From Staff Reports 

The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners  — citing a $25 million projected county budget deficit following Tropical Storm Helene — voted 5-2 on Jan. 21 to slash the budgets by around $4.7 million for Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County Schools.

The total cut is $717,000 for ACS and almost $3.97 million for BCS.

“The vote was approved after 45 minutes of public comment and hours of deliberation and conversation between commissioners, superintendents and others,” Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) reported on Jan. 21.

“In North Carolina, we see all of the time that the public school is under attack and we’re getting more cuts and less money and we know that it hurts educators and we know that it hurts school staff, but what we care about the most is our children and making sure that their needs are being taken care of and we can’t do that when we’re being asked to do more with less,” Carson Bridges, a first grade teacher at Claxton Elementary said, according to News 13.

Bridges participated in a pre-meeting protest with dozens of concerned parents, educators and students enraged by potential budget cuts, the TV station noted.

Meanwhile, Molly Zenker, an ACS and BCS parent, was quoted by News 13 as saying, “I feel like Helene and COVID and things that have happened to make our kids’ education less-rounded and less-available to them is even more reason to look elsewhere for cuts.” 

In addition, Shanna Peele, president of the Asheville Association of Educators, was quoted by News 13 as saying, “If they were to allow the educators to be a part of that decision [in] making with them, to really have a critical look at the budget, we might be able to put our heads together and find a creative solution to put our children first.

“My own children might be placed in a classroom with increased class sizes — or that they’re going to lose their bus driver and that I will have to leave work to go pick them up from school, which is going to really impact my family, when we are already struggling.”

Superintendents for both school systems attended the meeting — and  BCS’ Dr. Rob Jackson “revealed that should the cuts happen; his district will have to almost drain its rainy-day fund,” News 13 noted. “Both ACS and BCS will pull funding from their reserves to cover these cuts.”

Amanda Edwards, chair of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, was quoted by the TV station as saying,“When funds start flowing to Buncombe County, when they are eligible to be used for schools, we will replenish that school funding as the dollars come back to us.” 

In summary, News 13 stated, “That means when Helene funding comes in, whether from the federal or state government, the county will make the school districts whole.”