Could Asheville City, Buncombe County schools be merging? Study mandated by NC legislature

ASHEVILLE - The discussion of merging Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County Schools has been going on for more than 60 years. But it might be closer to reality now that a feasibility study is coming.

Democratic state Sen. Julie Mayfield, who represents Asheville, announced in a Sept. 13 news release a mandate from the N.C. General Assembly that county and city schools must do a joint merger study by 2025.

This mandate comes as a result of other amendments made to House Bill 66, the redrawing of district lines in Buncombe County Schools. HB66, requires that districts be equal in terms of population, changing the way the BCS Board of Education is elected, which means current district lines will be redrawn for county schools using census data. The bill would be difficult to implement as it is written, due to the complicated nature of Asheville City Schools being mixed into some of the county school census blocks.

"Asheville City Schools has operated independently for generations, and we believe the district should continue to do so," Asheville City Schools Board Chair George Sieburg told the Citizen Times in a Sept. 14 email.

"We understand that on the surface, consolidation could create financial efficiencies; however, if our state legislature was adequately funding and supporting public schools, county commissioners might not feel the financial pressure that leads to having to consider consolidation."

County Commissioner Amanda Edwards, whose child is a high school senior in Asheville City Schools and a spouse who's the principal of Asheville High School, told the Citizen Times Sept. 14 that at a county budget retreat last year one of the top five budgetary issues was to conduct a study of a school consolidation.

"We ended up deciding to hold off another year on that study, because Asheville City Schools was going through their superintendent search," Edwards said.

The logistics of who will pay for the study is to be determined, according to county commissioners.

David Rodgers, a parent of a middle schooler at Montford North Star Academy, said he thinks merging the two school districts is worth considering.

"It seems like there would be some cost efficiencies that can be gained by merging schools. The result would be that we can take the money and use it more effectively to educate kids," Rodgers told the Citizen Times.

More: Asheville City, Buncombe County schools performance grades are in for 2022-23 year

Christina Mason and Brooke Heaton, parents of a first-grader at Isaac Dickson Elementary, have some concerns about what a possible merger could do.

"I've always had very mixed feelings about it. Because there's a lot of uncertainty that would come into play with a merger, Heaton said.

He also mentioned that underfunding of public schools is what's causing the consideration of merging the two districts.

"Would Dr. (Maggie) Fehrman be let go/paid out of her contract? What about redundant central office staff? ACS is extremely top heavy. Would there be payouts to those laid off and would those be cost effective," Mason asked.

Fehrman just began her job July 17 after a nationwide search, with a four-year contract and an annual base salary of $215,000, not including any local or state supplements.

Mason also said that the magnet school system helps to promote diversity and draws from students all over the city. If the two districts merged together the magnet school theme may go away.

Shanna Peele, president of Buncombe County Association of Educators, is a mother of three children in city schools.

"I personally have children in Asheville City Schools but work in Buncombe County Schools. I think pulling everybody together on the same team can only make us stronger," Peele told the Citizen Times.

Mayfield said the merger has been a huge topic of conversation for some years now.

"Some people say we should absolutely merge, there's no reason not to merge and other people say it would be a complete disaster and the truth is, nobody knows," she said.

The bill amendment states that a study must be completed by Feb. 15, 2025.

The study will look at “potential economic and educational impacts of merging the school units and any other relevant information. This study will help all of us understand the impacts so we will know if merger is a realistic option," Mayfield's release said.

What will HB66 do now?

Instead of voting for seven board members, county residents will now only vote for two ― one member for their designated district and the other for the at large position, turning it into electoral districts.

However, the bill says that the new lines should be drawn as close as possible to the old ones to respect the existing boundaries. The new districts will change where the representative on the school board comes from, which means that not all school board members will live in their respective district. In order to calculate the population, the bill states that they will use census data.

More: Will new NC law change district lines in Asheville City Schools?

Due to the mixture of BCS and ACS within one census block, the bill is impossible to implement, BCS Board Attorney Dean Shatley said at an Aug. 3 school board meeting. Therefore, the solution is to have Buncombe County Schools estimate the population of the census blocks that are divided by the school district line. Meaning, if a census block has two school districts in it then it's up to the county schools to estimate how many given people go to BCS and how many go to ACS.

"For example, if there's a census block, and it says that it has 100 people who live there, the Buncombe County Schools will just have to estimate how many are in the Buncombe County School District and how many are in Asheville City School District," Mayfield told the Citizen Times Sept. 14.

Buncombe County Schools aren't able to exclusively use census data, which is normally how electoral districts are drawn.

"There is no methodology to do this, there is no precedent to do this, yet this is the mandate that BCS will try to meet. The new maps will need to be finished by June 20, 2024, in time for next year’s elections," Mayfield said in the release.

Shatley told the Citizen Times in a Sept. 14 email that the new amendment hasn't been adopted by the legislature yet and is being voted on in the following weeks.

"If the current wording is put into law, it will be up to the Buncombe County Schools to pay for redistricting, including estimating the number of BCS residents living in the mixed census blocks," Shatley said.

From the 2021-22 school year there were 22,078 students in Buncombe County, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Tanya Presha, academic and program support coordinator, announced at an Aug. 1 school board meeting that Asheville City Schools has 4,101 students.

The prior system of electing school board members into the county had been in place since the 1970s.

More: 'What universe'? 'Impossible': Buncombe school board reacts to new districting law

McKenna Leavens is the education reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at mleavens@citizentimes.com or follow her on Twitter @LeavensMcKennna. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville Buncombe schools merger study mandated by 2025