001good afternoon everyone and welcome to the ashle City Board of Education work special called meeting slor session I hereby call this meeting to order all board members are present including our two newest board members so we have a quorum may I have a motion to adopt the agenda please so moved may I have a second second all in favor I any opposed okay so moved you have to go through each one remember virtually we're virtual yeah I was about to ask because I don't know if I can hear you pton I didn't you I heard you say I oh I saw your mouth but your um I didn't hear you on there so I wanted to make sure your mic was working so um in favor Martha are you Payton hi I can hear you
002James hi and Jackie hi all right I can hear you all so moved so at this point on our agenda we'll be going into a closed session we have that scheduled from 10:5 to 2:35 and we'll return back to our regular work session at 2:45 um to continue our agenda so at this time board members if you could please go to the link for our Clos session good luck with that just click leave Martha and then go back on the calendar I don't have a leave look at the bottom of your screen put the arrow down to the bottom and it'll say leave nope so put scroll your arrow down to the bottom right I got it now click leave and then get out out of that and go to the okay um ashy do
003you realize that we're already an hour behind I know I'm we're just waiting on the rest of them to to join they go they go us a 15 minute break did you hear what I said what did you say said they gave us a 15 minute break so we're not coming back until quarter of 4 I have to do with that good all right we are live right welcome back to our Ash City Board of Education work session um we just completed our close session and as a reminder I just need to remind everybody that there's no public comment during work sessions our system of public education depends on your involvement however please take note that that is not a time that there is not a time for public comment during any ashel City Board
004of Education special called meetings or work sessions however please note that we do provide a time during public comment on the agenda of all regular scheduled board meetings to participate in public comment during the regular meeting we invite students staff families and community community members to sign up through our virtual Google form signin sheet a link to that sign-in sheet was sent to the staff and families yesterday afternoon shared with our greater School community Through The District's website and social media channels and emailed to local media outlets in order to ensure staff has time to share the zoom link with those wishing to make a public comment please complete the form by 3:00 p.m. if you sign up to make a public comment the zoom link will be shared with you between between 3 and
0054:00 p.m. prior to the starting of our regular meeting again our next regular scheduled board meeting is set for this afternoon not at 4:05 probably that's um for immediately following this work session um and we invite you to share your thoughts with us then thank you for your continued support and interest of ashel City Schools hello everyone so first on our um agenda we have our athletic directors um Ashville middle and Ashville High School silsa um we'll have Dr cassa Adrien Clark Sanita Warren and Jesse Swain sorry thank you madam chair uh I appreciate the opportunity to uh let one of our departments that I'm most proud of in their work this past year especially uh be highlighted and so I'm going to quit speaking here other than just to say that Coach B and
006Coach Clark uh Have Been instrumental in leading both of these schools and these departments this last year not only have they kept our kids safe in the last year in one of the hardest environments in which to do that they have had one of the most successful seasons in many years across our athletic departments at both schools and they have mentored cared taught tutored uh they have been just real superheroes in every aspect so I'm so proud to let them uh be highlighted today so however the two of you would like to go uh Coach B will let you start off and uh anything you'd like to tell us about the program specifically some of the academic highlights I know that's something that the board has asked about a couple of months ago uh but
007anything else we we are really appreciative of all that you do you and AC so go ahead Sita are you gonna start yeah I did I'm sorry I was talking I wasn't unmuted but I was talking so we've had some uh some good success this season the biggest thing I think that was a blessing and also a curse was the fact fact that we had more students participating in athletics I think the biggest reasons for that they were looking for something social to do that social interaction and also for the structure that Athletics presented to them we have um a total of 17 teams that I've done the gpas on for scholar athletes and out of those 17 programs we had 14 that were scholar athlete teams that means they had an grade point average
008of 3.1 or better when we have scholar athletes they have to have a 3.5 grade point average better and on those 17 teams we had 233 scar athletes which I think is phenomenal I I would say that when you look at our grade point averages with Athletics as compared to the regular school population that you will probably see a slight increase because of the um structure and the fact that they were use having a daily routine and I think that was the reason why we saw more students wanting to participate the only problem with that is with the covid protocols and so forth we have to trim some of our rosters down that um came into play which was you know wasn't a positive thing but it was positive in the fact that we had
009that many students that want to participate in athletics one of the things that we did have was the athletic pods that were available for athletes and then also now while we're operating hubs that has been helpful and us being able to monitor athletes grades and make sure that everybody is on the uh path that they need to to retain their eligibility um our coaches have access to the athletes in power school so they can fir hand be able to monitor their students that they've been assigned um I've seen great attendance and we've had um great incentives with our athletes as far as maintaining the graad the only thing that is probably been a problem for us over the years is how do we maintain the advances that we made when we're not in season so
010I have um put together some performance um evaluations for coaches in order to try to get everybody on the same page and trying to follow our athletes even when we're not in season and that is something that we have not had here but that we've implemented so that we can talk about any deficits that I feel that the coaches have and trying to maintain the athletic eligibility of their athletes so I didn't want to go over five minutes but just want to give you a little rundown of what we are trying to do at the high school and the fact that we are seeing an increase and students that are wanting to participate in in athletics all all right here at the middle school we' like to say thank you for um allowing us to
011speak at this uh board meeting um we would also like to thank you guys for choosing to allow our students uh a bit of Normy during these tough difficult times of co uh the resilience our student body show while facing Co the second none for example uh before each and every practice our coaches take temperatures ask those um never ending questions it feels like and uh every participating member of the team um you know they have to take those uh they have to get their temperature taken have to stay six feet apart while trying to uh practice a sport our Middle School cross country team um finished first in our uh conference followed by our boys finishing fourth thanks to coach mik Wilson our girls basketball team finished fourth during the regular season only to
012win the conference tournament while at one time being down by two players um they defended their four-year run as conference Champs thanks to uh coach Watkins coach Vicky ruer and Lidle the boys soccer team coached by coach Tanner and Anan completed the regular season undefeated Champs um and they actually won the uh the conference Championship in double overtime PKS against Owen uh coach banon his staff football went undefeated throughout our conference and they didn't give up a uh a single point uh Coach Brown and J are the coaches who are in charge of our cheerleading squads um Chia wasn't allowed to uh travel in middle school so um the way we did basketball this year we split if our if our guys were home our girls were away and vice versa and our girls uh
013our cheer team cheered at all 10 um basketball games including football um if it was at home uh we currently finished up our fourth wave we're finishing up our fourth wave of sports and starting our fifth wave as our uh softball team are in the first round of the playoffs thanks to coach Li and Coach rer who are really uh preparing our girls and getting them better at softball coach Connelly uh who coaches volleyball and Tennis they're working right now to improve their spot in the tournament and we're sitting second in girls uh soccer currently uh baseball Golf and track and field are winding up and then they should be the last um wave of sports all right and this year Sports was very beneficial to our students in many ways Sports allowed our students
014to compete and perform at a high level but it also opened up a space for our students to interact socially it allowed them to exercise physically and mentally sport and coaches that are in um they're in charge they also helped our students um by motivating them uh our practices became a hub for our teachers who uh could possibly have a hard time reaching kids so there were times where we had teachers come out and deliver hand deliver uh work for our students who are you know trying out for uh Sports and things of that nature um and we're also using um my learning circle to uh kind of keep tabs on all of our uh students uh I personally run that and anytime you know a kid's in the red I make sure I go
015and have that conversation with the coach and say Hey you know let's use this as motivation to uh get that kids attendance up to get their grades up um you know any kind of help that we can uh we can do all right um teachers will use practice to help students get caught up um I've overheard plenty of conversations um from coaches to players about uh you know improving and not only competing on the field but competing in the classroom um and we actually have one team uh start study hall now that we're back in the building so Sports has been very intricate to U the success of our kids and getting back to uh a little bit of Normy here at Astro mle so we appreciate you guys um deciding to go to the
016sports Coach B I just want noted that AC went minutes over on time that you gave him so I just want I just want to make sure pay you back thank you both for what you done I open up the floor to questions from the board or anyone else that would like to ask appreciate that thank you both for um Coming and thank you for um sharing that news with us cuz we know our students really was they really needed some socialization um after or during this pandemic so we really appreciate you putting yourself out there to work with the students and to ensure that their grades are right um where they need to be so they can be successful student athletes and I guess my first question is how are we doing with our
017African-American students at the high school because generally at the middle school you all do pretty well with making sure their grades are where they need to be it's when they get to the high school that we start to see a decline and they're unable to further their careers if they have the potential because they don't have the grade point averages so how are we doing with that I would say one of the biggest assets that we've had um in helping us to um identify those students and be able to follow them and getting them to do the correct thing is coach Rafford he's been instrumental in getting into the pods whenever you had the Pod system going on and then he was also instrumental and trying to get the athletic pods over here on campus
018and get his coaching staff to work one-on-one with those student athletes so the efforts are out there um I think when we're looking when and to be honest when we're if we're going to be honest about it the teams that we need to see some improvement are men's basketball football and then usually cheerleading and those sports teams right there have a a heavier than usual than the other teams of African-American students that are invested in those programs so we're working with those coaches and trying to find a way that we can chart those students and provide support when they are not in season it's not a problem while they're in season because they've got all hands on deck but what are we doing when they're not in season that we can follow and make sure
019those students are doing what they're supposed to do but I will also say that as you put a lot of responsibility on us and the coaching staff some of the responsibility also has to go on with students and their parents and making sure that they do what they need to do when they're outside of these walls and that's where we're trying to get the lines of communication and the efforts to work collaboratively so that it's not a Blame Game and that everybody is working to ensure that these students are doing what they need to do to make sure that they have the grades to go where they want to go so it's an ongoing process and um I think the first thing is establishing that communication to identify who those students are and I think
020we're doing a good job of doing that right now do you require that your students now I'm taking it back Sita go ahead we used to we used to be required to play a another sport so that way you always had a coach in your life you know because I know coaches just they teach multiple sports do you require the kids to play multiple Sports now we can't require that they do anything we can strongly suggest that they play another Sport and usually all of our athletes do play another sport but there but you we're running in the age now where everybody thinks you have to specialize in one thing that you have to be really good in one area to get that scholarship that you want to get with that particular sport but yes
021we are encouraging them across the board because you're using different muscles you're learning different lessons you're hanging with different people that you ordinarily would not be hanging and learning to coexist with and you're getting a lot more exposure so yes we are suggesting suggesting that I know that coach Rafford has suggested it as guys that they needed to run track or they needed to wrestle but they needed to be doing something this spring and it was strongly suggested so as we can strongly suggest it we can't make it mandatory like I can't tell them they have to do this but we can strongly suggest that and it only makes us stronger as an athletic department because we have kids that are participating in all of our Sports and it makes us present ourselves better as
022a school so yes okay thank yes yes I wanted to jump into I think this year has provided some separate challenges with the cross sport thing because we I mean all of our Sports have been crammed in such a smaller window like I I've talked to athlete after athlete and they didn't do some sport because it overlaps so much with one they were already doing so I think that's a that's a real issue this year for sure that's understandable there was someone else that had a question for me Clearing House think do you have parents sign off on those Clearing House requirements so that they can't say I didn't know they had one of the things that we've been trying to do um is work collaboratively with the counseling office so that we can start
023providing services with Athletics and counseling together so that we don't get that I didn't know what the requirements were I didn't know that I needed to pass three out of four classes to be eligible to participate in athletics this year was kind of a condensed version of what we're doing but that is what we're looking at so that we have a contact here and we have a contact there and all I have do is pick up the phone and say hey we have such and such can we work with them to make sure that they're going to get what they need to get but one thing that we need to also keep in mind is that students don't just play sports for an athletic scholarship there's different reasons for playing a sport and that while
024people think scholarships are available a dime in a dozen that is not that's not you know because we have kids all over the country they are competing for the same things so our question has to be what are we doing to prepare our students so that they can go out and compete for these scholarships that are available with such and such and such requirements so that is what we're doing but we're trying to work collaboratively with the counsil office so that we can do some things together to make sure the last thing I want to hear parents say is well I didn't know so and and we're hearing that more often than not so we're trying to make sure the information is out there and I'm not blaming you in any way no no I'm
025not taking it that way even when you make them sign the form they're still gonna say they didn't know are we doing that at the middle school level as well to make sure that it's not just all on the high school so that they start learning about what's required of them when they get to high school and college we we are we're talking about it and we're we're trying to to uh Model A lot of a lot of those things we're doing a lot of cross um Cross School things uh I know Court uh coach raford plans on doing a signing day which is a simulation of what you'll do in college if you can from high school to college if you can uh if the kids can make it that way um you know
026just to get them you know we believe in practice so if you practice Signing Day in the eth to ninth grade then hopefully you know you'll enjoy that feeling and you can do it from the uh 12th to to college um and also just to uh help answer one of those questions I think that if we had more uh teachers in the schools that would help us it would be a lot easier to get kids to um do more and then also to hold each each other accountable um I think the teachers that we have are great teachers but sometimes after 3 o'clock the day is over whereas I know my day my day is not over until I make it to the house I'm always calling and talking to kids and things like that
027because the kids understand that I care and I'm not saying teachers don't care but it's different when a kid can see that I care about them in a place that that they can feel successful in and they don't necessarily have to try as hard to whereas once they're in the classroom and they are struggling you know maybe they feel that teacher don't understand their struggle so I think having teachers who actually coach having more teachers in the building really really would help that uh situation out I wanna I want to add something to Sita and Adrian both uh probably didn't even go into this as much as they should have most of our teams have offseason and workouts that are done voluntarily on their part that they're going through so they're meeting with their team
028A lot of times throughout the year and a lot a lot of that goes unsung and unknown but they're still monitoring and keeping up with their students in those times so that's just another added one there was somebody else that had a question for me I think I think Jackie had a question Jackie are you there yeah I am coach fat I've got a question for you can you talk a little bit more about the athletic pods and hubs were those open to all teams and how are the athletes informed about those being available one one of the things that was happening is they had the community hubs or Community pods and then we were approached with did we felt like there was a need did we want to have an athletic pod for athletes
029that felt like they needed extra help or were struggling I have I have honors and AP kids on my team one through 10 that I had this year but some of them were wanting to have the Hub or the Pod because they wanted the structure so it wasn't necessarily just students who were struggling academically it was students who were struggling because they felt like they needed structure like I would be be better off if I wasn't on my bed doing my work if I was in a structured environment within the school so what I did is I sent out an email to all the coaches and explained what we were going to do and that we were providing it for any athletes that felt like they needed to be in school in a structured environment
030to be to have these these pods available to them and so so the coaches then reached out to their athletes so I think the biggest the biggest um takers that we had with it were football which was good because we there's a lot of guys that we need to be following on that team and Coach raford had more coaches in the building than any other team because you know we have more football coaches who are actually here on staff and all of his coaches actually teach in a different area subject area so we were able to give guys one-on-one handson tutoring then say my girls coming to me with ap this and AP that I can't help them but I can provide them some structure and tell them who to go go to but they
031just wanted to be in this environment versus laying on their bed trying trying to do their virtual learning V actually is very good at AP Calculus the AP calculus tutor if you're I can count to 10 20 if I take my shoes off are there any other question questions all right I just want to say thank you again to our athletic directors and to the coaches uh thank you so much and uh keep keep uh keep going keeping on guys all right thank you thank you we appreciate the thank you guys appreciate it thank you um next on our agenda approval for the CTE production work program and that is Miss sah mson and I'm think Sher Hicks and Derk erors Sherry we can't hear you talking Sherry it just sounds like static what about
032now there you go hear you thank you I had to switch um computers um thank you madam chair good afternoon uh members of the board and Dr Freeman thank you for this opportunity to briefly present about two new Revenue generating programs in C CTE they're also uh known as production work programs we've received um the blessing of uh principal Edwards to have these programs operate um at Asheville High however we have we are required to get board approval before we can uh proceed so um I included all of the information in the packet that you have but I'll turn it over to Sarah Monson and Justin pizzy who will share how production work fits into their programs and how this will benefit our students Justin if you want to go first I know you have
033a game to get to I appreciate that can everybody hear me okay yep excellent I appreciate the board coach and Dr Freeman and uh for for having me today um and so uh the uh the cougar Sports network is is something that we we started bringing back in the fall and um it ties in directly with what we're doing in uh Sports entertainment marketing uh and it gives the students actually hands-on experience to developing their skills um and and kind of getting real world experience not just what's out of a textbook let's say or you know what we read online so it's going to give us the opportunity to get hands-on experience from uh researching potential sponsors to putting together sponsorship proposals to running live broadcasts uh and live streams um directing them uh from
034directing cameras to audio to um commercials and advertisements and whatnot and charting all of that but also analyzing uh views that we use on our YouTube channel so unique views total views uh putting together sales pitches for for potential sponsors letting them know kind of what their what their advert izing dollars or bringing them and again it ties directly into the curriculum uh of sports entertainment marketing one and two um with especially with their honors projects and and hopefully it will uh we we grow it to uh independent study type classes where the students are it's a student run organization and and they're doing everything from start to finish with with the cougar Sports [Music] Network um and so I guess what what questions do y'all have with regard to the Krueger Sports Network and
035um I guess and and how it ties into the curriculum and and what Clarity can I provide with that I'm curious um Justin just because you and I have worked together um on the L uh aspect um Your Capacity right now for all the sports and what that looks like and in the future for that sure so uh this year uh right now um it has been limited um with students cuz we're seeing a lot of turnover with students right now of sports um again just being a little bit of a different year um it's not as structured as I would have liked it but it's kind of been a trial and error and try to get it figured out to okay this is how we have to set this up and um and whatnot
036with our students um but with right now it has been as it's been pretty limited we've kind of been transitioning to where students are now going to play new sports that are starting and transitioning out of sports and so um and I was just finished coaching football and softball at the same time so it's been a very very challenging last couple of weeks but um we're going to dive back into it here in the coming weeks um we've got some parents right now recording soccer for us this evening because it is their senior day uh to put that out on the channel as well so um it's kind of been a conglomerate of students coaches everybody that we can get to kind of put it together to get it out right now just realizing that
037yeah we we've got to um it's been a challenging spring and I anticipate that to be different next year when we don't have every sport being played in about a three month span if that makes sense so uh it's not as much as I would like but I have quite a few students that are saying hey coach like you know our our sports are ending we need to get our events in we need to start working them so you we will start having quite a few more live productions here in the coming weeks I have a question yes ma'am are there any prerequisites for this and if so what are they and at what point would a student be able to take this class is open to freshman sophomore Junior and senior or okay all
038right yes yes it sure is so there's we have basic level entry Sports entertainment marketing we have sports entertainment marketing one honors and sports and marketing two honors um and so the the the non-level honors classes they're really kind of getting introduction to the to the to the sports network the inner operations of it whereas the honors students a lot of their portfolio work is um actually running the network and and getting the hands-on experience and so this is a CTE course that would be recognized as part of their requirement for to okay thank you thank you and is this Pro is this program would this be starting up in the fall or is this already in place and you're just wanting to get to expand it so it is in place we started it
039in the fall um we so the idea behind it is it becomes a self-sustaining organization um where it's supporting CTE and then a portion of the proceeds would then go to Athletics as well um but it will become a self-sustaining CTE organization um where where the kids are making the money and uh it's it's getting reinvested into what we're doing so we can grow our production and you know we can get new equipment and and build it that way and y'all if you don't mind me jumping in before we move on to miss Monson I want to give a lot of praise to Mr pizzy because he really took the bull by the horns in a in a rough situation in the middle of Co and we knew we were going to be in this
040situation we like you know we our our fans need access our student athletes deserve um fans even if the fans aren't in the State stadium or or in the arena to be able to see them um and he really took it and kind of built the ship as as we've gone and he's right we've been stretched really thin this year because of the calendar um and equipment like he's still adding equipment we get more things in so I really want to give a big shout out and big thanks to him um also give a kind of heads up we will be moving his program we've all talked about it into the new building as it's built because that'll be right in the middle of the Hub of of Athletics so his equipment will be close
041he'll be around the other um athletic programming so it'll kind of move out of the CTE buing but it's a really appropriate place for him so we're really excited about Ian we that is just in a big growth area right now anyway for our campus like the adults the adults are learning too like we the learning curve for us has probably been much greater than our students so but a big thank you questions well thank you we appreciate you working on that I remember the sports network from when I was in high school and it was always great that your people that couldn't make it to the games could actually still see see us playing at every game um and just let us know how we can support yes ma'am I I appre take the
042opportunity to come speak with y'all if y'all have any more questions please don't hesitate to reach out I'd be happy to talk further with anybody that has more questions um and then one one Shameless plug we have softball senior night over at Lucy Herring Elementary tonight uh senior day starts at 5:45 the game starts at 6 so if any of y'all are available I know that these young ladies have worked really really hard and they'd love to to see everybody in the support this evening so if y'all if y'all have a free evening come on out uh this evening for senior night thank you thank y'all very much so do you have more to present um Sherry or d uh Miss mson is gonna present about ground Hawks okay good afternoon um thank you for
043the opportunity to present this to you so this year is the first year that the state of North Carolina has changed the culinary arts and Hospitality curriculum um for the CTE class and it is a four-level course there's um an intro course an applications course a heavier concentrator book workk course and then an internship or an apprenticeship so the second level and since we have this I can't wait for you to come see this beautiful commercial kitchen that is on the campus in the CTE building that is going to be turned into a restaurant and it started as um brainstorming the name of the restaurant is groundhogs because they're everywhere and they eat everything and that's what we want to be so um we started before Co trying to get some things in place but
044if you've never tried to open your own restaurant it's really difficult and it takes a lot of back work on the paperwork end and the permitting end and the inspection end and all that part so that being said we are an officially permitted restaurant through the buckham County Health Department if you go to the Department of Environmental Health and look for our health inspection you'll find our restaurant but not our health inspection because we have to be open for 30 days the first day that we were open was April 20th and my goal is to have the health inspection before the end of the school year while the students are here so they can see how that works so they're starting with a very small menu um they do breakfast sandwiches they do homemade Bagels
045bacon egg and cheese biscuits um and cheese pizzas and then once they get that perfected we'll worry about very ation or adding or doing things different to the menu we've already had people ask about vegetarian options and vegan options but we need to make sure that we have things in place first that we know how to do and also we have partnered with the North Carolina community college system and we're doing a pre-apprenticeship program with them where students are paired or partnered with area Hospitality groups and they'll spend a couple days in that in a hotel or in a restaurant to get an experience a hands a real world hands-on experience um in the hospitality field to see if it's something they want to pursue and if it is then they can take culinary 2
046and three and then they can qualify for a prart scholarship at abtech and prostart is the curriculum that we use at Asheville High the state offers a choice of two different curriculum we chose the proar curriculum because it also offers a a lot of credentials with the program if you go through the whole thing and especially with Perkins 5 and CTE credentials are a big deal right now um the goal is that we be a self-sustaining full-on restaurant and eventually get to the point where we meet the minimum food drop for food deliveries so I don't have to go to Engles anymore five flour five pound bags at a time when I need 30 pounds of flower because I get some strange looks at Engles um and we want to get to the point of
047doing caterings for the district and for central office and doing dinners and and just it's a fullon take out pickup restaurant right now we have adapted with Co we've gotten some different certifications with covid for safety specifically to Food Service um and the goal is that by May 28th it will be it will have an A on the health inspection and it will also be fully inspected fully functioning and we have an account with um the bookkeeping Department that is just for groundhogs so if you have any questions I'd love to hear them and we can't wait to cook for you so this sounds really exciting to me I love not having to cook do you see possibly this program going through the summer when the kids aren't here at some point I mean would
048you be bringing kids in and letting them do some sort of apprenticeship or an internship or something like that if possible I would love to get that to where groundhogs is on that list of approved places with the um pre-apprenticeship program with the community colle system to be able to do that so I have talked about that okay so where do we get a menu and where are y'all going to start sending out flyers this is wonderful this really is a wonderful wonderful thing thank you um we started last week and may I share my screen okay I want to see if I can show you this um so it looks like this is what our order form looks like oh wow we already have eight orders for tomorrow so we're Li and um we
049do a Google form and goes through and just um sorry if it makes anybody sick and it these are the only things that we have right now are the original ground hog the everything bagel the plain bagel which are homemade um and cheese pizza so those are the only four items that we currently have and students deliver them on campus except the pizza it has to be delivered as soon as it comes out of the oven otherwise it's just cold pizza I mean yes gold is great the next day but not that day so um faculty and staff will do that and then in the morning there's there's actually three students that have volunteered to come in early and do this so they come in they'll pull up this they'll go to the spreadsheet from
050here and see what they have to do to um see what they have to get ready to to run to prep to um to make to deliver or have picked up that's wonderful that really is wonderful thanks we're starting we're trying to start very small and get those pieces perfected first before we really blow it up this is well this is awesome to see um I know that I used to be on a couple of committees that met over at the school and they used to provide us breakfast and it was amazing um one thing that I would love to uh encourage you to do if you haven't already done it uh reach out to air eille Independent Restaurant Association um they would actually I think that this could be great because you could be
051a part of air and they would be a great uh source of locations to have apprenticeships at we've already talked with a actually with the proart curriculum um as far as teams go we actually have a culinary team um at Asheville high school and the first year that they competed they finished third and every single student got at least $5,000 inar scholarship offers from different schools some of them were a lot more than that um and to it's hosted by Johnson and Wales so they also um The Culinary and hospitality is the second largest industry employment industry in north in Western North Carolina even with covid so I've already had so many members of air reach out to me asking for employees because they're trying to get staffed up for when things get back to
052normal and they want to be ahead of the curve on that so there's a fantastic opport opportunity for Ashville High to feed into abtech and for abtech to feed into the community and it is personal to me because I also graduated from the culinary program at abtech myself and worked in an industry for a very long time never thought I would be teaching but ended up teaching it and I absolutely it's just it's all come pretty much come full circle the way it is and it's really um I'm really excited about it and you I want to once again um a big thank you to Miss Monson about kind of getting this up and in that all the challenges that come with this in the middle of Co getting up and running and having a
053successful uh start to having a restaurant on campus is a big deal um and she's right I think this is one of those things we are uniquely um fit for this uh at Asheville high with abtech literally in our backyard and a really vibrant culinary experience in our town here so this creates a seamless Avenue for our kids if that's what they're passionate about they can come in and do this all the way into a career right here in our own community so if I wanted a cheese pizza tomorrow will I just come by and pick it up if you want to come by noon I can put your name down perfect just wanted to add that um Miss monson's course is so popular she has 46 68 requests for her class for next year
054when she can only take is it 20 in yeah okay well 468 we may have to teach culinary arts in the auditorium that's wow so yeah it's a great curriculum it's a great program it has a lot of potential and it has a lot of local potential and um a couple students in my Hub have said that's the only reason they're they're coming and we are here every week because of the restaurant to be able to have the restaurant so instead of every other week the students in my Hub are here every week and they love it I let them do it they're supposed to do thank you for all your work you've done with this and Dr KS um I was just telling Melissa that's a lot of folks that want to be in
055your class A lot of folks wow it's amazing thank you absolutely thank you so much for your time thank you thank you Miss Dr hi great job y thank you so much next we have Mike m not Mike Matt Matt wi size with our Chrome purchase recommendations well good afternoon everybody I don't have a groundhog to share with you but my best um is that time of year I come to you with a recommendation for purchase of student Chromebooks for next year as the purchase price exceeds $90,000 this needs formal board approval um I believe you have the memo um addressing this I will let you know that the cost of student devices has gone up considerably over the last few years um in particular here lately um as so many schools are transitioning to
056remote learning uh we're seeing about a 30% increase in the cost of student computers um and that is when they are available we're having a hard time actually receiving shipment um but I do think that getting an order in soon here will put us in good stad for next year so 900 Chromebooks for student use do you have any questions or concerns about the purchase that's 432,000 for the and do we get any do we get to trade in any of the old ones towards possibly the new ones actually for the first time this year I am in conversation with a um vendor that may give us some value for our six-year-old student Chromebooks we now have what's called a Lenovo n21 they're going on six years old and um we may see8 to 12,000
057um by selling those back depends on the um their evaluation of the quality of the items when they get them as you can imagine a six-year-old student Chromebook doesn't hold a whole lot of value though and these would just be the Chromebooks not the iPads that is correct that is correct we still use iPads in kindergarten and first grade in some of our schools and um I anticipate we will need a small number of those next year as hopefully we will not be required to send all our kindergarten and first grade students home next year with remote learning thank you yes sir that was it four thou is it that 400,000 because of the warranties and the repair and all is that why why it's that expensive yes ma'am we get a four-year comprehensive warranty
058that includes accidental damage and actually uh replacement of up to 1% for loss um so that um that makes this contract extremely desirable our school staff can literally drop a Chromebook in a box send it to the company and three to four weeks later it'll come back fixed at no cost to us okay any other questions for Matt thank you very much very much thank you next we have attorney Cynthia lopezz I'm sorry with resolutions regarding Bill 358 and Senate bills 514 and 515 yes ma'am um so I'm sharing my screen and this is a resolution that the board members uh have um as you know across the country there have been a Spate of bills um introduced uh that would impact transgender students and so this bill is in opposition to those uh bills
059in North Carolina so just real briefly you have uh House Bill 358 uh that is entitled The save women's sports act and it would Bor transgender students from playing on um a sports team that is consistent with their gender identity you have House Bill 358 uh with that's also 358 which I just mentioned is inconsistent with the North Carolina High School Athletic Association rules and we're going to talk about that or Dr cassa is a little bit later in the meeting where he talks about the um School Board Association policy you have Senate Bill 514 the youth Health protection act and it would prohibit gender affirming medical treatment for transgender persons under the age of 21 and finally you have Senate Bill 515 the healthc care Heroes conscious protection act and it would allow medical
060providers to refuse to Prov certain Medical Services based on conscience uh including information referrals for health care services for um a number of different kinds of reasons uh based on faith or conscience um and so the reads that the Asheville City Board of Education affirms that every person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect and the board asserts that these issues ises are already being adequately addressed by laws uh and so this legislative action is unnecessary and that the Board of Education opposes all three bills um if you and it's on your consent agenda if you approve this then you just need to direct the administration uh where you would like this to be sent do you want it to sent to your legislative de delegation do you want it to be sent to
061the Schoolboard Association or broader uh that's really the only um decision that you need to make if you approve the resolution as is are there any questions about that I think that there's not about that but there is a question with our policies and procedures um policy 3620 um and it is proposed by the state this is not these bills but it's proposed by the state and basically what it says that is that students may only participate on the team that's consistent with the gender identified on their birth certificate um pton you need to jump in and help me here pton and I talked about this a little bit earlier um this resolution is really important so can we kind of take care of two birds with one stone I know that typically when it
062comes something from the North Carolina you know comes comes from our School Board Association we don't mess with it but if we don't address this I think we are hurting our resolution do you understand what I'm saying yes Miss gner actually uh that's a little later on in the agenda okay Dr cassa is going to talk about this and Dr cassa has replaced has suggested some replacement wording Association that's still consistent with the law but States affirmatively what the School Board Association is now doing and allowing transgender students to apply to play on the team that is consistent with their gender identity okay all right sorry for jumping ahead no no that's good I mean because you're right the issues are very related yes oh I have a question that's been asked to me and
063and I can't answer the question how do we ensure that we're not creating inequities for women by allowing transgender women to participate in women's sports I didn't answer the question because I don't have the answer but I think we need to be able to address it as it's going to come up and I want to make sure that we as a board are saying the same thing in terms of our belief as to why this resolution is important well Madam chair and someone else on the call Dr casser or someone may be able to answer that better than I can but what I can tell you is that the High School Athletic Association has a really extensive policy for folks to apply to um to participate in a sport that is cons consistent with their
064gender identity it is not a really simple process and so I think the purpose behind that was to make sure that it was fair to everyone and um so that protection is in place so that that is one thing that that I know that I can respond to with regard to that stand up I'm sorry Jackie has has his hand up and then you can go after Payton I think yeah I think the biggest thing is it's going to be rather than this issue being addressed by the general assembly it needs to be addressed by each of the sports governing bodies um to make a I don't know an entire dayong conversation really short I think the the real issue in terms of performance gains as it um relates to trans women is that most
065athletic bodies have come out and said as long as they there is uh in the involvement of a testosterone inhibitor um then the scientific evidence shows that there's not in an equity um and I believe that aligns with the ncaa's um policy for trans women involvement so yes I just want to add and I'll Echo uh what what pton is saying and what Miss Lopez said uh our uh High School Athletic Association in that process which is a very detailed process and uh and I will I will link I will send to you that link of where that's located at uh through the to the board so you'll be able to see where that's at yes uh there is both a medical and a psychological piece to to the high school athletic association's uh evaluation
066that is put in so uh that that is to ensure the equity that's that's the that's the design of those two pieces the psychological and the medical side okay zie and I was just going to Echo that the NCAA and the US Olympic Committee um and the world committee have have also spoken to that as well um as it not impacting um equity in how it has been addressed on both of those levels I would just like to say uh thank you uh to Payton for bringing these three um bills to our attention um there really is a domino effect you can see across the us right now where this is in many states uh where Governors are approving uh uh this type of treatment for children in terms of not allowing them to be
067uh who they are authentically and um I understand how we want to make things fair for everybody but it's also about how these children feel about themselves and how we promote the inclusion of them to be who they want to be and in our educational system um I remember I'm 60 years old how people were treated very very differently when I was a young kid and uh we just can't have that going on anymore and we are a place in Asheville City schools that uh is accepting of everyone to be who you wish to be and that's good enough for us so I appreciate bringing this forward I also appreciate the board for being so caring to engage with this so thank you all I'd like to to thank both staff and the board for
068engaging this issue so quickly I think um I'm I'm really impressed with the turnaround here and I think it's a a really timely issue um I do think um the question was posed about where do we send this um and I do think I would propose that we look to sending it to our legislative delegation um city council County Commission um and and the School Board Association um if other board members are in agreement with that and and while we focused on Athletics I did want to highlight um what Senate Bill 414 could do to children um within the school district meaning that those children who are growing up in households that um are not accepting of their gender identity or sexual orientation um that's going to be reported to those parents from the teacher
069and I think um that's setting students up um for a lot of potential negative consequences so this is a very dangerous bill in my opinion and again I I thank everybody for their consideration of the resolution any other questions or comments cythia or anybody okay so is this something that we have to vote on in terms of the resolution itself or what do we have to do moving forward for that um it is on the consent agenda I believe okay yes yes it is yeah I see it now okay thank you yeah did we have to vote specifically on where to direct it or is that just okay okay next do we have to do that Shanta do we have to vote on directly where we're sending it I mean where does the resolution go
070pton I think made some I think Payton named all the places he said the city council um County government bnam County North Carolina School Board Association did I miss one want to send it to our legislators who will be voting on these bills I would also uh I don't think I'd necessarily and this is my suggestion vote on where for us to send it we'll inform you of all those places but we can also send this out to other districts that may F the way we do and want to take this up so if the board would allow us some freedom in exploring other places we'll let you know uh where those other places are but I I think in my opinion that the more places we send this to the more statement we make
071if that's okay with you guys I'm also wondering if we should get this somehow on woss or in the newspaper saying that our board has adopted this resolution and this is the way we feel um is that something we would want to do or is that too much I I don't think there's too much that you can say I mean I don't either yeah I don't I don't think there's too much you can inform people about this okay so maybe that's something Ashley Michelle could look into for us do we have a copy of the resolution yes I think Kim sent that separately to you yeah we do okay I'll finish I'll look I can look it over anything else regarding um the resolution and House Bill 358 3 uh 514 or okay next we
072have Laura parks with our amended 2021 traditional calendar good afternoon everyone can you guys hear me okay yeah awesome um so I think everyone has a copy of the updated calendar but this is a consent item on the agenda um to move the optional workday and virtual day that was previously on May 5th to the Friday May 7th so that we can Preserve an additional in-person learning day um we originally had chosen May 5th because that has been a day that our teachers have joined a Statewide protest over the last couple of years but because it's a Wednesday um and that's an inperson school day right now we'd like to request that we move it to the Friday to make that an optional workday with it being a no student day so students would not
073complete asynchronous work that Friday and everyone would have a Friday break um and then the following if you'll notice the following Friday the 14th is already a a synchronous learning day for us we do have to designate five virtual learning days on our calendar and so we're just designating that as one of those five virtual learning days and the only other change is that it adjust is our school days from 180 days to 179 student days and our student hour from 175 student hours to 1,69 we have not used any of our banks student hours this year for for inclement weather as we normally do so I asked this before I'm asking it again with our virtual days is it at all possible if we need them for a school snow day is it possible
074for us to change these days so this year if we were to have a snow day between now and the end of the school day we could u based on special legislation for this school year yes we could designate a virtual day moving forward next school year that does not count towards our total instructional hours it would not it would not okay from May of last year gotcha do we anticipate a significant amount of push back or absences from um our classroom instruction um on the historically been a day where significant number of our teachers do participate in um events and Raleigh so there is not a Statewide event this year that we know of um which is another reason why we are proposing the shift so we had anticipated that but with everything going
075on this year we do not anticipate a high number of Staff absences and we're still good with our hours and instructional days correct correct so we are required this year to have 1,25 instructional hours plus the additional 5 days of virtual learning days and so we are still over that threshold um with the 1065 student hours that we have and for all intensive purposes the Friday the 14th will be what it typically is for students and for teachers we're just calling it one of those designated virtual days okay any other questions all right thank you all thank you thank you next we have the summer schedule for ACS staff Dr Freeman yes um what we're recommending is what we did last year and I think what you've done previously is that the staff Works uh
076that work in the summer for 10hour days and have Fridays off and that's that's it okay uh supervisors will make sure that staff is doing what they're supposed to do and uh that's it any questions about that thank you all right next we have uh Melissa ahead with student releases to BU County good afternoon hello um since during the months of March and April um we have 10 students who've asked to be released all going to BU County School District six of those are continued placements meaning they are already attending buckham County Schools two of those are child care proximities one is a sibling placement and one is building a home in the bunam county school district also wanted to take a moment to give you a overall enrollment update we have placed 448 new
077students wow for the 2122 school year we have not yet begun to look at ad of District students that's not true we've started looking at ad of District students we have not yet made decisions about added District students other than our staff students we have pl we have placed our staff students who are added District um there are 185 current added District applications and we will be going through um grade byg grade and school by school to assess where there's space and capacity starting with the added District students who have siblings already in the district um I can tell you that kindergarten has 70 plus out of District applications um and then the high school has a significant number of outed District applications the upper grades at elementary have a few and Middle School um
078I don't believe has any I also have have a demographic breakdown of by race of every school with these students placed for next year um that I can send to the board members if you're interested school by school that breaks down the percentages of white black multi-racial Hispanic um we've had an increase over the past few years of um Pacific island students specifically micronesian families and um we also have a quantifiable number of Asian students that um they now those two categories of students in previous years were not high enough to be included on these breakdowns but they are now so we continue to become more diverse and um due to time I'm not going to go through every school breakdown but if you would like that I would be happy to send it to
079you any questions about enrollment no if you could just send that to all board members please um Melissa y does anyone have any questions about enrollment I'm sorry okay we would like just to uh Madam chair just a heads up um I did talk with Cynthia Lopez and Chris Campbell earlier today about doing a information session for the board on the process of enrollment and what that looks like how that works in the district so you have some background information around open enrollment versus after open enrollment etc etc so um we'll be getting that set up so we can um educate the board members on the enrollment process overall thank you all right next we have abtech Board of Trustees draft notice and application for vacant seats attorney yes ma'am so uh you have been
080provided a copy of a notice um that the administration would like to post that would just advertise the fact that Asheville City Schools will be uh considering folks for the abtech unexpired term uh that expires next year um on June 30 2022 and um then an application and if you approve these documents uh the administration can go ahead and post these you don't need to take action on this because it'll come back to you once you have applicants and then you will decide your process and make your appointment this is uh the unexpired term of Jacqueline halum uh she resigned from the uh Board of Trustees and her term does not expire until next year 2022 and then as you're probably aware that seat then because of legislation last summer uh becomes a an appointment
081by bunkham County Schools so that's why there's only one year left on this term you don't have to appoint anyone but certainly this is you know an opportunity for Asheville City Schools to to have an appointment for the next year on the uh abtech Board of Trustees so just a bring the new board members up to speed in the past what's happened is they've just brought us a name or two like last minute and it was very frustrating last the last time we had to go through this um buckham County does an application process and we didn't know anything about how we were getting the names so we asked for an application to be created um so that we can at least get the information out to the public um that there is a vacant
082seat and then we have the opportunity to review the people who actually the applicants ourselves and determine who we want to choose for those seats and instead of kind of being directed um to who to to the person that wants to be um in the seat or only you know one person knows about it so of course that would be the person that goes in the seat we're not we we weren't being very transparent as a whole when when the seat was becoming available and it was very frustrating so um we appreciate you for creating that application for us um Miss Lope has any other questions for Cynthia regarding the Board of Trustees so I I I take it that you're all okay if the administration goes uh forward with this and post it uh
083and brings it back to you at the probably at your June meeting or later in May C I had a question so s so this is Jackie was Helen was someone that we appointed yes but it was the buckham county choice that we appointed or she was our appointment she was your appointment right uh but because of the change in or clarification of the legislation between Madison bunam and Asheville City last summer by the legislature this seat now will be appointed by buckham County beginning in 2022 and then we still have two appointments that we make I believe that's correct okay yeah and that should be attached um in your material uh I don't have that in front of me but I think that's right it was just the uh the information about the application
084and the ex explanation of the appointment yes oh okay yeah I could I can send that to you the clarification of that I think we've seen it before but it doesn't hurt to get it again so thank you so Cynthia I think for this is just personal preference for me I would like to not just see my name and Martha's name on there I'd like to see all the board members names listed on the application okay on the application itself we can fix that if you're if the other board members are okay with that that's perfectly fine okay we'll change that and we'll get it to the uh to uh Dr Freeman and his staff so they can get this posted okay thank you do I do wna pose the question um I notic hey
085can you talk a little louder please I'm old I can hardly hear you sorry I moved into my relaxed position okay um I I noticed that we don't have any demographic information on the form and I kind of have mixed feelings about that um but do other board members feel that that would help us better assess applicants from uh equity and inclusion lens or um is that something we want to follow up with after we review application information I think we can add it and it can be an optional if they want to tell us they can and if they don't they don't have to what do you all think you can un is that legal as long as it is optional okay I like the idea of it being optional so no one feels
086required to do so okay and if we could just make sure to to mirror um I think the city council just released um their updated application that has all of the um gender mark on it so if we can make sure it's reflective of that I can do that anything else okay thank you Miss Lopez well I think I'm next oh you are board memb training overview I will spend uh two minutes on this this um and share my screen here um sorry just a minute won't let me get to my slideshow there we go so this is a whole big uh two slid um but I understand that this is was a requested uh update following your the board training that that Chris Campbell provided um regarding uh board member responsibilities and I won't
087read through these all exactly just a reminder to the board uh that you make decisions as a full board rather than individually or in groups by phone email Etc that um whenever you as a board member have a concern or would like something to be added to the agenda that the appropriate process is to contact the chairperson and or the superintendent um attendance at board meetings and scheduling of board meeting or when they are scheduled is very important for the board to run uh legally and appropriately and uh although electronic meeting are are are kind of a commonplace thing now during this state of emergency because of covid-19 generally your board policy says and is expected that uh board members attend board meetings in person uh and then finally any complaints that you as board
088members receive about uh Personnel or about students it's important that you don't try to handle those that you don't try to engage folks in conversation about those but rather you refer those to the superintendent or to the administration and so just a couple of reminders Cynthia could you send that to us that's a really good little checklist for all of us to have absolutely I can um I just lost my screen but I uh will email that to you you can download it out of the agenda Martha it it's clickable in the agenda I know but I would like to have her just send it to me so I've got it on a separate email we will do and if James does need it I do so if you would send it to me that
089would be helpful we will send it to you well I already made six copies of it so well that's good but I haven't so would you send it to me Cynthia I'd appreciate it is there any other questions for Cynthia regarding the board member training overview okay next we have policy 3620 second read Dr Shane cassid so uh I guess it was in the March board meeting that we brought policy 3620 which is in regards to extracurricular activities and student organizations that's a multifaceted policy that has a wide array of both athletic non-athletic uh curricular non-curricular uh activities that are tied to it and in addition to just all our basic clubs so uh at that time there were some questions in regards on second read uh as to what parts of the policy were
090required what were not required what was legally needed uh what matched up to the North Carolina School Board Association policy uh the policy that we had was policy that we had was very difficult to uh because it had so many changes and so many red lines and and and so forth so uh to that effect you asked for a more simplified uh form to be able to look at on that policy and so miss Lopez has done a wonderful job of providing that I think it's linked in your packet is that correct Miss Lopez yes okay it is okay so what we'll do is is that overall the policy as you know we are trying to keep as close to North Carolina Schoolboard Association policy as we can uh and not Veer too far off
091uh just for a variety of reasons most of those are legal reasons and so what Miss Lopez has done is she has broken down that policy and what parts are legally required and I'll get back to that in just a second but on the back side are the optional provisions and those optional Provisions in are in regards to our sixth grade par participation in athletics uh homeschool students in our district and how they are allowed to participate and then the creation of what's called an open Forum or a limited open Forum in how we conduct our club and our organizations those are optional pieces that all North Carolina Schoolboard Association policies or they were they suggest we keep but those are our options to choose how we put those in there the requirements and the
092piece that I think we were discussing ear earlier with Miss gner or in regards to our gender identity uh the policy as it comes to North Car Schoolboard Association and you see the current language that they suggested was where it says a student participating in high school inter Scholastic Athletics May participate only on the team consistent with the gender of the student so what we are suggesting and this was a great uh work from from our legal team was to word that in a positive way so that it would suggest and we have that suggested replacement wording North Carina High School Athletic Association now provides that students May participate on the athletic team matching their gender identity if a formal request is submitted with supporting documentation and approved by their committee I sent that link
093to you about 20 minutes ago it should be an email want to see what that process and that policy looks like uh but this would give us a way to word our policy not necessarily in a negative or for boing way but would let us word it in a positive way that lets families and students know this is the process and there is a pathway that is allowed and go and can go forward so do I have any questions or comments about about that piece of and um I will just add that um you have this also this policy on the consent agenda because this is the second time this is the second reading and because the suggested change is not a substantive change it says the same thing it just says it in a
094positive way rather than a negative way you could go ahead and approve this tonight and ask the administration to include that wording or you could wait and do it at your next meeting you have that option if you wanted to think about it do any board they need to think about it I guess we can figure it out now leave it on the consent agenda everybody okay with that thumbs okay all right thank you thank you Shane for getting that information to us so quickly and making that that wording change that that helps a lot absolutely thank you and thank you to Cynthia for for helping us with that and then I think I guess I'm next up this is for information only this would be the 9,000 series uh this will be our first
095read going through the 9000 series The 9000 series is a combination of construction management and financial Contracting and bidding processes that go into our facilities uh bu maintenance so I I can go through sort of quickly on sort of the highlights of those again this is for first read and it's information only there's nothing you need to do on act on those but you're welcome to ask questions about any of these uh for instance the 9000 talks about our need for a long range plan in our facilities and that's been something that you've you've heard a lot about and maybe seen some recently so I can discuss that if you need to uh the major changes that occur in the policy really are involving uh I think uh probably 9125 uh had some quite a
096bit of wording change 9125 uh it used to say participation by women in minority businesses they've redefined minority businesses now all female owned businesses are now called minority owned businesses but they defined that a little better plus they have a little more information about how we should make sure we're reaching out to the office of historically underutilized businesses in our Contracting that we make sure that we provide information about a particular bid proposal that's going out that we are making sure to include those companies in our pre- meeting uh that gives information about a particular bid uh the rest of it was pretty standard 9300 does talk about the naming of facilities that's become one that's been very pertinent for us this year as we renamed uh Vance to Lucy s Herring but that uh
097involvement of student parents and we did that process this year uh basically following that policy are there any other questions or Miss Lopez do you have anything you want to highlight well could I follow up uh with policy 3620 Dr Jean if you will if you can if Dr derson if you'll help Dr Jans just so we can hear him I'm so sorry to interrupt y'all no problem um did sha did you say to just put this on with the consent agenda this 3620 the first one we went over yes it's already listed as a consent item yeah I I'm just I'm not a board member but I still have a major problem with accepting this where it it specifically says that a um gender specific in terms of participating in High School athletics without
098us contacting the um Athletic Association when we have a resolution that says basically we don't believe this this is not this is not what we accept as what transgender kids need to do are we really going to approve this when we're saying one thing and then approving a policy that that goes against that resolution and that's why I sent it okay that's why I brought it up earlier um and that's why I also ask if we could pull it if we could pull it one more time I know it's the second read but I'm wondering if we maybe need just a little more time to look at that if that's possible or I mean I don't know is is that something that we want to do I'm kind of with you it be possible to
099get a a un redlined just a completely clean what we want it to actually look like uh version no no red lines no you know everything the way it would look if we were actually looking at it in a policy because frankly there's still a lot of red and it gets a little makes the eyes go a little crazy and I'm old so so Mr Carter except for the suggested change I attached a clean copy I had we had Christy coats uh and so if you look in your uh the Google drive it should be attached to PDF with a that is a clean copy thank you you're welcome um I mean I would be okay with this as the superintendent if we struck out that part it's a it's a it's for lines um
100is that something we want to handle on an individual basis and I understand the importance of policy but we're we're you're approving a policy that to me goes against everything that we're saying I I'm just bringing that up I I guess Dr Freeman I'm I'm a little bit conflicted about it because I do feel like the policy is is gatekeeping on on on the part of the athletic association however um I think it's looking at aligning with national um athletic body standards um unless I'm reading it wrong but that's kind of how I look at um so that's that's correct and so the idea is that this is actually North Carolina High School Athletic Association p policy that we we have to comply by if we are going to be participating in north Cara High
101School athletics so so they set the policy we have to follow now uh we could sort of state that just very you know to the side and just say we will comply by North col High School Athletic Association policy and not mention it here specifically uh but that would be a choice again the board would have to make in that in that sense so I didn't I'm sorry I'm bringing it up I just think we're you know anyway why don't we sue them a you involved in it I mean if we really believe what we say we believe or we GNA just sit here and accept this I'm not trying to make the board meeting going longer but you know do we just leave it out and then on an individual basis I I worry
102about having so many rules that point directly to transgender kids and point them out right so is this something we leave out and take it on an individual basis when you say take it on an individual basis you mean as that comes about we kind wor I worry about having signs or Road when we have transgender students they have a they have enough issues to face than a policy that makes them stick out uh Beyond it that's just my thinking but you guys can tell me to be quiet we'll move on I I don't disagree with you Dr Freeman I think the part I mean um I think the part that gives me the most pause is the requirement for therapeutic or psychological evaluation because I I I think that more than anything but um
103I I do Wonder um what kind of issues this will create with competitions with other schools or members of those athletic associations if this is not in there and I think that's going to be um not not disagreeing with handling on a case-by casee basis but it could have the unintended consequence of throwing that student into the spotlight if we try to compete against another team and have a transgender student that has not been put through that gatekeeping or screening process yeah I I agree with you on that anyway we can keep it the way it was if that's what you want to do um I just think at some point somebody's going to have to make a stand on this kind of stuff and and really shake it up to bring some attention not
104to children that this affects but to the laws that are affecting the children but anyway that was my two cents and now I'm being quiet I was the behind needing a psychological ex I mean I I don't understand what so they have to do an a psychological assessment prior to being able to play on the sports team yeah basic to make sure they're not sandbagging and playing in um women's sports as a man like that that is the reason for it it's it's really ridiculous it is Dr Freeman is correct it is very offensive to transgender are transgender people to think that there that is a large population of people that go around trying to in opposite gender Sports to be more successful but um I think the unfortunate part is it's a political reality
105in sports and I worry more like I kind of understand and eat that reality but yeah um if we didn't do it a student that went through that and try to I just see that being a media circus so if we don't if okay once again if we pulled it if we don't vote on it today if we took a little time and really process this do we have to adopt or change on second read or can we hold it off for until until the next time our next meeting so we have a little more time clearly you can wait um on this um I would say you're coming to the end of the school year and this is something that would be appropriate to have in place for you know putting to vote on
106this summer so that you have in place for the upcoming school year um I do want to state that it is the policy of the High School Athletic Association and like Dr cassid has said if you're going to participate you still are bound by their rules um so I'm not sure if what's being suggested is that you just don't address it at all or and still abide by the rules or if you're somehow discussing not being part of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association and challenging that so um but to figure out which how you feel about it and which way you want to go I mean it does not have to be voted on tonight Dr cassida do you see a problem with it with the board waiting no we we have a
107policy 3620 in place it does not specify this already it's there it has the other components that are already needed the other legal components so so that's in place and that we are still a member of the High School Athletic Association so we're still Bound by that for the moment anyway so yeah there's not a not a rush tonight to have to do that so I I think that is hard and I do think we should wait because I wouldn't want the student to be penalized in any way or caught off guard because we don't have it in our policy if the North Carolina High School Association is saying this is what we have to do I would hate for it's you know somebody to realize that they didn't go through the proper steps just
108because we omitted it but I guess we can think about that and maybe see what some other school districts are doing in terms of that and come back to [Music] it I don't think we'll run out of conversation about this issue nationally within the next month so we're going to be dealing okay so I'm put on so we're gonna pull it and and bring it back at our at a later meeting okay so M us and contracts did you already go over that Shane uh we have sorry we have oneou to we have no contracts oneou is from West Ed in regards to professional development uh with and uh Laura Parks is available if you have questions about that particular con uhou actually a reading apprenticeship program for our ninth and 10th grade teachers in
109science social studies and English and sorry I misre I was looking at the wrong line my bad it does include some scpd but the focus is on reading okay is it just for high school or for the district as a whole this um students I see never mind I'm sorry program is nth and 10th grade um and so it's will be one of many districts participating there's no cost to the district and it's a multi-year um professional development opportunity just out of curiosity Laura are there um this is something we're already doing or this will be going forward number one and then number two um is is this a good would this be a good tool in order not well a good tool to measure how well our teachers are doing with those high school
110students yes so it is um it's it's part of a larger study so the reading apprenticeship is the professional development side of things and then westad is working with um a research institute called SRI that's doing some data analysis as part of it the first step for us is to sign theou and then from there we'll be placed in either cohort one or Co cohort 2 if we in cohort one our teachers will start professional development this summer if we're in cohort 2 they'll actually start professional development in two years um so that's where the multi-year piece comes in and that's a random assignment so we will find that out um hopefully the first week in May is their target um date to tell us which cohort we're in and so there will be dat
111collection and Analysis that they will do within that to determine the effectiveness if we don't start the professional development obviously it'll be a couple years down the road when we'll be doing some deeper data analysis for us but we'll also be using star um which is our benchmarking system we've expanded that to nth and 10th grade in math and English next year to help us get some more comprehensive reading data um assessment data for our students in high school as well as perfect thank so I see where it says high school students in Rural and low wealth North Carolina districts how do we even qualify for that so we actually don't qualify under that designation that is what the research is centered around those districts but it's a certain percent of districts participating that have
112to fit that criteria so we are one of the other districts that they've selected okay when we're looking at the data we'll receive will it be relatively specific or will it be mostly aggregate data so the data we will get back from them we'll get kind of generalized study data we won't get a lot of specific data back from the research program itself when we look at our internal District data we will be looking at it much more specifically on the teacher and student level um if we are chosen in cohort 2 we'll actually be doing the data collection with the research institute over the next two years and will become more of the control group for their study and then then we would be doing you know our Deep dive with the data the
113following years the professional development is not a program it's more strategies that can be used crossly in ela science and social studies and it'll be for both Ash high and silsa I forgot to add that so both of our high schools any other questions for Miss parks thank you so much yes do you have anything else for us Jean in terms of the work session uh no I do not okay so I think we'll take what five minutes and then start the regular session Madam chair before we move forward I guess as a new be I'm not sure where this Falls but I I'm throwing it out here now because I just don't know is it possible and if it is I don't know where it would fall for us as a board um to
114perhaps revisit the Asheville primary um conversations given that um information has changed on and off throughout the process we're now exiting some of the more restrictive um protocols for masks um that would allow for maybe more um constituent voices to be heard um and for us to look at that more broadly now since it all did her in the confines of pretty restrictive um dialogue we would have to add that to our next work session agenda um I don't I get I'm Cynthia I don't I'm assuming since it wasn't on the agenda I don't want people to say we weren't being transparent um is that what we would have to do yes that if a majority of the board wants that on the agenda then you would place that on the next agenda yes okay
115so I just need a consensus now so they'll know whether to add it to the next agenda or not um thumbs up Payton James yes yes okay so if you would please Cynthia or Jean have that added to our next wor SE please thank you um Ashley is this the link that we'll be using for our regular board meeting all I had to unmute myself yes this will be the same link that you use for your regular board meeting um if y'all are going to take a f minute break what we can do is if y'all will just mute yourself and I'll share my screen um and we just have a Graphic that says that we're currently on a break um and then we will come back at 5:31 is five minutes from now and
116we can reconvene as as y'all deem necessary and fit okay we'll do that all right may I have a motion to come out of the work session do I take get them look we've been sitting too long okay here we have I will see you in five minutes so at 5:32 if you would please come back thank you [Music] for I can't Jean in there I don't see him he is yes ma'am he just waved okay also board members just so y'all are aware as we're getting started I'm gonna go ahead and be allowing our folks that are participating in public comment to join in just because this agenda is so quick and I want to make sure that those that have sign up for public comment are in our chat and ready to um
117to join us when it's their turn I just wanted to give you all a heads up if you seeing people pop in um those are our lovely folks who have signed up for public comment and will you be calling them out individually to speak Ashley uh yes s if that is what the is that if that's what she would like when we get to that part of the agenda um if you will just uh let me know what we C we have their how they signed up in their order and so when we get to that I'm happy to let to call out their name and see if they're here and would like to speak if you would please because I don't have that l so I do yes s we can do that all
118right thank you just let us know when you're ready to start I am ready whenever y'all are ready and Dr Gina is ready ready we all ready all right I hearby call this ashel City Board of Education meeting to order all five board members are present so we have a quum I have a motion to approve our please so moved may I have a second second all in favor Martha hi Payton hi James ready and Jackie hi okay thank you so first on our agenda today we have our board officers votes so every two years when the board turns over we vote for new office officers of the board um Martha and I I guess in our seats for about four years now and I don't think we we just wanted the other board members
119to know that we definitely will not feel bad um if you decide that new leadership is is needed in the position um for me personally I think it's better to have leadership when you have veterans kind to help um support them and help guide them through the process um my biggest thing is I just want to make sure that we're supporting in a way that we have before and that our goal is always to um address the inequities in the district and um attempt to dismantle the racism and other inequities that exist and I know we have a long way to go in Asheville a very long way regardless of how woke we want to think we are but we do have a lot of work to do so whatever that leadership looks like if
120I can do anything to make things better for the kids in the district I definitely don't have a problem because I'm going to always work no matter where I'm sitting or what seat I'm in or whether I'm on the board or not on the board so um I think thus far what I've seen in leadership I think Payton has really stood out with his knowledge of the board um and just his awareness of policies and how things work and operate so I would like to nominate pton as one of the as a the board chair I guess um would you like for me to just run through the process sure okay so um I'll open up the floor for nominations for the offices of chair and vice chair and the way that we'll do it
121is the board will vote on the nomin ations in the order received until a candidate receives a majority of the votes and so we'll start with chair and then proceed to Vice chair so first the floor is open for nominations for the position of chair so um I would like to nominate Payton ' Conor well I I still vote for pton okay you can vote for yourself too pton if just so you know are there any other nominations much as I'm honored by the nomination I I would like to uh to nominate um James Carter I'm a little bit scared about my rookie ISM on the board at this point okay any other nominations okay so hearing no other nominations I'll close the floor and we'll proceed to vote so first U like I said
122we'll take them in the order in which they were nominated all of those in favor of pton no Conor is chair please State your vote and because we're doing it Voice vote um state your name and your vote you want to start Miss gner um Martha gner pton no Conor um Payton you're muted sorry the sun's in my eyes and I couldn't find my unmute okay I vote for James Carter okay so you vote against pton o Conor um Jackie M Miss Mard I vote for James Carter okay we haven't gotten to him yet so you vote against okay no it's okay I vote against pton okay um Miss Sanford and I vote for Payton still okay and Mr Carter you're muted sorry I'll I'll I'll vote against pton just because of his glasses um
123okay all right because Payton did not receive a majority of the votes we're going to now move to the next nominee who is James Carter so we'll go in the same order Miss gner um well I would actually like for pton to be on this board so I am going to nominate pton o Conor for vice chair okay well first I want you to vote on the issue of James Carter for chair oh I already did I was the first one okay so you vote nay for James Carter for CH yes okay excuse me guys I'm just trying to make sure I keep it straight uh mix o' Conor yes I vote for James Carter hopefully I'm miss m mcard the vote for James Carter Miss Sanford and I vote nay for okay and then
124Mr Carter I like me okay so yes okay all right so that is three votes for James Carter um so Mr Carter is hereby elected chair chairman of the board of education for Asheville City Schools congratulations Mr Carter thank you now we're GNA move to the election of Vice chair and so the floor is open for nominations for the position of Vice chair and so do I hear any nominations I'd like to nominate Jackie mcar and okay are there any other nominations I nominate pton no Conor also okay um we don't have to have a second for that so we're just going to go in the order then up the nominations so first for Jackie mcar I I know how you're gonna vote Miss gner but I need to go through the process so forgive
125me so miss gner for Jackie Mard you vote no okay uh mix o Conor for Jackie mcard your vote is yes okay uh Miss Mard for Jackie Mard yes Miss Sanford for Jackie Mard no no because I nominated pton I'm sorry and Mr Carter uh yes okay so miss mccard has um received three votes and that is a majority vote and so miss mcar is now elected your Vice chair so congratulations Miss so the election of officers is concluded and so now we're turn the floor to the new board chair Mr Carter oh wonderful let me pull up my agenda an Abrupt transition of power I know that was quick so we are going to go through the uh we have the Home Trust Bank presentation with the principal and teacher of the year with
126uh Dr Kimberly dekant Mr Carter that has been postponed to a future meeting um just that that would came at a little bit later I just wanted to let you do that oh okay sorry about that so next we have uh our consent items from the uh work session our previous meeting um we have work session minutes for March 1st 2021 our close session minutes March 1st 2021 and our regular meeting minutes from March 1st 2021 uh then our special called work session and and close session minutes from 2020 uh March 22nd our programs that we had uh presentations on today our CTE production work uh generation generate Revenue generating programs for groundhogs and the huggar sports network um our summer schedule for ACS staff our student releases to bunam County we are removing uh
127policy 360 uh 3620 second read and that will be put on to our next agenda uh at a at a later date uh then we also have our resolutions for House Bill 358 and Senate bills 514 and 515 and then our Chromebook purchase recommendation uh from Matt Whitesides uh do I have a motion to accept our consent items is there a second second all right um I'll go with uh Martha uh yes Payton yeah Jackie yes and Shonda yes and I'm an i for that also we have our action items our Personnel report number nine as well as our Ashville bunam abtech Board of Trustees draft notice and application for vacant seats uh do I have a motion to approve our action items s and do I have a second second all right and I
128will go with Shonda yes Martha yes Payton yes Jackie yes and I am an i as well all right and now we have Dr Jean uh with the superintendent report all staff meeting can't hear can can you speak up Jean sorry last week we had our all staff meeting where staff was able to put questions forward and myself along with central office folks answer those questions that was our second all staff meeting planning another one in about two weeks um there's only five more weeks of school left so we've got a lot to do uh in those five weeks we are uh planning summer school programs and uh we're continuing to work on those we're also doing the eer application uh for uh the co funding which should be around $10 million but it can't
129be used to supplant uh it has to be specific um remediation a great word to use but for those kinds of uh student involvement um with that we're working on placement of the prek classrooms based on the board's vote in December um we need to we've also done work on bills 358 and Senate bills 514 and 515 which we discussed earlier and we need to start working on our strategic plan which uh is was really over in 2020 but due to covid we put it all for a year so we're planning on when to start working on that we had a board uh we had scheduled a board training that we'll reschedule but due to some covid issues we had to cancel that this morning that's it thank you and congratulations to James and Jackie
130thank you very much Dr Jean um I do not have the public comment read uh statement Shonda do you still have that with you yes the link but you could yeah I got you so public comment in accordance with board policy 2310 please note that we provide time for public comment as a reminder the Board of Education greatly appreciates your interest in the ash City schools and we welcome your comments to the board please be mindful of the following guidelines unless otherwise approved by the board time for public comment shall not exceed 30 minutes members of the public may speak for three minutes time remaining is indicated well we don't have lights so Ashley Michelle will let you know ma'am I'll be holding up my cell phone and it has a countd on clock that
131way okay multiple speakers um 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 minutes to address the board if your group chooses this option please identify everyone in the group when you sign up to speak if an unusually large number of people wish to speak to the board may decide to a reduce the time allotted to each speaker or Andor B require the designation of a group spokesperson please be respectful A disruption by any person or persons of the public meeting is unlawful and can result in removal from the meeting public comment allows you to provide the Board of Education with your thoughts Andor relevant information
132concerning Ashville City Schools therefore board members will not normally respond to individuals who address the board except to request clarification in order to make a public comment individuals must be present and make well this time you'll be able to do it virtually um incorrect or misleading information presented by a speaker may be responded to at the direction of the chairperson please understand that the confidential student and Personnel matters will 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 our system of public education depends on your involvement so please feel free to share with us during this time of public comment thank you and Ashley Michelle will
133call the People by name thank you Shandra Mr Carter are you okay with me still calling the People by name oh yeah sure just wanted to make I'm gonna mute you Mr Carter there we go perfect thank you um all right so first up we have Mr Pepe Sabo and he is representing mford Northstar Academy's PTO so he will have five minutes and when you are ready good afternoon uh members of the board and congratulations to James Carter and uh Jackie mcar for your election to office uh as officers of this board I really am grateful for your service um um I am uh speaking to you as both a parent and a Community member and also as president of the mford NorthStar Academy parent teacher organization uh I've been made aware that uh contrary
134to some Communications with the public and local leaders a vote to move classrooms out of Asheville primary as required by law does not appear in the public record uh particularly in October when um we are getting some Communications that a vote happened and a decision was made as you know the board may only make decisions in Open Session even items discussed in closed session must be voted on during an open session the process for closing a school has additional steps under state law even let's see uh the requirements for these steps have not been met it is not legal to Simply empty a school of classrooms as a workaround to the state mandated process for school closure preschool classrooms in elementary schools have a special status in North Carolina which makes them part of the
135school itself providing a few exemptions to mandatory guidelines but also making the preschool classrooms relevant to any initiative to close a school and retire its School M it is disingenuous for anyone to say that the preschool program now at Asheville Primary School campus are not subject to the protections afforded to Asheville primary school as a whole the absence of a vote in Open Session as well as the absence of additional required steps to close a public school indicates to me that either a legal decision as required by law was not made and statements to the contrary are mistaken or a decision was made by the whole board or a subset of the board illegally in violation of state law My Hope Is that the newly constituted board will take this opportunity to put the process
136of dismantling Asheville Primary School on hold or cancel this initiative including at a minimum preserving both the monor programs and preschool programs at preco levels for the next two school years ideally the enrollment period for the elementary and preschool classrooms at Asheville primary school would be reopened this spring and the monor program would be allowed to expand into fifth grade to support data collection on this approach as accepted by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction access to Quality preschool is a major determinant of early literacy and later Middle School outcomes we also understand that disrupting effective educational communities is not in the best interest of students thank you next up we have Adrien Clark Mr Clark you have three minutes okay thank you um thank you to uh the board for listening uh superintendent
137thank you also uh just um just to get right to it my son Nathaniel was a straight A student until this school year it was hard to keep him motivated during covid and the social unrest our country uh has experienced due to social justice he struggled for a few weeks he reached out to his teachers when he began to uh feel better most of his teachers responded understandably and allowed him to make up some work I know that this year has been extremely hard for teachers it's perhaps the hardest year of my career teaching I can only imagine how uh hard it's been for students if we as adults have struggled through it Nathaniel obtained an 89 in Spanish one in his uh first quarter with no absences he had an 86 in the second
138quarter and his final exam was a 94 his final grade uh talled up to an 89 we requested a a syllabus from his teacher we could um so we could better averages score uh but we reached out communication stopped we requested the same from the principal and uh they didn't provided we averaged the grades of ourselves once again it turned out to be an 89.6 which in my understanding we round up um one principal responded to our emails uh he emailed my wife he told her that uh my son should advocate for himself um when she explained that Nathaniel reached out to the teacher um he didn't respond F I spoke to another principal and she told me that it was a u if it was a 59 then she would advocate for him to
139get a 60 um uh which seems very unfair to me uh hard to understand and upsetting we also emailed the superintendent and uh never heard anything back from um his office and never heard anything back from uh the the school board members that we reached out to um we have asked numerous uh people to look into this matter and we just kind of got a a answer saying you know this is it I we're disappointed in the way it uh it was handled um the fact of the matter is the fact that um I know Asheville city has committed to looking into uh reparations and and the board uh trying to close achievement gaps but um I'm G to just speak off of off top of my head you know I find it hard to
140believe that I have a kid that is motiv self motivated and wants to do well in school and you know he kind of gets he he kind of you know gets his feelings hurt once again like I said we um we did the uh the averaging of his grades and it turned out to be it should have been um rounded up instead of down and it was rounded down to an 89 so with all that said uh I would just like to suggest that while uh you consider programs to implement to close the gap you should consider adding a new uh neutral party or person that Minority parents can go to when the school system refuses to listen and uh automatically sides with teachers um next up we have Jensen gond um you also have
141three minutes thank you and good evening and uh welcome to new board members uh my name is jenssen gon I live in Asheville I'm the husband of a teacher uh Beth Mayberry who is uh has helped to launch Asheville primary school and I've had an inside look over the years at um just what it takes to start a public monor school for the very first time in Western North Carolina I've had a chance to see the impact that she's had on her students um and it's been amazing and empowering um and whether it's Asheville primary school and this opportunity to bring a montauri play based alternative education to people regardless of their ability to pay whether it's bringing this wonderful monu to all people not just those who can provide uh pivate private school funding
142or whether it's uh supporting the five-star preschool I believe that supporting these two schools as fully funded schools and not just a program of another school um is a strong part of uh work for reparations strengthening our public school system and strengthening um Innovative programs that we've already got is incredibly important for reparations and will help those who do not have the resources otherwise to still get a taste of what this amazing Educational Opportunity offers and if you don't know much about monu um I would ask that you come out to Asheville primary school and and experience it for yourselves it is um amazing and it's it's a fantastic fit for many of the students um who have been through it uh it's just so important that we don't destroy this school uh I don't
143think the idea that we can just move a school and move these children and move these parents and move everyone else and that it's not going to cause trauma is a false idea uh if we force people out of this school and force them to rebuild from the beginning uh not only will they have to there'll be a lot uh of pieces to pick up there will be trauma uh but also it will no longer be a fully funded school and there will be fewer resources for this wonderful program this is the only public monory program in Western North Carolina this is a special program it's not going to be easy to bring it back to what it already is right now if we destroy it and stuff it in as a program of another
144school it is incredibly important to find a way to save this school and Empower our local education system to offer multiple different types of teaching traditional as well as monu uh this is incredibly important to me and I really hope that you'll take a close look at the next board meeting and and make a decision to bolster this public school system in Monas thank you so much all right next up we have Miss shifra alers you also have three minutes hi thank you so much I'm shiff allers I live in the city of Asheville and um I'd like to congratulate James Carter Jackie mccar and also um Payton welcome to the school board uh we're thrilled to have you in leadership roles and helping direct the education of our community um I am also here
145on behalf of Asheville primary school we sent our youngest to APS um beginning in uh when she was three to preschool we chose it none of our other children her five older siblings were homeschooled uh through um through elementary school but we chose to send Sheri to Asheville primary school because we believe it is the best school in the dist District not just in terms of a public school but actually in comparison with the private schools so I hope that the new board um chair Vice chair but the full board will take a look at why the community and the previous School Board decided to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring a public monor program to the city of Asheville and see some of the incredible opportunities that have been presented I know
146that several of the third graders who are don't have a fourth grade to go to are not looking at fourth grade in the Asheville City School District any longer they have chosen to either move on to a homeschool program or to a private monu program because Asheville primary monu was so successful for their children I also want to add that in a post Co world where we're sending children to school with the hopes that they can remain safe we should expect to have additional space for our students it's a basic health and safety concern for our community to be responsible and caring members of the Board of Education would also entail making decisions for the well-being the health and well-being of our community and limiting preschool classrooms seems to be counterintuitive to what we all
147envision moving forward with the hopes that the classrooms will be able to maintain themselves we know that Asheville Primary School just had a covid incident in the preschool classroom um this last week and therefore some of the classrooms were quarantined already it makes sense to continue Asheville Primary School in its current setting with a five-star preschool and monor program that's wonderful thank you so much for your time we appreciate you all right and Miss lastic you are up next and you also have three minutes to speak hey can you all hear me Ashley thank you um hi board superintendent um again Welcome to our new members congratulations Mr Carter and Jackie on um on your new positions we're glad to see you uh the work session was a pleasure to watch um everyone was really
148engaged and I really appreciated the thoughtful questions that were coming from all members of the board and the input from the superintendent as well um I want to thank you for your strong and public support of our trans and non-binary kids um sorry again emotional about it thank you so much it means so so much um for you to still publicly say um that trans kids and non-binary kids are kids and that they um sorry deserve equal treatment um and uh I really appreciate um haon pointing out um to not create a situation where non-gender conforming kids would be made sort of a spectacle or the center of a controversy I think it's really important protect our kids that way so anyway thank you all so much for that it really mental lot um I
149have a couple suggestions one is that we have a zoom comment available at all board meetings so that we can increase uh accessibility for families especially in situations where the time gets pushed back by long discussions and things like that um you know this my family's out there eating dinner right now and I you know I I wouldn't be able to be with you in person and having this option is really important for accessibility so I'm would encourage you even when you have in-person meetings to please have a virtual option for comment um another suggestion I have is would you please consider separating work sessions and regular meetings again like it used to be um having those long work sessions be able to go over time and not affect the regular meeting and people trying
150to like juggle their schedules to be part of it would be very helpful uh to families as far as participation so I hope you will consider that finally uh I just want you to ask you again to press pause to press pause on moving the monu or the prek classrooms please keep them in place at APS please take a year to make good long-term decisions please work with County Commissioners and organizations across the county for the good of all of our children please rely on data not anecdotes and ask Early Childhood Families how ACS can best serve them can do this we can do a good job with this and please the current plan is not just a move it's a reduction of that monstory classrooms by two it's cutting into the program it's not
151a neutral change thank you so much for your service in time thank you um next we have Mr Brooke my name is Brooke Heaton I'm the parent of an ECS preschooler uh thank you for the opportunity to speak and thank you for your service to the asille community I'd like to congratulate and welcome the newly sword in board members and I want to specifically acknowledge and thank chair Carter for his sincere and honest comments regarding his experience on the board that he made in his interview Mr Carter many of your observations really resonated with me especially regarding the challenge of communications between the board and the community on the issue of communicating with parents and public the public I wanted to raise the issue of the current status of Asheville primary and its proposed discontinuance
152in a recent email communication from a current board member it was stated that a unanimous decision to close the school was made in October 2020 I've ped over the minutes in the videos of public record from the board and have not yet identified an official vote which raises serious legal questions about the process involved I unclear today as to whether there has been an official vote to close Asal primary nor if this decision followed the legal standards of North Carolina General Assembly statute chapter 115c considering the newly elected board members in the apparent lack of an official vote I would clarify their understanding of the current status of Asal primary and its proposed discontinuance and to provide legal justification for its discontinuous in line with NC General Assembly statute uh chapter 115c sub chapter 3
153section 72 which set sets forth the very specific criteria for the board to close a school all of which must happen following a public hearing a thorough study and a vote to my knowledge the public hearing regarding the closure was held on March 16 2020 oror 2021 and on the matter of communication it's bewildering to be told by a board member that unanimously that the board unanimously voted to approve the closure uh in October of 2020 when the hearing on the proposed closure was held uh just back in March 2021 a study regarding the closure has not been released and to nearly everyone's knowledge at least to the asille primary Community there has not been an official vote uh nor decision I would ask each of the current members including the newly sworn in members
154to clarify their understanding of the status and the discontinuance of ashual primary pause the process of dismantling asille primary Embrace bunkham County's initiative to expand childhood education uh to preserve the current building stock for this purpose and at a minimum to preserve both the monstory program and the preschool programs at pre-co levels for the next two years I will follow up with each of you personally regarding this matter thank you so much um next we have Miss Courtney Sullivan and you also have three minutes thank you Ashley Michelle hi everyone my name is Courtney Sullivan I'm the parent of a student at Ashville primary um first want to Echo the uh welcome to the new board members and congratulations to the newly appointed chair and vice chair um so sorry I'm going to read because
155I I don't do well off the cuff um yall have heard from me before I've been advocating for Asheville primary and speaking in opposition to closing the school for months now um why I felt compelled to make a comment one more time today what's concerning me is that I've started to hear as Brooke just said um this story that uh the vote has been unanimously made U by the board back in October to close Asheville Primary School um I also heard maybe it was actually in December um there seemed to be some conflict as to when the vote took place in terms of the story that's starting to circulate and I'm just confused and concerned um because it just can't actually be true um as already mentioned the meeting minutes from those months the videos
156they don't show any boat have having taken place nor is that the way the process goes um stake stakeholders have been invited to participate in meetings and public hearings well past the month of October which would be absurd if a vote had been finalized as recently as April 6th Dr chane cassida in a meeting with the bunkham County Commissioners was asked where in the formal process the school board was Dr cida responded that the board had held a specially called meeting which was the public hearing as the formal step in the process and that the next step as advised by legal council would be the board making a final recommendation during the April meeting so that was supposed to be this meeting right I am asking this board to follow the legal and formal procedures
157in regards to closing this school any votes taken prior to this point were taken without the necessary information and without having followed the steps for closing a school in the state of North Carolina with our new board members the lack of supportive stakeholders city council and County Commissioners as well as a lack of clear evidence as to why this school should be closed at this moment in time the vote must be taken now I urge you all to consider all of the things you've heard from us over these past months consider the opposition from the community and the lack of funding approval for new preschool classrooms consider the ongoing pandemic and the fact that several classrooms at APS are closed now to quarantine uh it doesn't make sense to be consolidating schools at this time
158time the last time you heard from me I asked you to work on restoring the Integrity of this school board and I'm still asking you to do so um sorry I lost my place I know I'm a little overtime bear with me if you could give me just 10 more seconds um if a vote was taken before now wasn't legal or appropriate and it shouldn't be binding and if one wasn't it's just deplorable to tell this untr story to the community including our mayor and city council so I'm asking you to please just just do the right thing whether or not you ultimately decide to close the school is a decision that should be made legally and publicly with input from all five current members of the school board so I'm asking you to demonstrate
159that some Integrity still exists within this school district and um and do the right thing make a public legal vote following the right procedures thank you so much for your time all right and our last person that signed up last but not least is Miss Kate Fisher Kate you also have three minutes thank you Ashley Michelle um Donny cash and I are here to talk to you guys today congratulations to the new board members to the new board chair I'm really looking forward to this new leadership and vision that I hope to S see for Asheville City Schools I have three things I want to talk about I'm GNA piggyback on The Plea for Asheville primary and for the moving of the preschool classes um it's an indication of how we behave in this district
160precipitously and with a lack of transparency I think it's appropriate to ask for a pause button at this point and it's not because I'm unwilling to consider pre- K classes at elementary schools which in fact we've been doing for over two decades in the district or considering having preschools that would operate in housing communities if we thought that was something that would be appropriate but there are there are right ways to do things and wrong ways to do them and it matters how we make our decisions and everything on this issue to close Asheville primary to move these preschool classes has been done without transparency during a pandemic and it doesn't feel like we're we have expert and educated leadership on this issue and I don't see how we can move forward on that or
161on removing a deseg order when we haven't gone through the work and we haven't included the stakeholders there's so much we've got to do to get this District back into working order and to get children back to school and that is what we should be focusing on secondly I'm gonna go toe-to-toe with Chris Gamble on this whole thing that he said about training um local school boards are in complete and utter control over their districts and their Central offices that is what gs15 C Article 5 is all about so y'all are in charge if you call DPI with a problem they refer you not to a superintendent not to a principal they say have you talked to your school board that's what they expect to be going on so what I'm really hoping with this
162new board is that you guys are going to regain your power and use your control to refocus the work of their District I want every board member to be a part of every decision made for our children no more secret meetings no more just one or two people from the board representing the entire District in this town it is a school board made of Five People You should all be a part of every decision please please use all 64 responsibilities and duties that are given to you I also want the board and central office to reassume its proper place in our district which is not showboating which is not being the center of attention our job is to be in service of children and their education we should be supporting the teachers and staff in
163the buildings who educate their children that is our job in service that's what the board should be doing that is what central office should be doing let's get back to that please please please prioritize rebuilding the trust we need to rebuild in this District our teachers have been gaslighted and marginalized and lied about in this community for the last four years it is time time to bring them back to the table as the experts that they are we need to include our staff members in every decision made in the district they see everything they are with our children all day long please include them invite them to the table rebuild the trust with the staff with the teachers and with the parents so that we can move forward finally we have had eight years of
164a rotating door of superintendant none of them including the current one have taken any chance to know the district they just do what they're told it is time to move past this the folks that are building the narrative are the same folks who have been the decision makers as our Miss fiser I believe you muted I believe you muted yourself is the time up Ashley the time is up yes um yes uh chairman Carter that is that concludes our public comments okay uh just wanted to say thank you to everyone who uh took the time to make public comment today um our announcements and future meetings uh our next work session and regular School regular City School Board of Education meeting will be on May 10th uh the work session will start at 5: and
165the regular meeting will start at 6:30 oh um then our next after that our next work session uh will be May 24th at 4M and then a great day of Celebration Ashville high school and silsa graduation will be May 28th at 7M and more details will be on the website for that correct Ashley Michelle uh yes sir that information about graduation has already been shared with our high school and SSA families as well as shared with our greater School Community um that occurred after the announcement was made um to our Ash High School in silsa wonderful um if there's nothing else uh I will ask for a move uh a motion to adjourn J hold on I have one thing okay um I just wanted to ask when we have public com because I I
166know as board members we all still can speak but I when when we're talking about any issue I would ask that in certain situations for instance like the primary school because we often get talked about not being Equitable and not being um transparent but when you start talking about reparations and our black children and your speaking to it in terms of the monor school or ashal Primary School you're not being transparent when you say reparations or this is a way to help our black students when you only have two black students in a program and less than 15 in a school that's not being Equitable at all so I think we have if I think it's a play on both parts I know the board has a lot to work on but our community I
167think Kate is absolutely right there has been a certain part of our community that leads has led the decisions that's made and we have to as a whole board community and all have to make sure that we're making decisions that's not just about us as individuals but obviously we're not doing something right if we have the highest achievement Gap in the state those individuals and even us as a board We Didn't Start the problem and I know we won't be the ones who can fix it but together we do have to find a way that we can do things that's Equitable for all children and not just certain populations so that's all I wanted to say so thank you chairman well thank you does anyone else have any other closing thoughts if not can I
168get a motion to adjourn so move and is there a second second all right uh all in favor Shonda hi Jackie hi pton I Martha Martha you good yes I okay I and I and that's all thank you very much folks thank you everybody