New NC law changes how Buncombe County School Board will be elected in 2024
ASHEVILLE- A new North Carolina law passed last week will change the way members of the Buncombe County School Board will be elected, and some say, will decrease the diversity of the school board members and put further costs onto the school district.
The school board unanimously opposed the bill during their June 1 meeting.
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. The bill, HB66, requires that districts be equal in terms of population, which means current district lines will be redrawn.
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 not change where students go to school but 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.
From the 2021-2022 school year there were 22,078 students in Buncombe County, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Buncombe County’s Democratic Sen. Julie Mayfield was on the opposing side. “We’ve had no public conversation about this. There’s been no chance for people to see what the lines might look like,” she said.
The legislation requires the school board to draw the new districts by the end of the year, meaning it would go into effect for the 2024 school board elections. The bill was sponsored by Republican Sen. Mitchell Setzer of Catawba and Iredell counties and Sen. Jay Adams, R-Catawba. Sen. Warren Daniel, a Republican who represents part of Buncombe, McDowell and Burke counties, added in the Buncombe County language to the bill after it passed through the house and to the Senate.
Daniel told the Citizen Times on June 14 that "at large voting fails to ensure that all neighborhoods in the county are represented."
Shanna Peele, president of Buncombe County Association of Educators, said that the bill felt like a surprise to the community.
"It’s not in the best interest for Buncombe schools and the community," Peele said.
Peele also said that another concern for the community is how much money the redrawing of the lines will cost the schools.
“Our schools don't have that money. We're making cuts left and right because the state hasn't funded our schools as is." Peele said.
From the June 1 Buncombe County board meeting board members wrote in a resolution letter saying: “Over the years, the current election method has resulted in school boards made up of politically and ideologically diverse individuals that have worked together for the betterment of Buncombe County Schools and the students they serve.”
They stated that as a group they do not support the proposed change to the election method and asked the members of the General Assembly to vote in opposition to the bill.
The prior system of electing school board members into the county has been in place since the 1970’s.
”We’ve got real issues that we're trying to focus on and work on that we need the resources for, and we've clearly communicated what those are, but what's come back is a bill,” Buncombe County Board member Rob Elliot told the Citizen Times.
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 @LeavensMcKenna.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Buncombe County School Board district lines to change with new law
