001good afternoon everyone uh thank you for coming to the august meeting of the asheville city board of education we are going to [Music] start i'm going to call the meeting to order we're going to start with the pledge of allegiance from our asheville city school elementary students so if we could all stand pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america into the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice thank you uh next i would like to get a motion to approve our agenda for this evening so i moved you have a second second all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed all right next we have our good news [Music] with april dockery and staff who came out to all of our campuses over
002the weekend on saturday and helped beautify our beautiful schools and we are so grateful for the outpour of community support um and if you haven't seen all that you should drive by and see our beautiful flower beds all the new mulch that's been laid down it just is simply amazing so a special thanks to christy coates and her leadership and her team who made that event possible [Applause] another thing that i'm so excited to share with you tonight is the leadership conference we had last week you may not know but western carolina gracefully allowed us to use their facility to host our leadership conference for all of our district leadership and school leadership we have been able to review our survey results from our leadership and then overwhelmingly it was a very positive experience staff
003was able to reconnect and learn some important things that are happening in our district and hear from district leadership and more importantly hear from each other we had an outpour of community support we had many local businesses provided meals for us we had lovely breakfasts and lovely lunches every day and we are so grateful for their community support as well and that concludes our good news for august all right thank you very much i was over at claxton elementary helping to check in people and it was just great seeing our student athletes also came out coach cardillo brought some of the guys over football players over uh it was awesome seeing the families get together to come out and and mulch and pull weeds and it was just a really good day so thank you
004for putting that together all right next on our agenda we have our public comment and while the clipboard is being brought up i will go over our public comment guidelines the board of education greatly appreciates your interest in the asheville city schools and we welcome your comments to the board please be mindful of the following guidelines unless otherwise approved by the board the total time for public comment shall not exceed 30 minutes for in person and 15 minutes for virtual speakers members of the public may speak for three minutes the time remaining is indicated by lights directly in front of you at the podium multiple speakers from a group who are presenting on the same topic may choose to elect one speaker for the group if a single speaker is used by any group they
005shall be allocated five minutes instead of three to address the board if your group chooses this option this option please identify everyone in the group when you sign up to speak if an unusually large number of people wish to speak the board may decide to a reduce the time allotted for each speaker and or b require the designation of a group spokesperson substitute speakers will not be permitted and speakers may not donate any portion of their time to another speaker please be respectful a disruption by any person or persons of a public meeting will not be tolerated and will 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 public comment allows you to provide the board of education with
006your thoughts and relevant information concerning the asheville city schools therefore board members will not normally respond to individuals who address the board except to request clarification please be reminded that confidential student and personnel matters may not be discussed during public comments and the board does not accept personnel complaints through public comment if you have a concern about an employee or a student matter please contact or see the superintendent after the meeting the board permits public comment on issues relevant to and within the jurisdiction of the school district although an individual may identify themselves as a candidate for any public office no person may use the public comment portion of 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
007the official business of the school system for purposes of this policy act of campaigning includes but is not limited to asking for support for a candidate running for public office and or stating what a candidate will do if he or she is elected to public office all right so our first in-person first in-person commenter we have is miss shifra ollars and you have three minutes my name is shafra ollars and i'm the mother of six children who are fifth generation ash billions i've removed all of my children from asheville city schools because of the closure of asheville primary school with a net loss of nearly a million dollars to the district i know of an additional 30 asheville primary students that have left the district as well there's a lack of accountability and integrity here
008freeman and hett led you astray you knew they were lying per policy code 1010 board authority and duties you violated your commitment to the public and failed to act in the best interest of the community instead district leadership used their influence to persuade principals and staff members to advocate for closing aps on the playground teaming up against the littlest guy is called bullying we expect more from our children than we've come to expect from our asheville city school board after admins curtailed enrollment in various ways the school board stated aps was under enrolled you intentionally created a false scenario and then exploited it leading to corruption and failure to do due diligence as fiduciaries you have obligations that you did not perform to paraphrase an op-ed in the mountain express asheville city schools has failed
009aps had roughly similar student makeup to every other district school but school board members misstated the enrollment numbers seberg thought that aps was a predominantly white school shonda thought that there was only four or maybe 14 african american students in the program in a letter to politicians sieberg touted his wokism but forgot that diversity equity and inclusion is a practice of making all people feel welcome including different backgrounds religions and abilities the montessori classroom is multi-age and therefore inherently services students of different skills acting as a conduit for integrating and mainstreaming special children it offers benefits of creating a peaceful welcoming environment for students at the youngest ages so they grow up with principles of inclusion and understanding the importance of celebrating everyone regardless of their differences in skin color or abilities aps was steeped
010in inclusivity more than any other school in the district lies and deception were at the forefront of this school closure parents and teachers signed up to speak at the hearing and were discriminated against they were not called which is a violation of meeting laws why did asheville city schools foundation advocate against the magnet school with a focus on anti-bias and anti-racism primary kids as young as four advocated for themselves by sharing prepared words from their hearts instead of being acknowledged for their bravery seaberg who joined the board six weeks earlier shamed them and their parents after the closure the politicians were confused we've lost faith and confidence in asheville city schools not only as a result of your poor decisions but also because of how you treated us community activism is an essential tool in
011getting families connected and helps build trust the stakeholders deserve to be heard by the board but instead leaders from across the regions have contacted me they have asked us well i appreciate that thank you very much next we have how many people online we just have one right now there's one miss lundy can you hear me miss lundy sorry we appear to be having some technical issues can you can you unmute yourself i tried to message her too i'm sorry we were unable to connect i'm trying to message her i don't she might have stepped away or have some technical issues on her end if she pops back up hello oh thank you yay thank you can you hear me yes we can hear you okay hi sorry um i don't know what's going on
012with my phone so i knew i would be crying by the end of this meeting i had no idea i was going to be coming into it like this um we're down here in charleston south carolina just facing discrimination after being greeted with open arms at an airbnb to ask to leave a few hours later and i don't know it's because my child has special needs because my children are biracial or because they looked up my record and that's just the shape of my life it's very unfortunate that my cries for the equity that my child deserves have fallen on deaf ears because of the whiteness of my skin and the whiteness of my voice and it's unfortunate for her that that is going to be a roadblock for her we had lily when we
013were released from prison we wanted our child even after we were told she was going to have down syndrome because she represented all of the hopes that we were building in our life in asheville all of the things that we were trying to achieve we got our first um shining recommendations for asheville primary school when lily was still in the nicu they told us of all of the wonderful things that that school was doing to create equity for children with special needs this sentiment was echoed by each and every single therapist that she had we get to asheville primary school and it's lightning in a bottle the growth and achievement that this child experienced in such a short time it just it denies words so there we were just not even christmas time telling people
014thank you thank you for fighting for this school thank you for keeping this open only to find out it was back on the chopping block we would have never chosen to move lily to actual primary school had we not been told she would have two years there before this decision was revisited so okay no big deal the school's going to close i thought we could keep lily in the classroom that she was in no lily's birthday is august 26 which is five days before the cut off that would have allowed her to stay in pre-k now the kick to this is that due to covid she should have started in august of 2020 additionally her school services should have been picked up in august of 2020 but due to covid none of that started for
015lily she didn't even start receiving services through asheville city schools till may of 2021. how's that for equity now she can't even stay in the pre-k room i can't even take her out and put her in a private pre-k she would lose her services where's the equity that this beautiful brilliant child deserves the things that asheville primary school miss mary's classroom specifically have achieved for her are phenomenal i do not feel like the school board cares anything about what is in the best interest of my child when we were told that we would have to fight for lily for lily's education for lily's achievement i thought they meant like goals and benchmarks i was unprepared for the battle that i was going to have with the very people appointed to provide for her care i
016i don't know what to do and i hate to tell you that i'm going to be a thorn in y'all's side for the next 18 years maybe 21 if she were allowed another year in the classroom that she was at or the school environment she was in she would enter kindergarten competitively thank you do we have any other no one else okay all right thank you for everyone's comments next we have our consent items on the agenda uh everyone has had a chance to look over the consent items uh is there are there any questions or can i have a motion to approve our consent items on the agenda so i moved you have a second second all right it's been moved and seconded all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed all right
017next we have our action items and we'll vote on these individually uh first we have our personnel report number one uh can i have a motion to approve the personnel report number one so moved do i have a second second all right it's been moved and seconded all in favor say aye aye aye and you oppose you you abstain from okay so next we have our district aig plan that was presented uh it's kind of a motion to approve the district aig plan so moved all right do i have a second second all right it's been moved and seconded is there a question all in favor say aye aye aye and the opposed in the abstentions okay next we have our school capital fund commission appointment uh we spoke about this at the last at
018the work session last week so i will open the floor at this and do we need to go over this again does everyone remember this okay so i'll open the floor for nominations uh for that appointment at this time i'd like i can i'll nominate myself george seibert okay so george seiberg has nominated himself you're giving me a nod as well uh does anyone else have any nominations for the capital school capital fund commission appointment all right well seeing none do i have a motion to approve george seaberg as the school capital fund commission appointee uh that term will end in twenty twenty four seven moved do i have a second anybody second second all right it's been moved and seconded all in favor say aye aye any opposed all right next we have our
019work session meet meeting minutes from december 6 there were some questions about the december 6th december 7th and december 13th meeting minutes uh these have all been everything that was a question has been addressed so can i have a motion to approve with final approval for the work session meeting minutes december 6 2021. do i have a second second all right it's been moved and seconded all in favor say aye aye any opposed stan you're upstanding okay one abstention next are special called open hearing minutes december 7th to 2021. do i have a motion to approve those some move all right it's been moved i'll have a second second all right it's been moved and segmented all in favor say aye aye aye and you opposed staying okay and then finally our regular meeting minutes
020from december 13 2021. i have a motion to approve the minutes do i have a second second all right it's been moved in a second all in favor say aye aye any opposed scene okay all right next i have dr cosby with the superintendent's report thank you mr chairman i have a couple of information items on staff to come forward and present to you christy if you'd come and briefly discuss with them about plans we're making for custodial services good afternoon um we would like to inform the board that we are going to need to make some adjustments to the bug group contract um we will now be placed in the bug group at asheville high school solely we will move three of the custodians that are currently there and to open vacant positions in
021the elementary schools as we hire we'll be able to move those custodians they can stay where they're at or they could possibly go back there we don't know at this time but even with doing this we still have five and a half open positions at the elementary schools that is with us putting 12 of the bug group contracted services at the high school and i did a um i think you have this in your packet what each school requires for 23 500 square feet requires one custodian so if you will notice at asheville high school let me go to that i'm sorry i'm time or my time go ahead christie i'm sorry keep going i'm just telling them where to find it oh okay um if you will notice um where oh hold on just
022a minute i have to get my bearings too on column g if you take the square footage of the high school and you divide it by 23 000 square feet this is what i come up with this number um i will have more information with you for you once we do some adjustments to the bug group contract we're talking with them now and our attorneys so you'll this is something that will come back in september or before possibly dr cosby uh we'll have to come back to you with a revised contract with bud okay because the the previous one did not encompass this product not the use of them all right and i do want to imagine i know all your board members know this we're we're only doing this because we do not have
023applicants we're only doing it to cover jobs it's not any way shape or form to do away with anyone's job everyone will remain employed they may just be in different locations we believe it's better to have all that group at one location so that we can manage it better gotcha is it can we not contract other people from there as well to then go into the buildings and help temporarily i'm sorry i didn't hear you i'm sorry i'm sorry is it not possible to also contract others from that agency to go into the elementaries to help with the vacancies that we have until they're full they will also be doing that oh okay um that if you noticed in the previous contract it was stated that we would have as needed custodians at elementary schools
024but we will also need those as well yes if they're capable of covering all of them that's that'd be great we hope yes but i'm sure they have some of the same issues with finding yes applicants this way too hey okay he just you just covered it any other questions for chris thank you chris appreciate you work on this thank you also i'd like to ask adon if she would come forward ask her to give you information on a proposed memorandum of understanding with the eddington center and you you have that also behind tabard's right behind the information you just saw good evening i just wanted to let the board know that we're working diligently to solidify some space for our new education and career academy formerly known as the alternative program our attorneys have
025reviewed our mou with asheville housing authority it is now in the hands of mr david nash at the housing authority and once he gets it back to us we'll get it approved and signed by dr cosby and in front of you guys as soon as possible our goal is to be up and running by the first day of school it may be that we'll need to call a special meeting toward anyone so we can get it done before the school year starts gotcha but basically it's for space to house up to 50 students and here again those kids who want to participate in sports etc will just bust them to the high school for whatever activities yeah or in middle school or middle school so they will still be able to participate great ideas they
026would be uh still students at their home school they would just be housed there for special gotcha special help okay any other questions for miss win all right thank you okay very good i've got just several areas i want to give you some some information on uh finance area georgia and her team they continue with the audit process all the things for the last year plus they're also currently building the budgets for the next current year as you normally do and we'll be bringing those to you very very shortly as part of that they're having to work with new salary schedules implementation of those getting all the new employees information in all of those kind of things that you have to do during the summer now those numbers of course are greater than normal because
027we're hiring more than normal even though we still have vacancies and allowed maintenance understand that the canopies are now down at asheville high school and if that's opened up that space really nicely we've also now moved all the preschool classrooms into their new spaces that has been completed and april commented already about the great work we had over the weekend on all the sites got great great success i saw some wonderful pictures of on facebook from principals and their overalls and all those kind of things they did not look very professional but they looked like they were doing what they were dressed to do human resources just want you to know we continue to have vacancies we have still have a total of about 50 vacancies that's in all the different different areas we are
028making progress we're continuing to get some applicants and folks are interviewing and we're making offers we'll also be attending the work-life balance job fair this thursday august the 11th from 11 a.m to 4 p.m at the western north carolina agriculture center there we'll be looking to hire teachers instructional assistants bus drivers maintenance and school nutrition and our principals and hiring managers will be on site there and they work working that way we hope that will be positive for us in equity we now have we have five high school student racial equity ambassadors they presented last week to our leadership conference and did a fantastic job i'm so proud of them and almost all the principals asked for them to be made available to come to their school and and make presentations to their staffs all
029our principals and assistant principals have now attended the two-day phase one rei equity training as requested from the board uh excluding the new ones they have not yet been but we will be scheduling those folks some of those also be attending this weekend also all of our nurses and our schools have also gone through the rei workshop now so we're moving forward with your goal to do that student services good donna just mentioned a little bit about our new programs she and her team are continuing to work what we're calling the asheville city schools education and career academy it's not being called an alternative program because these students will still be students in their home schools still available available to do all the kinds of activities they would normally do they will get most of
030their classes and stuff with specialized kinds of services located there they have been very busy over the last few weeks and interacting and meeting with families of students who would qualify for this program and as of right now we have approximately 40 that have indicated their desire to attend this program okay with a capacity of 50 that doesn't leave a lot more space but there will be some space if principals want to recommend additional students and the principals have been involved in this process also our high school counselors are back at work and working on schedules for this next year our high school councils are also been working to ensure that our recent graduated students are ready to start their new college careers we have a number of students especially those who've graduated from the
031avid program who are the first college attenders and their families and they're not used to going through this kind of preparation and going away from home and being prepared so what counselors have done they have packed comforters irons linens all of those kind of things for those students to have to take to college with them so so they're ready our mental and behavioral health team will be training all students support specialists our in-school suspension staff and instructional assistants on restorative practices suicide assessments threat assessments and trauma-informed classrooms and care and they will be equipping every school with a reset room fully staffed we have those fully staffed on every one of our campuses and this training will be on august the 25th before school starts so we're very pleased that we'll have all of those
032services in place for children who need it and help them before situations develop it's a preventative kind of thing also in the same vein we now have commitments we're working with some of our partners for 13 school-based therapists this school year that is nine more than we had last year and every school will have a clinician in place this year to work with students we're formalizing a relationship with appalachian mountain community health center they're providing a condition and they'll also you know be opening the clinic at nashville high school we'll have open house for that on august the 24th at 4 p.m and we'll send you from information about that if you'd like to be be president for that that open house on the operation side of it we have had mandatory central office safety
033and reunification training here we started this a week ago this room was full of folks this is what would need to be done if we have to evacuate campuses we have an agreement with unc asheville we have to evacuate a campus that's where they would go we have the reunification plans and every place where parents would come and meet and be cleared and checked out and reunited with children if that should become a need to be done and there will be additional training going on with this dylan is working this week to get out the word about the changes in school meal prices this school year as well as making sure that parents are familiar with all that school bus information that you received at our last board meeting and also dylan has been very
034busy in my direction of getting a lot of advertising out about it you may have seen some of our ads we've had ads on wlos asheville citizen times we're now running ads in the charlotte observer the rally news observer on social media on indeed and as of this week we'll begin ads on spectrum and iheart radio and we are getting hits from those things and getting getting applications from folks so those are things we're working on and it's it's work in progress but we feel good about any questions on any of those all right excellent any questions all right dr cosby thank you so much very thorough is glad glad to hear that things are starting to click with our outreach for especially for finding new people for our staffing so thank you to you
035and hr for working on that all right next we have our announcements and future meetings uh friday august 19th is an optional teacher workday uh required teacher work days will be monday august 22nd through friday august 26th first day of school is august 29th that's a monday then we have our first holiday which is labor day on monday september 5th our next work slash closed session board meeting will be here in the boardroom on monday september 12th and then our regular schedule meeting will be monday september 19th here in the boardroom as well you can also find our board meeting schedule on the website uh if there is nothing else from anyone uh can i have a motion to adjourn so moved you have a second second all right it's been moved and seconded all
036in favor say