Asheville City Board of Education October Regular Meeting - 10/9/23

001okay good evening and welcome to tonight's uh Asheville City School regular board meeting um for Monday October 9th uh we do have a quorum we do are expecting our other board members to be here um they will be arriving um throughout the meeting so we'll go ahead and get started but I'm going to talk really slowly so they can be here for everything um we will start um with um the reading of the equity statement and tonight Rebecca strer will read that for us in Asheville City Schools we are committed to equity and anti-racist policies for all students and staff to learn and Thrive we recognize that our positions come with power responsibility and public service for the entire ACS Community we will model our commitment to equity through our practices and decisions during this

002meeting we invite a pause if harm has taken place a moment to name the harm and space to practice repair thank you Rebecca uh next we have Pledge of Allegiance um Miss Claire's second grade uh sorry third grade class from Isaac Dixon to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all thank you Miss cla's class uh and next I'll ask for an approval of tonight's agenda agenda I move that we adopt the agenda second it's been moved and seconded um all in favor I any opposed wonderful um well uh before we get to the first item on agenda I do want to acknowledge today um as a holiday um indigenous people's day um I think it's just a

003first of all to acknowledge that day um and I think it's a really um I think it speaks to how we as a country um work and evolve and decide things you know I mean this um indigenous people's day um is new on our calendar um or has been new um recently and just it shows that we are always working um and working to improve how we acknowledge who we are um where we've come from in the history of this country so I do want to acknowledge that today and with that we'll start with April Docker and good news good evening thank you for this opportunity to come before you and share the good news for October 2023 first off we are thrilled to announce that Asheville High School silsa teacher Mrs Lori Hillyard I

004think she's in the crowd has been awarded the prestigious title of the North Carolina Theater educator of the Year by North Carolina Theater Arts and Educators Association Miss helard I'd like to invite you to come on up we are so lucky to have this amazing educator if you've ever seen her work she is amazing she's a force to be reckoned with and we are so happy to have you a part of our Cougar family we just want to celebrate you do you have any words you'd like to say um give me a chance in front of a mic um thank you so much and thank you for supporting the Arts in Asheville City schools and I love where I work I love the people I work with and I really really love the students I

005work with they're amazing and dedicated and super talented and it's an amazing job I get to go to every day thank you take a quick picture Miss you're do you mind to have we want to take a quick picture with you and the board thank you please join us in congratulating Melissa Jones and Roslin Campbell at monford NorthStar Academy they received a perfect score of 100 on their recent cafeteria inspection this is a very difficult honor to receive and it shows their dedication to serving safe and healthy food to all of our staff and students and we think we want to thank them for all they do for our community come on up guys hey rosin you can bring her yes for [Laughter] sure thank you in the first week that the district moved to

006the new chart whales menus Asheville high school and silsa cafeteria saw a 21% increase in student participation in their cafeteria they are in Pace of seeing a 30% increase in the students eating School meals compared to this time last year this is a remarkable accomplishment it has taken a lot of work I talked to Miss Bates just this morning about how much work that is taking and we are so proud of them and we want to thank them for their hard work and dedication to our school students what [Applause] up thank you before I move on does the Child Nutrition staff would any of you like to say anything Miss Bates Nick Kaa Lucy s Herring elementary school has been selected for the P phase I don't think I said that right so sorry um

007grant program Luc s Herring will receive a $2,000 credit for their first book Marketplace which can be used to purchase books for their literacy related School Applause this is a great benefit to all of the staff and students at Lucy s heren and we want to say congratulations and I know you have a few words to [Applause] share yes ready on good evening board community and administration my name is Nicole Franklin I am born and raised in Western North Carolina and I actually did all of my education K12 here in Bonham County this is my daughter Olivia she is at Lucy s hering Elementary which is actually the same school my mom went to when she was her age can you say hi hi my name is Olivia wankin I go to Lucius hering Elementary

008my teacher is Miss Watkins second grade thank you o we are here to share with y'all that Lucy hering was selected as one of only 50 organizations in the entire country to receive a pi beta F fds 500 Grant the grant is for $2,000 toward books for the school as a pi beta fum I share their passion for literacy and I have a desire to create a lifetime of learning through initiatives like their read lead achieve program we want to thank Western North Carolina Pi beta fi alumni group for the nomination as well as Lucy as Herring the staff the community and the parent team I also want to thank the kiddos um I have spent many hours at the school and I am very proud of them as I wrap up I want to

009encourage everyone board members Administration Community think about your talent and your passion consider working with us um to provide these kiddos with the resources and the mentorship that I believe they'll need to read lead and Achieve for a lifetime thank [Applause] you yeah [Applause] Miss Sarah Duffer just snuck out the door but I do want to share with everyone that Asheville high school has proudly earned a well-deserved spot on the 2023 a advanced placement high school High School honor roll and it's a a St I don't know why my words are just not happening today I'm really sorry it shows their hard work and dedication of the AP staff this is a prestigious recognition in a result of the school's performance on last year's AP testing results to earn this distinction Asheville High School not

010only met but exceeded the rigorous criteria across all three criteria Matrix they received a distinguished bronze for fostering a robust College culture within the student body emphasizing the importance of higher education and furthermore the school school achieved a remarkable gold standard in both college credit and college readiness showcasing their dedication to equipping students with the knowledge and tools necessary for academic success Beyond High School this achievement reflects the unwavering dedication of the school staff and remarkable potential of all of our cougars congratulations to the Asheville High School school for this outstanding accomplishments I know Bart Murphy is in the room Mr Edwards and I saw at least two AP teachers but one snuck out oh and Mr Moody Mr Moody yep he's right there that's what I was telling you she's almost like oh no

011look this is um to be principal but also a parent um I was student who has taken advantage of um some of these classes I have to from the bottom of heart thank my staff because this is not an easy lift uh it is incredibly rigorous challenging curriculum and it is from day one until you take that test it is a big challenge just to cram in the amount of information and keep it light and entertaining and all the things so uh to these uh to these two gentlemen but all the other teachers who are involved with our AP like that is a really big task and thank you um so so very much for what you do Mr Edwards can we take a quick picture with you Mr Edwards to you please how many

012um advanced placement courses do you have 17 thank you and that concludes this month's good news thank you April before our next um agenda item I do want to acknowledge a couple things first of all I misspoke um the Pledge of Allegiance tonight was by our third grade class at ax and I actually someone handed me a note and I even misread the note so it's a third grade class um I also want to acknowledge that um for those in uh here and I suppose online too and Kimberly Jones you might be able to correct me on this but we um now are offering Spanish translation um so um this is something that we will be offering going forward um with every work session and actually anytime the board meets um will be offering Spanish

013translation so it is available in the back of the room um and we are still trying to you know just like with diligent Community it is a process um but um we hope that um community members will take advantage of this so um I wanted to get those out of the way before I forgot about them again um next up on our agenda uh School Spotlight and that is Sarah Wright principal of Claxton Elementary hello again I'm so glad I get to talk to you guys two weeks in a row um so I just wanted to give you guys the state of Claxton as of October 2023 so we are celebrating our Centennial this year and this year we're celebrating 100 Years of Claxton on January 26 we're really excited about that um we're looking

014for stories of people that have gone to Claxton worked at Claxton I found somebody in the Eng Les uh checkout line yesterday that had gone to Claxton and was like yes I can't wait to tell my story so um we're looking for that to paint a picture of our Rich history as a greater part of the Asheville community and so we'll be doing that the week of the 26 um because that's the week that officially opened in 1924 and we're really excited about how that's going to look and how that's going to play out um our core values again everyone can be a leader everyone can every child child can achieve grade level benchmarks every child is valued and empowered through socially justce learning communities emotional well-being and healthy relationships are foundational for students to

015thrive in learning in life and arts and humanities are fundamental to teaching and learning um so far we've had quite a few events um we have had our Edington Center bash that was over the summer um that was pretty successful we decided like I said mentioned last week that we wanted to get into the community and so we're making um an effort to do that so we had our back to school bash we partnered with Reed to succeed and we did that at the Edington Center um and then we had our meet the teacher we had our ice cream social where we had 452 ice creams that were given out so um that's really exciting that means we had a huge turnout and um it was great to see all of our families just coming

016together and socializing and then also having that First Title One presentation as well then we had our fun Fun Run kickoff um and then we also had our Fun Run on Friday which you'll see a picture of in just a second we have our upcoming events which are our Leaf residencies we're doing two um residencies with artists this year we've only done one in the past with our fifth graders but this year we are doing two residencies um our second graders will be doing a um indigenous people's dance residency our fifth graders will be doing their um West African drum build residency and then both of those groups of students will be performing at the leaf Arts Festival um on the 22nd so we're really excited about that and then also this year um we're

017taking all of our fifth graders to The Leaf Festival um we've been Limited in the past to only 30 um fifth graders at that festival and this year we're opening up to everyone we're having a bus and it's going to be on the Sunday of the Lea Festival so we're really excited about that for our drum circle we also have our fall carnival coming up um that's going to be on November 3rd and then Finding Nemo Jr is coming up on November 17th or 16th 17th and 18th 17th 19th that weekend um thanks reading will be November 15th that's our second Title One event of the year and that's where we invite all of our families to come in and have Thanksgiving lunch with our students and then they also um engage in our wit

018and wisdom um protocol with their their children and then we will be having holidays around the world so that's just what's coming up um before the winter holiday we also have Ashville Symphony coming as well um so these are just a few pictures from our um back to school bash and then I'll show you some other ones so um Dr Dickerson was an awesome DJ at that event and we had a great time so thank him for that our ice cream social we had a huge turnout our Bumble beats that's the name of our in-house staff band um played at the um event they also play every Friday on our announcements if you are ever driving by marman during that time um and so this was just our ice cream social this was our Fun

019Run kickoff um we do we do still have our house system going on at Claxton um and so we had you know people dressed up in our different houses that do represent our core values and it was just a good time for everyone our Arts opportunities so far we are super busy right now we're always super busy at Clon I feel like but we have um our after school Arts is currently in their first round um we're currently offering harmonica um Taekwondo there's like junk art there I mean you name it we're probably offering it in some kind of capacity there's also our busy bees program which is um through the district this year and and they're also engaging with you know different arts and things like that in during that program and then again

020are finding musical play and these are our Partnerships that we have committed to this year um my daddy taught me that that we had we talked last year about bringing them in um and then this year we're actually able to make that a reality and so they are mentoring groups of third fourth and fifth grade boys and um that's gone really well so far so I'm really excited about how that's going to look this year we also are continuing our partnership with readed to succeed um ASAP which is their we're partnering with their Farm totable program and trying to get fresh fruits and things like that in our students hands and seeds and and how can we plant seeds at claxon and how can we um you know grow different types of Agriculture and things

021like that so that's a really awesome partnership that we have started this year um we also are partnered with the North Carolina Center for resilience and learning um for trauma informed classrooms and Trauma informed schools we're one of only three schools in the district that's doing that partnership this year along with Hall Fletcher and the academy um and then we are also a foundations Exemplar School this year as well and so that's been really exciting to get to um kind of get some extra like Foundation support but also we get to kind of showcase our foundation foundations lessons as well um we also started this year our peers to you program so we saw a need um one of our second grade veteran teachers came to me and said you know it it's really great

022that BTS have mentors but we need to have something for new staff coming in that need to know that need to be connected with a person at Claxton and so we started the PCU program and um so we took that feedback and then created this program based off of that and so any new staff member to claxon gets a PE to you Mentor um and regardless of years of experience regardless of if they're the most veteran teacher they get a PE to you buddy or a PE a PE to you partner um and we at the beginning of the year we had a retreat with new staff where we invited our peers to you partners and our new staff members to um do a scavenger hunt together and so they were able to learn like

023the ins and outs of Claxton um and it also gives them a like a buddy to connect them to in the building so if they have questions or things like that and just anchors them um to a person coming in without and giving them like somebody they can ask questions for and things like that um so our uh beginning teacher support at kleon is based off Christina agular onward and we have monthly themes for BT supports which is linked in that presentation and it's based on the reflections and feedback from our BTS last year and then that's what drives our work this year um so that seems to be really successful so far um and I think that it's really important that our BTS feel like they were heard and that we took what they

024said and what they needed and we turned that into how can we make that actual support and then um our student leadership opportunities at claxon we do have our student leadership team um we have our student leaders at Hive circles which are PBIS assemblies that we have every six weeks and then we have our safety patrol we have daily leadership opportunities and then um we also have started a a uh kind of like a buddy program with our new sustained support classroom we have five students in that classroom and we have five um fifth graders that have buddied up with those students that are reading to them going to visit them different things like that they also ran with them at the Fun Run um and this was the picture from Friday's fun run it

025was really awesome we had that is like one of the pictures but we were in the 100 for the Centennial and and um it was a really good time so it was things are going well and just a reminder of our school Improvement goals for this year and do you guys have any anything you wantan to or any questions a actually Sarah I'd love to hear more about the um your student enrollment I mean I'm sorry student involvement the student leadership team I'd love to hear more about that if you would mind share yeah so um we actually just went through that process um and like I shared last week it's something that you know we we look at our demographics we look at like who is applying we look at who is um interested

026and then we did um based on student Fe leader or student feedback from last year we actually did interviews this year we did inperson interviews with each student that had said that they were interested um and so then from there we like you know took teacher recommendations and things like that and then that team is actually the 23 24 student leadership team is actually getting started on Wednesday um and then right off the bat they're going to be starting with our like Mana food bank and things like that and in driving those programs forward um I have a question that you may have answered at the very beginning because I'm late but we use a lot of acronyms can you um tell those who might be listening what Betts are please oh yeah sorry um

027beginning teachers thank you that we realized that that was an area that we needed to do better at the school level last year and so we took their feedback and then created a plan for each month on how we can support them anything else I'll just say one other thing it's pretty impressive to get an entire School of children to form a 100 so well done what you missed in that one picture is me chasing a child in the background but it's okay it's that's real um so it was a quite the interesting uh kind of endeavor going on there thank you thank [Applause] you'all okay um next up we have public comment and I of course always have to read my little public comment disclaimer and just a reminder that tonight we also have

028and it's on the agenda but we'll have um public comment as well that's exclusive to um the parents Bill of Rights um this is just general public comment um and I'm going to read this as I'm waiting for the list of whoever might have signed up for public comment um just a reminder that um public comment is um is welcome first of all um personnel and student matters are confidential and are therefore not appropriate for public comment um you have have a concern about an employee or a student matter please contact or see the superintendent after the meeting um I also want to go ahead and offer that you know if you have further things to address to the board you know you can also find us um via email or after the meeting um

029although an individual May identify themselves as a candidate for any public office no person may use the public comment portion of a board meeting to actively campaign for or endorse a specific candidate running for public office persons are not limited from speaking on issues relevant to the official business of the school system for purposes of this policy active campaigning includes but is not limited to asking for support for a candidate running for public office Andor stating what a um candid what a what a candidate will do if elected to public office unless otherwise approved by the board the total time for this portion of the public comment will not exceed 30 minutes for iners and I just I feel like my mic off um or 15 minutes for virtual speakers members of the public may

030speak for 3 minutes the time remaining will be indicated um by the lights directly in front of you um multiple speakers from 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 the three if an unusually large number of people wish to speak the board may decide to reduce the time allotted to each speaker um please be respectful A disruption by any person or persons of a public meeting will not be tolerated and can result in removal from the meeting incorrect or misleading information presented by a speaker may be responded to at the direction of the chairperson public comment allows you to provide the Board of Education with your thoughts

031and or relevant information concerning the Asheville City Schools therefore board members will not normally respond to individuals who address the board except to request clarification uh and in order to make public comment individuals must be present and make their comments in person or virtually online um and with that um it looks like and I'm looking through our public comment list um it looks like folks are here for a variety of reasons and I'm seeing some people have written down sp49 or parents Bill of Rights so I'm just wondering um I want to make get the legal on this if you don't mind Chris um you know we had we had set up separate a separate public comment portion just for Bill of Rights but is it okay given that we've got eight people in line

032just to combine the two or do I need to kind of parse out people who might have signed up with the topic to be addressed if it is okay yeah I think we've I think we'll be able to yeah how many are online just one okay so yeah I think we can just instead of what I just said right before um you know we've got um I'm I'm looking at the topics to be addressed and they seem to be mixed so we'll just go ahead and just say this is a time to address anything um before the board including the parents Bill rights um so with that um first what's that oh yeah so um with that before we get to those folks speaking because this will include some parents Bill of Right Stuff Dr

033Ferman is going to review kind of the policy procedures around this this bill uh yes thank you good evening everyone so this is um we did our first read of these updated policies at the work session last week this is the p uh time for public to be invited to give their response now that those or comment on those now that they have been published um and then we will do the second read um in November and tentative on how that second read goes we could approve um policies in November if more work needs done um also have an opportunity in December if we don't get them all passed in November okay and with that we'll start with our first public comment and that's from aliceon Scott and Allison you'll have three minutes thank you

034thank you I'm Allison Scott I'm the parent of an Asheville City middle schooler I am also like many of your students their parents and their faculty part of the lgbtq community our lawmakers are asking you to pretend that s sp49 addresses a faceless topic you're looking at one of the faces think about that as you you go in and deliberate over what you're going to do your faculty the trans and non-binary faculty the trans and non-binary students their parents they can't stop being who they are these laws are ridiculous our lawmakers are trying to divide our community they're trying to get you and Boards like you across the state to do their dirty work this isn't the country I want to live in I want the students to be able to go to school as

035themselves that's what I would have done if I had supported parents a supportive school and a supportive board I would have attended the first day in kindergarten as a transgender student I didn't have that your students do many of them have that be the adult hero to those students ch Champion your staff think about that champion your staff and put this bill to the side until DPI can address it you don't need to kick it down the road and have a dozen interpretations in all the schools be that adult that you wanted to be when you grew up the adult that stood up for the students thank you thank you next we have Craig white and Craig you'll have three minutes I'm Craig white the supportive schools director for the campaign for southern equality on

036October 6 we sent a legal memo to the general Council of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction detailing how school policies and practices put into place to comply with sb49 the don't say lgbtq Bill are a violation of Title 9 a federal law which prohibits sex discrimination including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression a few excerpts from that legal analysis provisions of s sp49 imperil the well being and lives of lgbtq students in doing so they Foster a hostile educational environment in violation of title n schools violating Title 9 not only risk litigation challenging their illegal conduct but also losing their Federal Educational Funding any Educator's willful violation of a student civil rights is an Express breach of the standards of professional conduct and so such a finding

037provides a basis for revoking an individual Educator's teaching license the Federal Constitution establishes the supremacy of federal laws over state laws with contrary mandates the choice between Title 9 and sb49 is no choice at all schools must follow Title 9 now does this hostile environment exist I think we've seen it here in this room more than once here's what I've been hearing from students and families when there's government surveillance of every book that a child checks out of the library that's a hostile environment when every adult in the school is required to police every student to make sure that they're using the name and the pronouns on their birth certificate that's a hostile environment when only stories about straight and cisgender families can be read aloud in a kindergarten class and the little girl with

038two moms or two dads is told that stories about her family are banned by the state that's a hostile environment when teachers all the way through High School are already stripping any mention of lgbtq people or issues from the curriculum because they're afraid of being targeted by hate groups that's a hostile environment when our playing fields and gymnasiums are marked with signs reading cisgender athletes only that's a hostile environment we become so accustomed to hostility and violence against lgbtq people that it's come to seem normal but it's not normal it's not ethical and it's against federal law thank you thank you uh next up is Jasmine Beach Ferrara good evening and it's great to be with you all let me begin just by thanking all of you for your leadership and your service especially at

039a time when our public schools are under such pressure and thank you especially to principal wri uh we have a third grader at kleon I come before you tonight as a minister in our community as executive director ctor of the campaign for southern equality which Advocates across North Carolina in the South for lgbtq equality and also as a bunkham county commissioner but above all I am a mom my wife Megan and I have three kiddos a third grader at Claxton and two Rising kindergarteners currently in prek as s sp49 is written they would all be covered under this law and it means that if this law goes into effect they will not in their classrooms be able to hear books that feature and represent families like ours and under some circumstances would not be able

040to talk about their families and the things we did together over the weekend in the course of a classroom discussion that can't be right and so as you've heard from my colleagues Allison and Craig we come before you with an ask and our ask is simple we know because we watched it happen that this law was rushed to passage without thorough analysis or vetting now before it is allowed to harm youth in our community any further we want the state to show its work and address the pressing legal question of how sp49 intersects with Title 9 and whether it violates federal law and we ask you our local board which has been put in an incredibly difficult position by these political circumstances to allow this process to unfold the memo that we have submitted to

041DPI argues a clear and compelling case for why sp49 cannot be implemented in accordance with Title 9 DPI has indicated that they will at some point be issuing findings or analysis on this question but they have not yet done so nor have they identified a specific timeline for doing so and so all of our local systems are in the breach and as we know on the ground from stories locally and across the state in the misinformation confusion and Chaos of that state the law is being implemented often incorrectly often with over compliance and definitively in ways that are harming young people who are lgbtq who are part of lgbtq families students and faculty and staff who are part of those communities and arguably the entire School Community this is a rare moment and I say

042this to someone in local government this is a rare moment when we can stop harm before it gets worse and I urge you to proceed with Precision with care for our kids which I know each of you hold in your hearts and above all fty to federal law which is clear on these matters thank you thank you next up is Katherine m hello and good evening um thank you for uh having me at this time I'm a parent of a ninth grader Asheville high school and I um was just U wanting to share with uh the community and the board about a recent webinar that was given by um saf Tech NC recently on this was on September 26 it was a free webinar that was um giving a lot of important information information about

043um they specifically titled it turning down the dial on wireless radiation in NC schools it was specifically the science the symptoms and solutions and legal imperative to protect children and there is a replay of that free webinar on their website saf Tech NC um which has um much more information not just about safety within schools but home environments and um I wanted to at least say that one of the ways to mitigate in the schools that is simple and at this point um could be explored is turning down the wireless um accents points or the routers turning down That Power from 10 to 20% Which could save energy it could also help improve mood and focus in the schools and therefore test scores um I come to this uh whole concern about Wireless radiation and

044you know our our world is technologically advancing constantly and it's important for us to have that balance and to also present for our kids a way in which to grow up and in these environments that's safe and all of us have a lot to learn myself included um my experience a ninth grader but I have two other daughters my youngest um went through a diagnosis of lymphoma and our kids are more vulnerable um it's scientifically proven than they're more V vulnerable and um I wanted to just you know say that and share that it's uh important to see them as sort of the canaries and the gold mine to um look at this further and I would hope that um you all would consider checking into that webinar and finding out more about what we

045could do to make the environment in the school safer for for everyone not just the kids but Educators as well thank you thank you next up is Bill Robinson and Bill you'll have three minutes my name is Bill Robinson I'm a father of two daughters I'm the grandfather of two more I'm here to speak about what I've been speaking about to this board for the last six or seven months I'll continue speaking about it uh and that's the suicides of seven young girls in this area Asheville City schools and bunkham County Schools between January 1st and May 12th of this year what I won't be talking about is how some school districts and some teachers are bullying young children into declaring new pronouns I won't be discussing how they force them to wear silly buttons

046around school declaring those pronouns I won't discuss about how they're told to take those buttons off before they get home so their parents don't see them I won't be discussing about the books that some parents don't want read to their children I won't be discussing what happens when children get smartphones in classes and then somehow find out how to access porn on these smartphones and then are also taught simultaneously how to clear their browser history so their parents can found find out that they've exposed that they're s surfing porn on their phones I won't talk about how teachers some teachers are turning on CNN and leaving the room with their students in the classroom it's not all teachers obviously I I won't talk about how some teachers are giving the test scores answers to students

047while they're being given the tests because they're terrified that people will find out that the the real ranking of this State student learning population is lower than 49th in this country I won't talk about how there's a bullying environment that's created a a toxic psychosexual Hunger Games type environment in schools that's what's leading to these suicides we had a big breakthrough at bunkham County uh school board meeting on Thursday they finally admitted after months of looking at me much as this board does if you look at me at all as somebody who's lying or crazy or making it up I'm not bunkum County Schools just admitted that there have been seven suicides of young girls in this area yours and theirs in the early parts of this year we have no idea how many more

048girls have committed suicide prior to that or since May 12th this is a real problem so they've instituted a suicide prevention program as of Thursday night in bunkham County now when does this school board do something similar thank you uh next up is Pep AA and pepy you'll have three minutes um there's so to talk about and so many things that um uh touch us deeply um we as a school district are doing a lot of things but can always do more um to address mental health issues and suicide I appreciate you Bill for for um addressing that and hoping that uh um it the pieces that um that we hold in common and I appreciate you taking time to speak with me uh personally um I really want to appreciate the folks who have

049come out to talk about um putting the heart the cart before the horse with the the parents Bill of Rights um thank you guys for speaking about that um it is uh going to be really easy to make life more difficult for our kids and our students our teachers um if we rush to uh Implement something that's not very well thought out um I did want to bring to the board's attention uh some of the issues that came up at uh the work session regarding enrollment um in 2016 and I know I've said this to previous boards uh there was a plan put in place to make outof District enrollment uh more difficult and to uh prioritize and District enrollment um coming out of Co there was a decision made that I don't believe came

050before the board to automatically wait list uh kindergarteners first graders and many of the elementary students uh who were out of District um so that we would uh with the best intentions have enough teachers because that's been a challenge but the result is is that over the past several years we've gone from 20% out of District enrollment uh to closer to 10% which is uh part of our reduction in in um in funding uh for the school district because we depend so much on uh the average uh uh daily attendance and um and our overall enrollment for funding um we need to make sure that the board makes decisions because uh denying all outof district kindergarteners one one year that uh funding reduction is going to carry with us the following 12 years and so

051we've started a long-term trend of reduced enrollment and so the Board needs to be and the superintendent um Miss Ferman Dr Ferman I really appreciate you taking time to speak with the public um that all of us keep that in mind uh and that's uh what I came here to say and uh keep your hearts open and um uh let's try to move forward thank you thank you next up is Christina Mason and Christina you'll have three minutes good evening my name is Christina Mason and I'm a parent and a member of public strong here to comment on the parents Bill of Rights this new law is a fars it's a dark fantasy dreamed up by showboating politicians in the general assembly who are pandering to the conservative fringes of their base it paints an

052alternate reality a Bizarro world where nefarious teachers convince students that their trans are queer give them age inappropriate information Fill Their Minds with smut connive to confuse them change their pronouns and try to drive a wedge between the parents and their children none of this is real or true it's offensive that after making teachers put their lives on the line during the pandemic remember when they showed up and they wore masks around our children all the time our law our lawmakers are casting them as villains teachers are not the enemy we are not in a culture war against public schools these new policies are designed to intimidate teachers and kids and put a chill on their trusting relationships and they're meant to distract us while the lawmakers gut our schools the truth is that most

053parents and teachers are on the same team for kids they are not at o at odds they both want students to thrive learn be happy and feel accepted and loved for who they are schools should be safe spaces where kids explore who they are and what they might contribute to the world this noise about pronouns and parental notification and the hysteria over library books is a waste of time the vast majority of parents don't care about this stuff it is manufactured drama it's a sideshow what should we focus on instead underfunding program Cuts rund down buildings and playgrounds low teacher pay and dwindling enrollment thank you Pepe we are paying the price for decades of divestment in our Public Schools some of our students have books so old that George Bush is listed as the

054last president those are the books that we should be worrying about our kids deserve better this is my son's fourth year in public school and I'm so grateful for how his teachers and the staff go above and beyond for us they work late they pay for classroom supplies out of pocket they plan amazing field trips they share photos and updates with us constantly through apps and they problem solve issues with us we're on the same team some of them are working extra jobs to make ends meet the parent Bill of Rights wants to stir up ill will between families and School staff it promotes censorship it's heteronormative it privileges cisgender straight folks it sucks people are free to have their beliefs but they are not free to impose them on secular publicly funded schools they

055can take that to private schools to all the queer questioning and different kids this stupid law doesn't reflect us ignore this drama we accept you you don't have to hide or pass your teachers and your community have your back you do [Applause] you thank you uh next up is John briam and John you'll have three minutes bear with me for a moment Asheville Middle School school has hired a very good 8th grade English teacher a very good teacher the new teacher starts working and it quickly becomes clear that this good teacher is disruptive education is a messy business and the disruption is complex but much of it comes from the students suddenly they have a good teacher this is a shock for them the students have been immersed in mediocrity since they started school and

056this is their comfort zone and I'm not targeting the Asheville City Schools this is education maybe even around the world education is a world of mediocrity I'm sorry learning is uncomfortable learning is scary students have learned that if they behave and conform and fit in they will be moved forward senior teachers have learned that if they can orchestrate quiet classrooms they have an easier job mediocrity works for everyone true education may involve shaking the students a little bit the teacher disorients the students and lets them see New Perspectives this is scary for the students and even scary for the teacher so a good teacher is disruptive what can be done it's all about the culture of the school if a good teacher disrupts the culture then the culture needs to change this has to be

057gradual nudge the teachers and the students together be patient and persistent this is important you do not need different teachers you need to take the Handcuff cuffs off of them and let them do their job nobody goes into teaching unless they want to do that job but this is for sure you need a creative compassionate knowledgeable and intelligent superintendent I think you have that in Dr Ferman she needs to support and be supported by creative compassionate and intelligent principles teachers should be able to look up to their administrators with respect they should see excellence and feel excellence and then they can project that to their students when I was a student we almost worshiped our teachers that was the culture it's the same for any organization it starts at the top finally we are all

058concerned about the achievement of children in poverty and children of color the only way to help them is to strengthen the whole system the Asheville City schools with the this closing the achievement Gap and we have these programs I've never been able to figure out what exactly does that mean closing the achievement M but one thing that we do know is that they don't work the the Gap has not changed has not changed and it's not changed the only way to help them is to strengthen the whole system these programs do not work and quickly become part of the problem thank you that concludes the inperson public comment section and Dylan we still have one person virtually Sarah can you hear us if you'll unmute yeah hang on thank you Sarah yes all right Sarah

059you're um your time is now and you have three minutes for your public comment okay sorry I was watching the minut it's a bit over okay um okay them on over all right um hi boards my name is Sarah Norris and I'll start by thanking you all for stepping up in service at such a pivotal time in our state schools it's really a lot and I'm grateful to you all um I've spent the last 15 years in public education as a middle school teacher and then a coach to teachers and to principles and now I'm the parent have a first grader in ACS so I bring all that with me today as I share some hopes for our city schools Community um I want to share a moment last year when I felt such deep

060gratitude for my kids teachers that was in a conversation we had about that Injustice of the laws here in the city that criminalize homelessness uh the teacher shared with me that while of course her kindergarten classroom had rules she was clear with students that those were there for the purpose of shaping a community that everyone could show up in um um she said she also talked to kids about how people can make bad rules that are there only for the purpose of gaining more power for some at the expense of those who already have less so here are my two big hopes for our community now in this time of Statewide bad rules most obviously and egregiously sv49 um one is that I hope our schools and we as families will teach kids about the

061laws that have been passed to Target them uh these laws aimed to cause specific harm to to queer Insurance kids and they also affect all young people you know when it's clear in a building that not everyone gets to be their wh selves everyone learns that wholeness is not safe to P for my second hope is that we will all remember that the North Carolina Department of Public instructions educator code of ethics supersedes all the rest and that its first requirement is that Educators protect students from conditions in the Educator's control that circumvent learning or are detrimental to the health and safety of students so so when teachers and administrators and maybe the board in alignment with the ethics of their profession might end up unable to comply with something that would be detrimental to

062the health and safety of their students I really hope yall as a board and we as a community will have their backs you know as a parent I hope so much that my kid comes to understand her own whole self that she shares that whole self with me but I know that can't be legislated that is up to me and more than anything I want her to have a safe person to talk to always and I want that for every kid so to preserve the possibility that a teacher can be that safe person it's really up to all of us the board yes but all of us to be ready to show up for educators who may have to put themselves on the line to stand up for the health and safety and dignity of

063every kid um I also want to say thanks for inviting public comment specifically on this matter and I ask that the same be done when the education focus group of the reparations commission makes its final recommendations you know the risk of so much coming at us is that we treat things separately but it's all inner and so I ask that we treat this attack on queer andr people as part of the ways that schools have always enforced margin through bad rules which harm all who are part of it but is an ongoing emergency for black and brown kids that's it thanks thank you and that does include conclude our public comment um it is not in the agenda but I also recognize that tonight we've got our board attorney here I know that this is

064going to be in conversation in our next work session um however I also want to offer a chance right now with what has been raised I know again typically we're not we don't quote unquote respond to public comment but recognizing the impact of this legislation if there are questions that are coming up from the board right now um that Chris you would be willing to entertain or answer if if you can about some of the things that have been raised um I'd like to first ask that we just take a moment and breathe because that was not all easy to hear so I'd like to just take a minute and ask us to take a deep breath before we engage in the questions that those comments will engender I have a question I'd like to

065ask our attorney the first read of the policies was last week the second week the second reading Sarah can I ask you to speak up sorry you might want to just take off your I mean if it's up I feel very safe with you not having your mask on so that we can hear you thank you test negative twice um Chris I I am confused about the process the first read was last week the second read would be on the agenda next month and the policies have been presented as policies and I don't understand when the board gets a chance to talk about those policies and say we want to do it differently we don't want to do it at all we have concerns about 9 like when do we get to talk about the

066policies what like again I just feel like we're on this trajectory and I don't know how to step off of it Chris sorry I'm sorry is your mic on is it on is that better yeah okay great start over so let me answer that question question by talking about policy in general and then we'll talk about this particular set of policies so anytime a policy is up for reading or consideration at that point in time the board can discuss it ask questions about it uh sometimes it is helpful to actually have it as a discussion item so that it's clear that you're not taking any action but certainly when policies come up for first reading you can talk about them then and then the way we've now moved to the board meetings you have a

067a dedicated work session in between each of your regular meetings so that was set up on purpose so that there would be at least one work session prior to a final reading that the board would have a chance to talk more in depth about policies so that's in general so take a policy that uh doesn't engender a lot of discussion you can have a first reading at your regular meeting followed by a discussion at your work session followed by a second reading at the next regular meeting so these policies the general assembly passed this had an immediate implementation date and then in the budget they backed up the implementation dates on the policies until there's two deadlines the first is the act talks about specific things that parents can raise as concerns and there's 10

068different items they can raise as concerns you have to have your policy in place of how to respond to those by December 15th all the other policies have to be in place by the first school day in January so you don't need to take action in November you could decide to wait and take action in December so that's the timeline the vast majority of what is in these policies is taken straight from the law the school boards Association took what the general assembly passed took the requirements that applied to schools and put them into your existing policies in various places so 95% of what you have before you is a straight recitation from the statue itself so I just want to point that out too this isn't what the school boards Association would like the

069law to be or how they interpret it it's pretty much straight from the law so then from that point the the time to look at revisions obviously you're going to take public comment tonight you'll have another work session your next work session or a dedicated meeting could be a great time to not vote at all but just have a work session on the policies to talk about individual changes that you might want to make and there's two different kinds of changes obviously the first one is things that do not conflict with the statute you want to do it a slightly different way it doesn't conflict with the statute you want to add things to a policy that don't conflict with the statute ideals principles ways that you would like things handled those all can certainly

070be added uh without any conflict if you want to do something different than what sb49 requires then we would do with that what we do with anything that is please let your legal counsil know ahead of time so that we can look into it and research it and that would be in closed session because that would be legal advice about something that you might want to do that might conflict with the statute but you are under no time pressure at all to pass by November and you could have one two more meetings at which you actually discuss these policies in depth prior to a second raing you just need in our opinion you need to to have something ready to pass at your meeting in December your regular meeting all right and oh are you

071finished go ahead followup I was gonna ask a follow-up question you go one more thought real quick before you followup question then to and again this is consistent advice that we give without regards to what this law is directed at anytime you want to add something additional a lot of times that's great to do either in a standalone Asheville City Schools policy so that it's yours or through procedures or administrative regulations that way because the remember I'm going to say this to you every time we talk policy the more you Tinker with the form policies the harder it is for your Administration to revise those every time amendments come out and just please remember in state legislatures and Congress what did they do every single year they say they're going to make education better and

072they pass hundreds of education laws so your policies change substantially every single year regardless of what part's in power or anything else so it's not insignificant to try to keep your policy manual as close to the draft policy manual as you can that's why we like Standalone policies if you want to make some points that are uniquely Ashville City Schools so this is a question for you but also sort of noting to George on our work session in November we could have a fuller conversation about these policies and are we allowed to ask you so I am persuaded by these arguments about Title 9 and the hostile environment that is being created and we may have already started feeding into in our classrooms and so could we hear legal advice about that I mean how

073does how does that work so on the on the title n piece um I've just gotten this for the first time tonight and I welcome this and I'll I'll take a very hard look at this and and talk to uh Craig and his folks and then also Chris Brooke at Patterson harav so I can certainly consult with those folks too that would be the legal advice to this board about how two laws might conflict with each other at that point in time that's when we talk legal advice is in closed session the law gives you the right and you like anyone else need to be able to consult with your lawyer however the board can decide what it wants to release publicly at some point after talking to your attorney so the first initial conversation

074would need to be in closed session so that I can give you legal advice and I know already that will come up so start looking into into that right now and then the second thing I heard and I'll be in touch with the uh General Council for the State Board of Education is if ncdpi or the State Board does intend to issue some kind of guidance or legal ruling about s sp49 and Title 9 I would really want this board to have the benefit of that legal analysis before you decided to do anything so I'll I'll check with those folks and see when that might be coming out thank you sure yeah I guess um a couple things come to mind one I'm assuming that that advice would also include um the potential penalties that

075the school system or the board would incur if we chose to not implement the parents Bill of Rights um and and I'm curious about where other states are that have gone before us and whether or not any Title 9 challenges I'm assuming that there's that nothing has reached federal court yet or it will be in this memo I'm sure but I would also love to hear that um in terms of an assessment of those challenges in other states that um pass these kinds of laws earlier I trust that there are really smart people in those States and hopefully some parents who have had the courage to challenge them um so yeah that those are the two things that I'm interested in is kind of the the and and I guess the the last question I

076would have is is there ever a time when the board itself needs outside counsel or is um where our where we might want to diverge in a way that doesn't we want to we obviously viously our first job is not to cause harm to this district and the challenge becomes when a state law requires us to harm our children what does that mean what is that Duty what is our duty then if the state threatens Financial harm to our district while the state requires policies that ask our teachers to implement policy that we know is harmful to our kids and our Educators and our families um so I'm you know would love to understand that big giant puzzle absolutely we can talk about that a little more in detail but I can give you some

077just quickly some general thoughts on that too that'd be great first of all I and maybe we should do this at the work session I really encourage you to hear a legal analysis of what is in sb49 because a large portion of it was already existing law and it's just a place and there's a lot of it that for lack of a better phrase is not in controversy so again you know I think a lot of times you'll hear board say well we should just reject this or reject that well there would not be a reason to reject the entire Bill wholesale because again a lot of it is just restating existing law things like student records and things of that nature so I think the first thing that you as a board would want

078to know is what is new what is this law requiring teachers to do what does this law require administrators to do because there are some things that it may not require that be done and you need to have an understanding of that then let's say at that point if you disagree with something that the law is requiring teachers to do at that particular Point well now you're back in that same position that any government official finds themselves in which is you took an oath uphold the law will which law is it Title Nine if it does conflict um then a lot of times these are not you know easy answers and a lot of times public bodies will take the position that a federal law preempts a state law and they'll just take that position

079as a board you certainly would not need outside councel to do that now whether or not there are law firms in other states that have that have already taken on specific issues sure we could look into that a lot of times there's some some benefits to be gained maybe in some prior experience with particular issues but those would would not be a concern whatsoever but in the end any public official can face you know potential sanctions for failure to follow the law and a lot of times it's just an injunction to try to make you follow the law but before we get there and I'm happy to answer those questions I really think at the November work session it would be nice for you to know what the law is requiring folks to do before

080you decide where you want to take a stand that just that seems logical to me so that you've got an understanding of what it's asking your administrators and teachers to do or mandating is a better word right and separability comes to mind right like what parts you right umre um uh let's see I had another thought which was I also I mean I we had said in our last work session that we do not want to implement this law ahead of time that we don't want to um enact these policies any sooner than we have to and so I also am curious and I I think Dr Ferman would love to just have you look at what policies have what are we doing already I want to really know um because what happened and I

081think this is important is that we understood in August that this law was going to be implemented pretty much immediately and so I think that we may have take I don't know this for sure and that's what I just just want to kind of know where are we in already having making changes what changes have we made in anticipation if any and do we need to pull back on those because we're not going to implement any of this that we do believe might be harmful to our families and our students and our staff earlier than we have to um so just maybe by our work session let's talk about that unless somebody has I have a clarification along those lines that I'd like to ask Chris about which is when the first thing you said

082is that one policy must be in place by December 15th the rest of the policies must be in place in early January you said policy so this is already the law but we just have time to implement policy where does that leave us right and I'm glad you asked that some things are law right now some things in this act and you've got to go through it it's you know 14 pages this is my copy with about eight different highlights and you know you know writing all over it so some of it is law right now you've just been given a reprieve on for example I'll give you a clear easy your procedure on a parent complaint does not have to be in place until December 15th right but the duty for example to um

083notify a change in the monitoring of a student's mental health is law right now so what Miss Ray just asked is a great question for Dr firman and I to get together and for your work session outline what is law now and what does it mean for some policies to be in effect later because some of it is it's not all policy some of it is just law that is already in effect and we can outline that for you just as a corollary to that and this is something that I trust you and Dr fman to do I feel like some um again from a position where we were in August that some messages have gone out um about what we're doing about this act about when parents will get a phone call about you

084know all about the act and it feels premature to me and I I mean I I trust you all to talk about this but I would like to know next week also to your point what dates are important but if we have started something prematurely could we stop it until we figure out what we're doing that's what I'd like to know and we'll look at that there may be some things that no they've been law since August but we'll look at that yeah thank you it's a good question Chris thank you for being here and being willing to share with us yeah and getting stuff down for that work session that'll be important um and thank you to the public comment um to help bring this all into a a space um as best we

085can and Amy thank you for for inviting us that moment um to to breathe um I feel like we're doing a lot of breathing lately [Music] um so next on our agenda is a presentation from Schneider Electic um Graham Lewis I think let's make sure your mic is on I'm [Music] sorry all right can you hear me now thank you perfect all right well thank you again Dr Ferman and Schoolboard members for having me here tonight my name is Graham Lewis I'm the North Carolina program manager for Schneider Electric um our goal for tonight's presentation is to review all of the different information I've gathered through many meetings with your staff um Dr Ferman April Georgia Tim hul Tim Shelton J Josh rsby there's been a lot of data uh that's been gathered over the

086last few months and then um hopefully to gain your support for uh approval of a letter of interest to do a business case and I'll talk a little bit later on what that what that means um the presentation I'll give tonight kind of Builds on itself so if you have questions at any point feel free to raise a hand Jump Right In with with any questions or comments um with that go with that being said I'll go ahead and skip over the agenda in interest of time so uh wanted to start off just with level setting what is performance Contracting which is the program that Schneider executes um it's enabled in state legislation um and allows school districts to use utility savings that we guarantee to fund Capital Improvements um there's two keys to that

087legislation that's in this chart here so you can see um we're shrinking your energy bill Bill and your operations costs and then you're using that savings on an annual basis to pay for the project retroactively um the first key to the legislation in this chart is that it says guaranteed savings so if we say the school district is going to save $150,000 a year and one year you only save $100,000 we have to actually write you a check for that $50,000 to cover the difference so that's within State Statute the second one is that um you can see your after cost including payment for the project is at or below what you were spending prior and that's because savings have to cover 100% of the cost of the project the pro project has to be

088completely um self-funded you're not allowed to put your own Capital dollars towards it and so that's why school districts across the state and across the nation use this model um to help Drive significant Capital funding that you can't get uh any other way and and allows you to to really boost your Capital funding without having to go to the County Commissioners to offset some of that funding so what sorts of facility improvements can be included everything really falls into two buckets uh over on the left side side we have what we call Revenue creation measures so think of those as short-term payback items like LED lighting um it's going to pay for itself over the term of the contract but then also generate excess savings to help you fund items over on the right side

089which are those capital and maintenance needs so uh chillers boilers large pieces of HVAC equipment that they have some some savings associated with them but have a longer term payback um what we do is we pair those short-term payback items with long-term payback items and create one comprehensive project uh for the school district that pays for itself over the course of time and so uh through meetings with your staff we've really identified um six key themes and ways that we can help uh to support the school system through this program uh the first is that yall have identified $50 million in facility needs by 2030 um which obviously given current funding uh is going to be extremely difficult uh to be able to meet um the second is that your staff is always looking to

090improve the learning environment you just have existing facility challenges like single pain windows that allow uh conditioned air out and unconditioned air into the school uh you also have outdated hbac and older Lighting systems um all of those things can be upgraded to create a more comfortable optimized learning environment for students and staff uh up on the top right um just like really all school districts that we work with across North Carolina um there are Staffing shortages in the maintenance department and so uh our our program which you'll see uh because we're guaranteeing utility savings we're your your part for the next 15 plus years and so our staff is really an extension of your maintenance team helping you to proactively identify issues in the learning environment to address them um but also to train

091your staff as as necessary over the time course of the contract down in the bottom left resiliency of the classroom is really important uh historically um you guys have had pipes burst and then water flooding uh during blizzards and and snow events and so um there's a number of ways that that's preventable but also uh if that were to happen um you really don't have backup generators in a lot of your schools and so we would look for ways to be able to keep those schools conditioned so that um if you were to have a pipe burst the school isn't freeze and then we've been told you guys would be out for months if if that was the case um down in the middle you know you all have as we heard from Claxton earlier

092100y old buildings and so um that provides its own challenges a lot of those buildings are historic so you have they're made of granite slate um really expensive to maintain and replace and so that eats into a lot of your capital budget um and leaves those internal components to the building hbac Electrical Plumbing um typically on the back burner with the within the capital funding and then lastly um as your partner um what we typically do for our school systems and I I'll go through the details here in a little bit but um these are large Endeavors so we try to make sure that we're connecting them to the learning environment um to stem curriculum and we can provide a lot of unique Hands-On learning opportunities for students so we conducted utility analysis I will

093put caveat on this that Josh is in the middle of gathering quite a bit more data uh I think there were some billing anomalies over the last 12 months and adjustments that happened um from Duke Energy so we want to make sure we get a really solid understanding of your Baseline costs um so we took a really conservative savings approach when projecting savings uh based on the data that we have thus far but um you can see the last five School District projects over on the right side uh and how they compare to Asheville City Schools so we're projecting about 15 to 20% utility Sav ings for you that's across your electricity Natural Gas and Water um that would drive around $ 110 to $150,000 in savings on an annual basis and then you can

094see what that extrapolates out to over a 15year guarantee about one and a half to $2.3 million and then over a 20-y year guarantee about 2.2 to $3 million for the school system um think of that as another one and a half to you know2 and a half three3 million worth of additional Capital funding that you could get for the school system which is relatively substantial so how do we pay for this project um we hear too good to be true quite often um you utilize what's called an installment purchase contract so essentially it's a lease on all the equipment that's installed in your facilities and at the end of the lease you own everything that's been installed on your buildings it's how you're able to get this work done with no upfront Capital um

095so your first payment is not until one month after saving or after construction has been completed so essentially you save for a month pay for a month save the [Music] mic thanks Grant your patience all right I'm back um so other ways that we're able to help Drive funding for the school district uh one is through utility rebates um I've got ncdc up there that's our most recent project was actually approved last month it's the largest facilities only um Energy savings performance contract in State history um and so we were able to drive over $380,000 of utility rebates for them um across a variety of different utilities and whether that was lighting rebates as well as some custom rebates um for hbac um but there's also quite a bit of federal funding out there right

096now um you have a new tax deduction that's been extended and increase through the inflation reduction act called 179d um that is something that only for-profit entities can take but shneider's found a way to monetize it and pass it back to our customers so um on NC daac project we were able to cut over quar million dollars off the lighting cost for them um but there are also other programs uh the state has got an allotment of Energy Efficiency conservation block grant is what EBG stands for um that they want to put towards performance Contracting projects and then there's also a renew America schools Grant um that they prioritize performance contracts uh that looks like over the next 3 years it's going to be around $300 million that'll be available and so uh we want

097to try and make Asheville City Schools as competitive as possible for those grants so what sorts of facilities do Asheville City or what sorts of facility improvements do Asheville City Schools facilities really need um I'm not going to go through each of these but you can can see it's an extensive list um through working with your maintenance staff a lot of large mechanical needs at a variety of your different schools um as well as building automation system upgrades a lot of electrical infrastructure um LED lighting both inside and outside um and then building envelopes kind of sealing up doors and windows and and kitchen equipment so there's quite a bit the pictures over on the right side are actually from Swang County Schools I'll go into the details on that project here in a second

098but it's a project that Mr Campbell reviewed and approved as well so we want to make sure we don't miss out on this large opportunity to connect not only with your students but with your community um so I mentioned student engagement activities earlier at Lexington City Schools we've done quite a bit with them engaging uh their various schools so uh at the high school we installed a couple solar picnic tables for their students to charge their devices on and to be able to use as learning opportunities um but then for the elementary schools we've done a program called volt Patrol which is like a behavioral reward system um where students that behave well for that either that day or that week um will be selected to be on volt Patrol they'll go around the school

099um and turn off lights when teachers have left them on or turn off computers um they're a school system that really has a high population of free and reduced lunch and so their superintendent wanted those students to learn those Energy savings behaviors that they could take home to their families um we're also always looking for ways to uh support you from an event perspective uh we've done Earth Day events at a number of school districts this last year so we did um um uh solar bugs we did solar ovens where we did uh uh marshmallows and graham crackers and all sorts of different things um that we can do kind of depending on on the needs of the schools and what the teachers would like um but then over on the right side from community

100community engagement perspective um we're going to work with your staff to understand what is the message that we want to get out about the project is it sustainability is it saving taxpayer dollars and then we'll build a custom PR plan with you guys around that message how do you best communicate with your stakeholders um and really make sure that everyone understands all the great things that are that are going on in the school district um again uh Swang County Schools is our closest project that we've done um we were able to get them it's a school district of only four schools um we able to get them about $2.3 million uh s completely self-funded project uh their big needs were at their elementary schools so they had a couple boilers and chillers that were 30

101years old and needed to be replaced and only 15% of the land in that county is taxable due to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park as well as the the Cherokee Indian reservation and so they're really tight uh in terms of funding and and had to find a way to be able to to get those facilities upgraded so we did LED lighting across the entire District lots of haac upgrades and a number of other energy conservation measures and then I've listed out uh just a few other examples of school districts and projects we've done in North Carolina so uh talking about next step Our Hope tonight was that the school board would approve a letter of interest for a business case uh I dropped that off at each of y'all's desks um what that is

102a business case is where uh we come out we tour your facilities we put together a highlevel overview of what a performance Contracting project specifically would look like for the district um we do that at no cost and again that's kind of why we um ask for school board approval I don't think it's 100% necessary but I think it's more of a best practice to make sure that everyone's aligned going into the project um our hope is that we would be able to present this back to your staff around mid December um and then that really gives you a great idea of what a project would look like before you have to decide is this something we want to move forward through the state process on or not so thank you for the time today

103and I'm happy to take any questions I just have a question to date so two parts to date and then forward to December um how do you work with our staff our facility staff yeah absolutely so we've just had a number of meetings so far in person um to to both review the details of the program um but then to understand the specific needs of of the facilities um right now all of that has been through conversation so the advantage of the business case is that we're going to be walking through the sites with your maintenance staff kind of getting a Hands-On approach seeing how they're operating um getting name plate information all those sorts of things that are really necessary during a site visit um to get a better handle on what is the

104opportunity for savings uh and then we're also working with Josh right now to gather that utility data um moving forward um we'll have to you know if this is something that yall want to move forward with um we have to then take a step back and you've got to go through the RFP process to select the company so there's no guarantee that Schneider Electric does this project um it's more so raising awareness that the program is out there and ensuring that uh a you all are an actual candidate for the program and then B that it's something that um achieves the goals of the school board and administration before moving into the state process which is something that the state Energy Office recommends I just I have another question and I I wish that James

105was here tonight um I'm just curious about the the history of our system and whether this has been done before um I can tell you I've got a list of because the the local government commission which is a part of the state Treasures Office approves all of um all projects in the state of North Carolina uh and that list goes back to 2005 and y'all are not on it um and typically with these being 15-year projects that would mean there's no active project here in Asheville City Schools thank you so Mr chairman correct that this does have to go through an RFP process just so the board understands that you're not entering into any contra relationship um certainly have no issue at all with the administration working with Schneider as far as I know the

106the Swain County Schools is very happy and we worked in getting the contract finalized I don't recommend that that the board agree to any agreement this evening first of all it's not necessary and second of all I wouldn't want some other bidder to have a basis to claim that there was some preferential treatment by the board entering into even a letter agreement certainly without objection Dr Ferman can work which on moving forward to bring you back some more information but since it's not legally necessary I wouldn't advise doing it so that you don't look like you're giving preferential treatment and sounds like he probably needs some more detailed information at your next work session awesome any other questions questions all right thank you all again for the time tonight thank you all right next on

107our agenda are accent items for approval um they're listed here on the agenda I'll just quickly just remind everyone that it student releases um mckin vento report these were all all the things that I mentioned were in our work session last week contracts and M us um policies of second read Personnel report and then also um the draft minutes from our work session from September um most of our meetings from September close session regular session special called session on September 18th um so are there any questions about the consent items then I'll ask for a motion for approval I move that we adopt the consent items or approve second right Miss been moved and seconded all in favor I I any opposed all right consent items are passed uh next on the agenda are the

108uh action items there's only one tonight um and that is um the consolidation study um that we talked about in our meeting last week and just a reminder um to those in the room and the public at large this is um manded by the state um and so this um if we choose to to approve the consolidation study that would then put it in the hands of bunkham County government to go ahead and get that RFP released and get that process started um any questions about that from the board I believe the request is for the county to to pay for it and facilitate finding someone to do the study is that correct that is correct okay yes I guess I would just make the comment because it's a this is our formal meeting that

109this is a study only this is not any movement toward consolidation it is a requirement of the state that we engage in the study and so we're engaging in that study in good faith yeah thank you Amy any other questions about that then I'll entertain a motion to approve bunkham County consolidation study so I move that we approve bunkham County's consolidation study requesting that they uh fund it and uh I guess that's it second it's been moved and seconded all in favor hi hi any opposed all right that has been approved uh next up on our agenda is superintendent report Dr fman hey good evening again everyone good evening board members um have a couple Department updates I want to share first um in our human resources department just a reminder that um we U

110are holding new employee orientation ongoing for any new staff the next one will be October 12th at 4 pm. um and that will be held here in the boardroom for any new employees that have not yet attended our next ACS educator advisory council meeting is coming up October 18th that's at 5:00 p.m. um and we'll have to have a make sure we have board members attending I think George and Rebecca attended last time um so when we find out who wants to attend if you can that would be great um our F FY 23 audit is complete this is coming from the finance department um and we are looking to add that audit review at the November board meeting um the next H slide shares a lot of updates from our Equity Department um you

111small to see the picture there but that is our um racial Equity ambassadors presenting at the color of Education uh conference that was convening that was this weekend so they did a wonderful job so we had a great group of Staff um and leaders attend that and um as well as Copeland from the foundation um but in our Equity department they are a team of teachers and leaders attended that uh Summit as well as our students doing a presentation um also so all of our schools are using the Equitable classroom observation checklist as a reflection tool um to monitor how we're implementing um the use of Equitable Equitable practices across the district um and they are also working to create an equity tool kit in partnership with Dr deian Townsen from The Dudley flood Center

112for educational equity and opportunity um and then finally from our Equity department they are um working with our schools to make sure that we are highlighting and celebrating Hispanic Latin um heritage month with several different events this year uh next up we want to recognize our good friend Dylan today is his last board meeting um yay Dylan is leaving Asheville City Schools to go to Haywood County government so he is going to be the um public information officer and um we will miss Dylan but hope we still connect with him over different events um he has done a fabulous job keeping our social media updated our web page updated um if you don't know this he is a very good writer as well a lot of the stuff that's been out there is is his

113creation so he's great at writing those little blurbs and press releases to make sure that he highlights and celebrates our staff so I want to thank Dylan also for helping work on a really positive relation ship with our media um we knew that wasn't always so positive in the past um and his work and dedication there has helped to build that positive relationship so I want to thank Dylan for all of his hard work and wish him well congratulations all right and then I just wanted to share an update um where I am on different phases of the entry plan I've been listening and learning and engaging um with our community so want to highlight a a couple things here um with the phase one and two was really getting to know our community understand

114the challenges the strengths the the resources that we have um and really listening and inviting all stakeholders um so one of the things that I did add to my calendar was just some open appointment time and it has been a really great way to make sure that every week I'm providing parents um community members anyone who wants to meet with me an opportunity to book time on my calendar and I've met lots of different people from the community people with no kids in our school system people with students in our school system just to share some of the um things that they love about Asheville just to introduce themselves that's been really great um a couple upcoming events um to continue the listening learning and engaging phase I've got four things we're working on um

115getting those out there and communicated the first is an alumni brunch that's going to be October 28th at 10: a.m. in the Alumni Center also on on uh November 2nd this date May change I'm waiting to hear back from Joe at the middle school there is um the community nights and I want to do some Community listening at one of those events and right now I've kind of penciled in the second um on October 25th I'm going to meet with our racial Equity Ambassador students at the high school and then I'm going to go on a bike ride with our in real life group at the middle school and hear from those students while we take a little tour around Asheville on our bikes and what I want to hear from our communities now that

116I've done a lot of learning is I want to pull out from our community and what does it mean to be a cougar we are cougar Nation we are all cougars we're all part of that cougar family and I want to hear from our community on what those attributes are that make our students and our school system really special so is it that our um students are courageous is that they're outgoing is they understanding um so we want to build a profile about what it means to be a cougar so that everyone can see themselves in that profile in that being being a part of that belonging um so they can see that they are a part of our school system and they um are embracing what it means to be a cougar um but

117I also wanted to highlight some of the things that I've learned um and kind of focusing on some of the strengths and I've shared these several times already but we have a very engaged Community um they are willing and ready to pitch in and get work done the picture there is the groundbreaking for Candace pick and Par and just to show the amount of support and the people that are real ready and willing to come out and do things to support our school system um we're resourcer when it comes to that those volunteers those organizations that want to lean in and support us um from you know re to 6ed to the YMCA and YWCA we just have so many groups that want to support what we're doing as a school system um and support

118our students and we also have such highly qualified and talented staff um I am just completely amazed every time I'm in classrooms and in meetings with our staff they are just they are very highly qualified and um we've got a lot of natural Talent just within our walls already um and then as you see we have a really active student body they are also really eager to do work to make the school system something that is really great not just for them as students now but great for the next generation of Asheville City school students um we do have growth areas uh we talked last uh week at the work session about our academic achievement not being where we want it to be and also those really um glaring disproportionate academic outcomes as well as

119Behavior outcomes in particularly along racial lines um and needing to address those in a in an immediate way um another growth area that I'm seeing is we are initiative and intervention overload there is so much going on in all these different ways across our school system and we're trying to solve the problem by trying to do more and more of something and then try that and instead of stopping something we just keep adding and adding and adding um so we're exhausting our leaders we're exhausting our teachers by just adding things over and over and keeping not taking anything off their plates so we really need to take a close look at what we're doing how we're doing it what works and let's keep doing that and if it's not giving us the results let's take

120that off our plates so we can focus on the things that are working um and then some challenges uh that have been coming up again last week at the work session we talked about are decreasing student enrollment um and that is that's something that's real we're seeing our students um choose Charter Schools there's more Charter Schools um homeschool they're choosing private schools they're going to bunkham County um so we're losing lots of students um for various factors we're going to gather some more information um that survey will be ready to go out here um this week to get some feedback from those families that have left our school system um but that has put us in a pretty precarious place so we have several school buildings that were operating below capacity and we really need

121to take a close look at our school capacity and be good stewards with our finances to make sure that we are not operating outside of what we really should be operating as a school system system um and then also with decreasing enrollment that's going to impact our budget um so as our enrollment decreases that means we're getting less money from the state and that means we get less money from the Commissioners um in the county because that money is also given to us on um student membership so we need to look at all of the the whole picture of what's happening districtwide when we see our enrollment decreasing um but speaking of budget I do want to make sure that we thank the Commissioners they did um add a even a little extra from what

122we originally asked um when they approved the budget last week so we're excited to Crunch those numbers we'll be presenting at the work session more details about what that budget looks like and um how we're going to U make sure that we're prioritizing um what's best for our students and taking care of our staff um as we finalize that budget for the board to eventually approve um and that um that concludes my comments for this evening is are there any questions or feedback or comments from the board thank you I just Echo our appreciation to the County Commissioners that we're grateful for their support and I wanted to say thank you for that presentation and thoughtful assessment of um what our what our challenges are and particularly I think the acknowledgement that we've added more

123and more and more in our efforts to improve um I think we've really I hear this a lot from teachers and so I appreciate that you Dr Ferman are willing to look in the eye the possibility that there are things we're doing that we need to stop doing because they're not as effective as other things that um that are our our teachers and staff are asked to do so I think that's awesome I also appreciate the real discussion around the lower enrollment and our underutilized facilities and the need to um think about that those facts as we grapple with the realities of our budget so thank you for that very honest assessment and I think also um realistic assessment thank you Dr F i' like just thank you for being consistent with telling us how

124the process is going um you know that was one of the things as you when you first came in you know this you know I don't want to say anybody can give a good presentation about what they plan to do but but um we've seen them before I guess is my point and the fact that you continue to use this space to tell us what you've been learning um and to drive the conversation forward I appreciate that thank you I'd also just like to add that in your first weeks and months with us um how much I appreciate the authentic way you're going into our schools to get this information um your presence in those buildings is something that I'm aware of and like when you give us a presentation like that I I know

125what types of observations you're doing to be able to share this with us and I really appreciate it anything else from the board okay um so this is the again everyone's favorite part is when when I get to give everyone announcements about what's upcoming um but just a reminder that um this coming or next Thursday um October 12th is a parent teacher conference day which means no school for students it's the first time that the first parent teacher conference day of the year um then Friday October 13th is a required teacher work day which means no school for students as well um Dr Ferman mentioned that listening session she's going to do on the 28th um so I just want to highlight that October 27th is homecoming um I don't think we always talk about

126that but that is homecoming for our district um and for ash high and SSA especially um so always a good time to come out and support the Cougars um and hopefully welcome a lot of folks back um November 1st um is an optional teacher work day so that's a that's no school for students um I think lots of students will be really appreciative that we there's no school for students the day after Halloween um we will have our next work SL close session for the board um Monday November 6th here in the boardroom um we have a Veterans Day holiday on Friday November 10th and then our next regular meeting will be here on Monday November 13th also given the folks who we saw today I'm a reminder from um Claxton that they have their

127School Musical Finding Nemo junor in November um and whenever we whenever schools have events um for the most part those are open to the public and it is as a parent of a child who did theater in elementary school those performances are wonderful so I would encourage you all to go there um and then the high school will be having their um fall play Murder on their orian Express also in November I don't remember the exact dates but again that is open to the public and by the way the performances of the high school because they're all in the Little Theater they sell out quickly so if you want to go um get tickets soon um um and with that if there's nothing else from the board I will ask for a motion to adjourn

128so moved second all right that's been moved and seconded all in favor I any opposed