with them I I can't think of a singles teacher though who would move to Asheville middle I I've talked to them whether it's maybe maybe few have an assumptions but still I can't think of any of them who would want to live leave I love our school I'm sure they do too I yeah that's it anybody else yeah hi um I had a choice of where to go we even looked at Charter Schools when I was playing

126to go into middle school and I chose mford because I wanted a smaller school where I was like acknowledged by everyone everybody was noticed the teachers appreciate every student and every student appreciates every and you get like a pretty much somehow one-on-one almost level of uh teaching if you need help then it is provided and I can't explain how nice that has been so um I remember also having the choice of being able to go to AMS and mford but I wanted to choose mford because it felt how I could loan B with hands on and I remember the first day going there seeing my teachers and actually for once in a while having a good day at school but learning a lot as well so I think we need to keep Montford open cuz

127I know a lot of students who can't connect with other teachers at AMS and can't imagine leaving the teachers that they've built so many bonds with at mford to uh just go somewhere else and I know that many of mord's teachers don't want to go to AMS and I think that I agree that M for should stay open because most of these other like as I said these kids don't have really can't learn a bit with normal stuff and that's I think why the main reason they came to mfold to do more handson and alar with different people who they could actually connect with my God sorry sorry um I moved here from a smaller town and I didn't I had a choice of a lot of different schools and I chose monford because it

128made me feel safer about being there and it made me feel like I could be myself while also being supported and help me learn hi um yeah we P it down P it down okay thank okay hi my name is Zachary I went to monford I had the choice between AMS and monford I picked monford because I just like a smaller environment where I can know everyone better and just have a better time and learn more that's all I want we're out of time can she have like 15 seconds say something um I have really enjoyed going to Montford because of the opportunities it provides like Science Olympiad in the battle of the books team and how recognized we are and how well we've done I just want to say none of these kids made

129a speech this came from here and each one of these kids has a dollar amount on their head of $20,000 and we have a lot of kids here I'm just saying thank you guys let's go thank you Annie Garrett you want to we'll go back into the order good evening um thank you for letting them speak I know they were anxiously waiting to get up here so thank you again for doing that I just wanted to say real quick I am a parent of three Asheville City school kids and we have just loved the community the teachers the schools having the choice from the beginning I think even in prek Remy started with preschool and we just always had that choice so I'm just here as a parent to ask you to take time to

130make a a big decision because to see Remy in seventh grade thriving just like looking at this group of students and teachers and families and Community like it will destroy a family that has Uprising we have a sixth grader that's has chosen North Star like his brother that the two of them were hoping to have the together next year so I just ask that you just pause because we have loved Asheville City schools and to change on your last year of middle school and have to start all over immersing like again like so many people have said there's nothing against Ashville middle school I know it's a great school as well but I just asked that you would really think about the students the teachers the community that you're impacting because we had to move

131um during this time that we were in Asheville City schools and we deliberately chose a house that would be in the Asheville City District because we did not want to move to a different school system so it just says a lot in the thought of a school that has just absolutely been the best Middle School experience for my son to see that close and my kids talking about not wanting to go to Asheville middle and what other options there would be like that says a lot we've been fullon Asheville City schools for many many many many years so just wanted to say today that just think about what you're doing cuz I I know you're trying to increase numbers into all of this but as a parent that's been a part of this community for

132a really long time it makes me think about other options so thank you for your time and yeah thank [Applause] you thank you next is Lindsay first and Lindsay you'll have three minutes um first I want to commend the students who spoke tonight students should know that people rate public speaking as scarier than dying and you did [Applause] it to the ACs Educators who spoke as a teacher I'm aware that you might very well choose dying over speaking to your board and superintendent this way and you did it I mention this because the board should know especially coming from a teacher that's really hard and it speaks to the amount of passion that these Educators and these stud students have in order to do such a thing I want to address an idea that I've

133heard sort of obliquely mentioned um the idea of choice has been mentioned a whole lot I want to talk about it specifically as it relates to what we've heard is a top priority for this board and for this decision which is equity Equity Equity if Montford closes some children will indeed continue to have choice and they may choose their way right out of ACS starting at fifth grade so it'll continue but those are students um with an amount of privilege that allows for longer commutes without buses and parents with the privilege to navigate everything that comes with going to an outof District or an independent school everyone else will do what people without privilege have always done which is live with the default whether it fits or not so that means what you would actually

134be doing is snatching Choice away from those least likely to have any so having Choice within ACS is the only way to provide any kind of Equitable choice at all separately the state has mandated that 12 months from right now on the desk of the ga must be a feasibility report of merging BCS and ACS it makes no sense to do anything beyond retaining our students and our amazing educators while this is pending thank you next we have Chrissy Burton Chrissy you'll have three minutes thank you I have been a proud ACS parent can you hear me I have been a proud ACS parent for 11 years A Little Closer please I'm sorry and I hope to be a proud ACS parent for eight more but increasingly I'm worried about the future of this District

135um after we um I have three students in the district one at Susa one at monford one at Claxton and they are currently thriving for which I'm grateful um but after our remote learning a distance learning uh they all suffered significantly with learning loss and social setbacks and this has really been the first year that I feel like all of them are on track or mostly on track from where they were prior to the pandemic um and during the pandemic this District chose to stay remote and distanced for longer than the other schools around us uh and then they closed APS during a period when the public had limited access to public comment and participation in due process and this community Lobby the general assembly for a elected school board and we don't currently have

136a fully elected school board and I think it's undemocratic to make such a momentous decision about consolidating or closing a school at a time when we don't have a fully elected board thank you I also want to point out that if AMS and monford combine then we'll be one of the largest middle schools in the district and most uh Charters and other districts around us are moving toward Ward K8 models and smaller intermediary and middle schools um I think that's unwise of us to move against this me uh model uh I think it's being demonstrated in a lot of places that that works better for kids of this age um I also want to know what the true costs of consolidation are because we're not showing moving costs we're not co uh showing building costs

137we're not showing the costs of students that we lose from this District I don't know what the net savings is but I know it's lower than what's on the slide um and my last point is the uh I'd like to address the board chair's comment from a few meetings back that he would like to hear from A diversity of voices on this issue and I wholeheartedly agree uh but I don't think that this process has allowed for a diversity of of voices we have had a website and we have had five meetings that have um excuse me we've had several meetings that have occurred at 5:00 pm that did not provide transportation child care or a meal uh so we have automatically uh discounted or cut out of the process families who can't meet the

138make these meetings or don't have access to the internet uh we have the ability to gather stakeholder input at the community diners we could do this at our community recreation centers we could have information gathering at student drop off and pickup uh we need to have more voices um but I also think it's disingenuous to say that we want a diversity of voices and then when we don't have a process process that allows A diversity of voices to um ignore the input we got so thank you thank you next is lesie [Music] Bruce you have three minutes thank you hello um my name's leslee Bruce and I have a daughter and please speak into the mic we thank you I have sorry a daughter in 8th grade at monford Northstar as well as a fourth

139and a first grader at Dixon um of course want to thank you guys for all the work you're doing I know it's very hard I didn't even want to stand up here for three minutes so um but I'm just here to tell my daughter's story so my daughter um my oldest daughter who's not here had struggled both socially and academically since second grade um Middle School had always been a concern for us and for her and we all felt that AMS was too big for her a child with social anxiety and who was already struggling academically she needed the smaller Community she needed the to that to fit her needs both socially and academically we had been looking into private and charge of schools for years um I know you've heard that over and over

140again um but we had been looking in in anticipation for Middle School we were thrilled with the opening of monford norstar um and when it was time for us to choose a middle school we chose monford Northstar um to support the public school system that we believe in but as well as give her the smaller community that she needed um as well as the Project based learning which she thrives in um she is now in 8th grade at monford Northstar she went from continually falling well below the Benchmark year after year in elementary school to now achieving well above um and maintaining the aonor role throughout her whole career there sorry I'm like choking up I'm I might obviously would rather die than speak publicly but um but we owe this to the structure of

141the school we owe this access to the structure of the school as well as the amazing staff um her teachers and the support staff who believed in her um they believed in her from the first day that she entered that school they saw the determin and ability that she had and she they figur out a system for her to achieve and she has she now is thriving she now is eager to go to a bigger school I never thought I would see that in her she will be in attending Ashville High next year um my other two kids who have been patiently sitting here with me tonight um I don't think that they're the same I think they'll do fine at AMS I will hurry this up but that's the point that no child is

142the same and we we need to be there for the achievement of all children um and they need to be able to choose where they're most comfortable learning thank [Music] [Applause] you Michelle Pino Michelle you'll have three minutes thanks hi everybody can you hear me that's good okay um let's see oh so many good points so if I was on the school board I would definitely vote to keep Montford Northstar open because there's so many smart people here with really great things to say so okay so this is what I want to know I want to know what the financial analysis is of closing APS what did you actually save um how did that help the school system when you consider the flight that happened um what else do I want to know when you

143hear you know you're going to lose you're going to there's going to be you're you're going to lose families with merging the schools um so how does that figure into your cost analysis um how does merging the school schols support diversity and Equity really and and and F and academic Excellence that is still not clear to me oh what other questions are there yeah I'm racking my brain about why you're doing this um so oh what other I don't have anything written down what other what other homes have you considered for ECA what other options have you considered that that I'm not hearing [Music] um I love the idea of a k through eight school I'm okay with with with moving monford Northstar I think that that learning community needs to stay intact because it

144is working uh we need options we need smaller schools better better better better better I want to um implore you to have vision ision actually come up with a strategic plan right so this is strategic plan for making yourselves financially stable but we this doesn't really this seems like a quick fix to me this doesn't feel like it's actually going to make you financially stable over the long term because you're lessening choice you're going to lose families so a strategic plan is going to take time um and I think you could come up with a really great option a k through eight school is is just where my brain is right now um that has stem learning I think you should consider consolidating the elementary schools leave us with four choices rather than five choices

145would love to I think monford Northstar could move into an elementary school make a k through eight school I don't know why ECA is not have you considered moving ECA into AMS I haven't heard that talked about I'm sure you've considered it but I haven't heard it talked about yeah I'm concerned about public education in our whole country in our whole country I'm concerned about our values as a whole country so thank you so much for hearing me appreciate it thank you Liz Talent and Liz you have three minutes well I would rather die than do this but I'm gonna try to do it um good evening Dr Ferman and board members and thank you everyone for being here um so my comment is coming from the perspective of a stakeholder who cares a lot

146about this District I'm a graduate of Asheville High myself and I'm an elementary school parent um I want to emphasize at the outset that I'm a realist I know that boards have to make difficult decisions and I'm willing to go along with a range of decisions here as long as I feel like what we're doing is well researched it's backed up by data and it will strengthen ACS and not destabilize it that's my primary concern um I'll start by saying that I don't really think it's been Justified why the closure process is starting with monford we know it's not because it's a failing school we know it's not because it's not a diverse school mford is in the 81st percentile for successful Public Schools Statewide in North Carolina based on percentage at or above grade

147level it's a title one school its racial and socioeconomic demographics are reflective of the district demographics as a whole it serves one-third students of color its testing results put it at the top of our district it also is one of only two of our AC s schools that is making strides in closing the opportunity Gap and that is something important that we all should value closing a middle school one of two schools that all of our K through five students have to funnel through affects more not fewer ACS students it's been suggested that we're doing it for financial reasons to save money and someone a few speakers behind me posited that maybe this is our way to save $4.5 million so far the data just doesn't support that okay I'm going to get a little

148in the weeds but I think because this is Being Framed as a financial decision it's important to kind of go into it so two meetings ago we were told that enrollment in the combined middle schools right now is 760 students compared to last year we lost 6 and a half% of our middle school students from our 2022 numbers in that same presentation the next slide said that our projected Middle School enrollment for next year is 706 students that's another decrease of 7% % students so last year with two stable middle schools we lost a total of 51 middle school students or approximately 7% and next year after this school closure we're still going to assume that we're going to lose 7% again I just don't think that makes sense surely we can agree that that

149is not a rational assumption that we can base a decision on I'm a business person and I look at numbers regularly to me it appears that the whole basis of this decision is just not predicated on realistic numbers when I face that in my business I have to have the humility to go back to the drawing board and start again so I keep returning to the question of how we've gotten this far down the road without understanding what the real Financial impact will be it's such a critical decision surely it deserves to be carefully made based on good projections so I ask that we please please pause on making a decision until we have solid reliable and rational numbers to rely on I know you guys have received hundreds of comments you've gotten all of

150these survey responses is people have asked questions and they haven't been answered will they be answered what is the rush can we have a town hall well people can ask you questions and you can respond to them I think that that would do so much to build goodwi and [Applause] Trust um and I'll I'll close by saying that I really ask that we slow down this decision and make sure that what we are doing whatever it needs to be will strengthen and stabilize us and not further weaken this school system thank you thank you next is Alice [Applause] Lane I'm Alice Lane a fifth grader at Isaac Dixon when I had to pick a middle school I chose M for nor Northstar because I liked all the Project based learning that went on and the

151clubs you could choose outside of school I like Science Olympiad and I also like the Morning News broadcast put on by students I was also excited about all the electives like Robotics and the Medical detectives I also really liked how it seemed like everything was kind of connected like what you were learning in science was connected with with what you would learn in art math and Ela and how also the students were so connected everything everything seemed like it would be super connected I understand you might have to combine the two schools but I'm wondering if you can take the best parts of marford Northstar and add them to Ash middle school thank [Applause] you uh next is hide and win did I pronounce thank you for Let Me In oh sorry said my name

152hwin that Simon Father he sck and mon first uh the first joy we love in the monford school will be joy for my kid going there but now we hear about uh monf day will be shuten down we they we don't want be happen like that you want we still stay open longer for my kid I have three kid uh Simon Daniel and Adam uh very R fivey old now yeah and thank you for any family k come in here and everything you need and to come in here and you need to talk and tell what you need what you want oh thank you very much thank you thank you I hope you understand me my English not well oh thank you very much thank [Applause] you next is Scott Powell thank y'all can you

153hear me awesome I am a proud father of a senior in Ashville high school she started out at monford matter of fact fact she was one of the first kids that started I can't add to what everyone has stated here do the right thing I say that again do the right thing you got a consolidation study that's slated for next year you mentioned about your $4.5 million shortfall it's I wonder what that shortfall was last year year when your fund balance went up $2 million you have $15 million why do we need to make this decision now since 2017 I've seen five superintendents and since that time monford has always been on the chopping block and despite that they have achieved Mr leot Miss bagot Sarah Armstrong and all the other teachers that have been

154there they have achieved over a big hurdle do the right thing press pause thank you thank you so that uh does conclude the names on the list for in public comment or in person I'm going to read now through the virtual comment before we move to Virtual I I don't have names here on the list that I have okay so we'll take a little pause as we figure this out okay for e all right thank you everyone um we figured out the technical glitch with that um so I apologize you know we're still we're still working on how we do signups virtually I sorry signups on the computer versus signups on paper so I apologize for that there was a miscalculation in the dates so we do have these extra names so I'm going to

155go ahead and move forward with more inperson comment and next up um is hang on sorry I'm cross referencing is John Brigham and John you have three minutes um so I I work as a teacher for um for four years one of the principles I work for he said of himself he said I know the business of Education I know the business of education and um I think that's um I know the business of education so I'm from the outside like maybe I represent the business of Education that that would be a stretch but anyway a superintendent that's the that's the superintendent's job is to know the business of Education okay so so I asked myself where did the monford Northstar system come from quick quick timeline 2016 the Middle School opens brand new $41

156million 2017 a year later the monford NorthStar Academy opens um so it was a time of turmoil in the Ashville City schol is I think more than normal Peggy dolman stepped away as a chairman Shonda Sanford came in pamila Baldwin was the superintendent and she stepped away I don't know whether you know exactly how it worked out but and then Denise Patterson comes in as a superintendent so I go to the archives of the Asheville City schools and I find that the this group has mostly done a good job with that kind of stuff but those those months are gone the only reference I could find mind was March 2016 Pamela Baldwin Dr Baldwin was the superintendent monford big kids little kids that's all it said okay so the the question is where the monford

157Northstar program come from and I you know I think that the I have a lot of respect for Dr Baldwin and there's no possibility that came from her okay so let's look at Denise Patterson she's been on the job four months she's got a brand new middle school and she says well the parents are upset you know we need to we need to make a magnet school and I don't think so so how about the the school board okay so the school board is like well we got a brand new $41 million it just opened we need to we need to make a magnet school we have special students and they have special parents and they're complaining and stuff like that so we're going to make a new program I don't think that I mean

158I don't know this for sure and James Carter may may have been on the school board at that time I'm not sure but anyway so the question is where did the where did the monford Northstar program come from the the people whoever came up with this idea did not know the business of education and um there's a more horrifying idea be actually and that is that the people that came up with this idea did know the business of Education okay I've got a couple minutes I want to I'm done so middle schools are all the same you go into a middle school and there's administrators and the ministrators are all they like hid in their offices and stuff the assistant principles and the principles and stuff like that and it's like they're physically scared they're

159outnumbered 15 to1 but the teachers in middle school love their job the teachers love their job and if you want to make a difference in in uh as a teacher work in Middle School not in high school thank you thank you and next we have Victoria Veo hey so I don't like public speaking but I'm only here to say this I am a mom of five kids a single mom with five kids and I have my oldest son sitting right here that is about to graduate high school when he came to middle school he was terrified he was crying every day saying I don't want to go to AMS I said honey well that I don't know what we're going to do when Shannon bagot called me and told me that that monford was going

160to open I was so excited as a parent because they had an option for my son that was terrified to go to school he is now yes at a huge school but monford help him achieve getting there okay I have four other kids two of them one of them's disabled Miss baggot sat there at the hospital with my son until I could make it it had major brain surgery you name it the school is an amazing School the staff when my father died died I went through a lot my son just had major surgery he died these teachers and everybody helped me and my kids and my it's they're my family okay they're not just teachers but I don't feel like shutting a school down and put or even putting all these kids in one

161building is going to help not the students it's not going to help teachers you're going to lose teachers and you're going to lose family my son right now is at monford he does not want to go to AMS and I will not send him there he plays sports with them I I love AMS I came from helping coach basketball over there I have nothing against the school by no means I go there still now and support AMS in their sports or anything they have going on I have a daughter she hatte she didn't want to go to AMS either she made it through wford they all did she's now at a private school because she didn't want to be at Asheville high it was too much for her these kids need to have that option

162a smaller learning based school and if you take away monford you're taking away these kids options to choose and thrive in a school like just think about it if you had kids are you really really going to be okay with what y'all are deciding I don't know the the statistics the math I don't know none of that but what I do know is y'all have got to think about kids and families and the school has been an amazing school and I don't think it's okay to just rush a decision I just heard about this mind you I am a busy mom I do a lot I run a business I coach basketball still at my daughter's private school I do too much and I don't keep up with all the emails either so I will

163say I found out about it I do not like public speaking but I came anyways and here for 3 hours with my oldest son to say that the school has done what they needed to do and helped a bunch of kids I'm not saying AMS doesn't do that either like I said it's not nothing to do with that but you got to think about all these other kids that need that smaller based learning and that's not going to help putting two schools together thank you next is Matthew you like it um thank you so much I would like to uh say to the board thank you so much for being here and listening to this I'm going to guess it's not easy I would also like to thank Mr Amel who I think left for

164the warm introduction I really appreciate that a lot um you know so in 2000 actually before I say sir I want to make this really clear public education is not a business it's a service and there's a huge difference between those two things if you want to make money go somewhere else so um July 2017 I got a job offer I went to Montford and and we were building in school and it was hard it was really hard right Katie yeah right Shannon it was hard I'm gonna be straight up with you um Asheville City Schools certain people who were in power threw everything at us every day and you know what we did we kept coming back because we had a mission and we were going to make it work and then what ended

165up happening is they started renovating our school while we were working let me tell you what this was like I'm GNA tell you what it was like I'd be sitting there teaching in class and white stuff would start falling from the ceiling cuz someone was pounding on the roof and the kids are like it's snowing in class I'm like it's not snowing in class I hope we're all going to be healthy um and then they put plastic up everywhere and told us they were mitigating asbestos I was like this is great I'm loving this every moment of it and then I remember sitting with my colleagues in the media center with all this going on and we knew so many people wanted us to fail and this is what we said to each other really

166simple we have two choices we either go big or we go home and at that moment we decided to go big and if you don't think we've gone big look at the data I invite you to look at the data and I'm gonna make this part really really clear because there's been there's been this rumor going around Asheville City schools for a long time that mford Northstar is a white flight school guess what if you look at our test data if you look at the demographics in the school we raise test scores not with just white kids and not just black kids and not just everyone because every kid that walks through the doors in a mford they're going to be loved they're going to be loved on heart but more than that they're going

167to be challenged and we're going to use Project based learning we're going to use direct instruction whatever it takes we're going to make sure these kids leave that building better human beings than when they got there and I guarantee you every teacher every administrator every person that works in that building every supports St person is 100% dedicated you tell me where you're going to find that somewhere else and by the way I'm Gonna Keep teaching stamped I'm teaching it right now the kids are doing a great job with it because I trust my kids in their brains you guys are beautiful that's why we're here thank you [Applause] next is uh Patricia Leroy Patricia Leroy and I'll also just um call the name again just in case um Forest Weaver all right so that again

168that and thank you for your patience does conclude I signed oh yeah that's what I was going to say so I'm so this is the list for in person I'm not going to read through the virtual list because we know that there was some confusion and so as I call your name if you are here then you were welcome to come up and give your three minutes um so on on the virtual list which could be in person um our first person is Angie Nome there you [Applause] go and Angie you'll have three minutes yes thank you oh boy need a light bulb changed while I'm here um I'm Angie Nome my husband Patrick hunt and I are the parents of two thanks puppy the parents of two amazing monford NorthStar Academy students who are

169back there right now I'm the founder of a nonprofit Statewide news organization called Carolina public press but I want to be clear that I'm no longer with that news organization so I'm just here representing myself and my wonderful family I'm here to comment about the proposal to close or consolidate monford Northstar I appreciate that you all at the skill board have a really hard budget decision ahead of you as a parent of two current students though it's disheartening to learn that of all the choices and all the options available this board has determined that closing or consolidating a school that is outperforming its peers is one of the best Solutions I question the statement this proposal makes to families like ours we have a unique perspective Pat and I actually moved both of our kids

170from an area Charter School into the city school system we did so because we wanted our children to be in a learning environment that prioritizes quality instruction accountability teachers who stick around school and class Choice diversity and equity and a safe and secure learning environment so far we found a better match here but what now why is the board willing to start a public relations nightmare at the very time it's advertising to increase enrollment why are you considering making a short-term Revenue decision that impacts not only hundreds of middle school students but also every single Elementary School student who will no longer have an authentic choice for middle school the only choice plus plus oneing Coors mom will be to leave the system if a mega school is not a good fit does the school

171system still prioritize an academic academic Excellence I'm not sure when you're considering Closing one of the highest performing schools in the district across many measures does Asheville City School still prioritize excellence in stem education I'm not sure when you are considering closing the only Middle School in the district with an award-winning Science Olympiad team this will this will be the second year one of my daughters will go to the state competition last year my other daughter went to state for battle of the books instead as Asheville City Schools now want to be known for making a rush decision even as there's a board member who has a potential conflict of interest as we know the spouse of a board memb is employed by Asheville Middle School the school that stands to gain from this proposal

172this appears to form a personal and financial conflict of interest to me has the board sought independent legal guidance about whether this violates State conflict of interest laws for public officials and employees this needs to be [Applause] disclosed in conclusion if this board decides to close or consolidate maer please show your leadership and explain it to the students go to the school and explain to my daughters and their classmates they deserve to hear directly from you I hope you will vote to reject any proposal to close or consolidate monford Northstar they deserve to be celebrated not eliminated thank you thank you thank you and again I'm reading from the list of um folks signed up for virtual but if you're here let me know if and again I'll rate through all the names if you're

173not here before we go to Virtual so next on the list is Laura D'Angelo okay so I'm going to assume they're virtual um next is uh n Lindsay okay I'm going to assume that's virtual as well um Ernest Bailey yeah MH and N you'll have three minutes CL right here clock is here uh good evening uh my name is Ernest Bailey uh I teach at ECA I teach High School sciences and visual art uh I'm up here today on behalf of some of the faculty and staff at ECA uh we generally try to keep our heads down and stay out of trouble and focus on the the work with the kids but uh since you know we've been made part of the discussion regarding the the potential reconfiguration we figured we should uh stand up

174and at least say something um so uh uh I think first thing we'd like to say is is thank you uh throughout all the discussions about the possible reconfiguration uh it's it's our understanding that everyone more or less has has understood and embraced the the fact that ECA desperately needs its own space and that the program really cannot move forward uh without it um and just for the sake of being clear when speaking in public uh everyone has tried their best to make the current Arrangement work uh that's that is us that's Asheville Housing Authority who owns the Edington Center um but schools simply aren't set up to uh share very well uh you know they have their own sets of laws and occupancy needs that are focused solely on the fact that there are

175minors in our care uh and education is not a part-time kind of thing um and at ECA we we have some students with some very significant needs uh uh significant mental health behavioral health needs students who are actively experiencing trauma who are still processing Trauma from earlier in their childhood uh we deal with issues surrounding substance use and abuse food insecurity housing insecurity uh entrenched economic uh disenfranchisement uh lack of stable and available caregivers um we've got kids who for all intents and purposes are already living on their own and raising themselves uh so to be sure many uh schools have some of these issues but the fact is that we don't have any students that aren't currently experiencing some constellation of these issues right our students are by definition pulled more or less exclusively

176from the pool of the the most at risk uh at Asheville High School in silsa um the risks involved in in our failure are very significant uh real risks of dropping out uh real risks of uh criminal activity incarceration poor health incomes um well I'm running out of time three minutes is quick um so we've tried very hard to to make our students feel safe uh to provide them a place where they are welcome where they they feel like they belong and we've been uh reasonably successful at that uh students will tell you no I I feel like uh I am welcome here I feel safe here uh these are students who were not coming to school who will call us if they miss the bus because they want to come uh we desperately need

177our own space we uh appreciate your understanding that uh we don't regret you guys and your your uh need for uh space uh good luck thank you thank [Applause] you uh Betty Oliver okay um Betsy bong Garden okay so I'm going to assume some of these folks are online so uh that does conclude inperson public comment um and now we'll move to Virtual um for those who are listening online we do understand that there's a short lag between what you're hearing and what I'm saying um so um I trust the folks in the back are setting up the connection well so when we do say your name um you can begin speaking as soon as you hear us so um on the virtual right now we have Robin Dowers and Robin you'll have three minutes

178hey Robin it's your turn hi um so I am you'll have three minutes thank you um so I am Robin Dowers um I am the mom of a seventh grade daughter that comes with a lot of special needs not only does she have a physical disability but also lots of learning disabilities um autism idhd anxiety and then you just have Middle School all thrown in the mix of that age as well and we among having a hard time with schools and knowing that they were so big we walked into Montford and knew that Montford was the place for our daughter we felt just this calm peace for her and she has thrived amongst we'll just put academic to side even though she's done extremely well and has thrived with academics but she has felt safe

179she's comfortable she loves to be there she asks to go to school my teachers will miss me if I'm not there I've got to go see my teachers I need to be there with my teachers she's comfortable there enough that she knows her teachers really really well they know her they're there to help her through every single step of the way and she needed that she's on the Science Olympiad team and absolutely thrives there she loves going to mford we needed the choice of something smaller somewhere where we knew that she would Thrive academically came with that as soon as she felt safe loved noticed comfortable in her school situation knowing that her teachers were right there beside her the entire way and not just her teachers but all the other teachers in the building

180the office staff the custodians everybody that's there is on her side and that for me and for her and our family makes a huge difference when she felt all those great wonderful things about school her academics just soared and that's what we really needed for her we ask you like so many others to pause this please let our children have this choice that they need especially with those neurod divergent kids and those kids with other needs thank you so much for listening I appreciate it thank you [Applause] Robin and next up we have Lori [Music] stradley okay Lor is your turn hi good evening my name is Lorie stradley and I am the parent of an eighth grader at Montford Northstar and a fourth grader at irab Jones Elementary I'm grateful for the opportunity to

181join virtually because I had to work until 5:30 so I wouldn't have been able to join otherwise so thank you for making this happen I can't say anything more eloquently than all of the parents students and faculty that have come before me but my request is the same as many that you've heard before which is to wait we're not ready to make this decision the impact isn't clear and we need to take a more comprehensive look at what's happening in our district this is the second year in a row or really I guess third um where we are focusing in on a single school and the disruption that it is causing to those families um I wasn't a part of the primary Asheville primary school but I saw it Ripple across our region I'm a

182firm believer in the public school system and it breaks my heart to see all of this flight into charter schools and all of the money that it takes with it and takes away from the students that don't have that same Choice um as charter schools are not required to offer many of the same supportive infrastructures that we do have in our Public Schools but when those dollars leave those infrastructure supports leave as well we can't fund our schools that way so my ask today is for us to wait to take a more comprehensive approach to budgeting for the Asheville City School system and to recognize where we can support our children and families and reduce disruption it has been 5 years of chaos for our families for our children for the communities we live in

183and that is just a microcosm it's been decades longer so again please take the time to step back look at a more comprehensive AR approach and stop making decisions on a school by school basis when it causes so much harm and disruption to the students that are impacted both at all three of the schools that are being discussed today this instability and lack of clarity and lack of sustainability is hurting all of them thank you for the time today thank [Applause] you next we have Loretta Washington Letta your turn morning good afternoon I have a grandson so I a Nana I have a grandson that attends M Academy I'm not going to go on and on but I am going to say this it's going to be short and and simple my grandson he struggles

184in a certain area I'm not going to put it out there but he struggles in a certain area and this school um is the right place for him it's small small classroom settings I don't have to worry about him being bullied I don't have to worry about him coming home crying ashv U Middle School that's exactly what's going to happen I've heard nothing but bad things about that school um I'm from Tampa Florida we are but if this happens and um they close mord my grandson will be going back to Florida to go to school this is a a bad decision uh that you guys are making uh the kids have to have a voice they need they have to make their own choices when it comes to what school they want to go to

185they should be able to make that choice as well as the grandparents or the parents um I just I just think this is a bad decision um please just rethink this and do the right thing for for the kids if not for the parents for the kids I just I just don't agree with it and I I I know I'm not the only one that does feel the same way and I'm G to fight I'm going to fight to the end for my grandson and for all the other kids that goes to the uh to Mar he loves that school he has no problem with it um and that's a first for my grandson to love a school and actually want to wake up and go to school every day I just I I pray

186that you guys the school board uh does the right thing I'm at work um I've been sitting here for over three hours waiting to talk so I had a long speech but I think that's that that sums it up and I'm within the three minutes so thank you please just think about doing the right thing thank you for these for the kids uh so I do want to mention uh since Loretta just did that that we've had people waiting for quite a long time and so and I know I read some names off of virtual comment who neither spoke or have been online so I do want to acknowledge that we do have some names of folks who had signed up for virtual and are not online at this time um and I apologize that

187um for whatever reason they're no longer online I would just ask those folks um if they're listening or if anyone else knows them the to say that the the um the portal on our website to reach out to the board um is still open um and we would love to hear from those people I'm going to go ahead and say those names I don't mean to call them out but just because I had said their names earlier I want to make sure um that they're acknowledged so Laura D'Angelo did sign up for virtual um not online at this time uh n Lindsay same thing signed up for virtual not online at this time Betty Oliver same um and Betsy bum Gardner um I'm sorry Bum Garden also um so those four folks had signed up

188for virtual not online at this time um if they're listening or folks know them again the portal is open for them to uh email uh the board through that middle school reconfiguration Portal I also said at the um previous meeting on Monday and I said it again at the beginning this meeting this meeting is a purpose the purpose of this meeting is to hear from you um staff uh Educators families students community members um and so this is not a time for us to go into discussion we will have our next work session on March 4th so that's next Monday uh and that is a big item on our agenda is to discuss what we've heard to discuss um all of the things that we've been studying uh and so uh that is an open

189meeting to the public you're welcome to attend in person or online after that we will have our next regular meeting uh on Monday March 11th I'll also put in one final plug I said this on Monday um for um the author Jason Reynolds who is coming um at um at the invite Ashville City Schools Foundation um he'll be with us on Thursday night at abtech um and I believe tickets are still available for that um uh and also um Jason rynolds will be at the high school um all day on Thursday and that is exclusively for students he'll be working with students on that day I I saw someone reach out today and said could I come as a parent just hang out with them it's for the students um so once again thank you

190all who are still in the room and those who have been in the room before um we really appreciate your comments this is what um this is what we we needed right as a community we need to hear your voices and we appreciate those of you who were able to come out and share in person or virtually uh again we'll meet again on Monday for our work session and then our regular meeting on Monday March 11th um and a reminder that you can you uh there will be option for public comment on March 11th of course that public comment can be about anything related to The District not just the middle school reconfiguration ideas um but if you have if others people wanted to speak that's also available uh and with that I will ask

191for a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting so move second it's been moved and seconded all in favor I I any opposed all right thank you all we are adjourned [Music] h