Buncombe County Schools -

Hello, BCS Staff and Families.

Here’s a look at the BCS Board Briefing for August 1, 2024. The full broadcast is on YouTube, and photos are posted in this Google Drive folder.

In our Good News segment, we recognized:

· FFA State First Place Award Winners – Enka High School
· FFA State First Place Award Winners – North Buncombe High School
· DECA International Convention Participants – North Buncombe High School & Reynolds High School

· Appointment to the School Capital Fund Commission 

Consent Agenda

· Minutes: June 27, 2024 Special Called Work Session

· Personnel Report

· 2023-2024 Budget Amendment #8

· Buncombe County Schools Proposed Federal Programs for 2024-2025

· School Nutrition Procurement Plan

· Approval of BCS’ Individual School’s Length of Day – Policy 3300 School Calendar and Time for Learning

· Advisory Council Members for Approval

· Enka Middle School: Request to Use Athletic Capital Outlay Funds

Policies for Second Reading

· Policy 3400 Evaluation of Student Progress

· Policy 3410 Testing and Assessment Program

· Policy 4400 Attendance

Information Agenda

· 2024-2025 Yellow School Bus List

Announcements/Future Meetings

· The next Board of Education Regular Meeting is September 5, 2024. Work session updates and Closed Session beginning at 4:00 p.m. in the Executive Conference Room, and the Open Session beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the Minitorium at 175 Bingham Road, Asheville, NC 28806. 

Superintendent's Comments

Good evening Parents, Members of the Community, Board Members, and Teammates,

Next Monday night we will have the honor of celebrating with 50 new high school graduates and their families and loved ones. Each has worked hard during our Summer Academy to complete their outstanding requirements and may now proudly call themselves graduates of our outstanding school system. I am incredibly grateful for our teachers and staff members who worked with all of the summer programs across the school system. The work of our students and teachers during the summer was very impressive. The Commencement Ceremony on Monday night will be the perfect culmination of a very productive and successful summer in BCS.

This week as our student-athletes begin to prepare for the Fall Season, I have had the opportunity to Soar with the Jets and the Blackhawks Cross Country Teams. Over the next two weeks I will blast-off with the Rockets, Gallop with the Warhorses, scamper with the Rams and run with the Warriors. As I have spent time with the teams, I have left each encounter extremely impressed with the character of our students and with the incredible dedication of our coaches. Whether it is academics, athletics, or the arts, our students and the adults who serve them are absolutely amazing!

Students will return before our next monthly Board Meeting. One major celebration when they return is the continuation of free breakfast and lunch for all students. This is a gamechanger and one that I am very grateful for. Food is quite simply the first and most-important school supply. Our students are not able to maximize their learning if they are hungry. It is only through very careful stewardship of our resources and the hard work of our child nutrition and school staff that we are able to continue this invaluable program.

This summer we have tackled the challenge of a diminishing budget caused by the loss of ESSER dollars and cuts in state allotments due to having fewer students than we did prior to the pandemic. Our enrollment grew last year and we anticipate it will continue to grow, but even with an increase in funding locally from our commissioners, we had to right-size our school system staffing. I am proud to say that we have been able to do this without pink slips. Using vacancies and some personnel transfers, we have been able to meet the challenge presented by this year's budget. We are committed to passionately and energetically advocating at the state level for additional funding to fully meet the needs of our students.

Our theme for this new school year is #TogetherWeRise. Helen Keller said, "Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much." I know that the incredible academic, artistic, and athletic student success we have seen the past two years and have seen historically in our school system is because we have assembled such an amazing team who each give so deeply of themselves and work so closely together for our students and community.

#TogetherWeRise. This is our theme for the 2024-2025 school year, even in the midst of all of the challenges (budgetary and others), that we create and curate conditions where students, teachers, staff, and administrators all “rise beyond every imaginable expectation.” We will do this through authentic relationships and deepening trust to inspire all those around us to elevate to even greater heights. We will give our all because our students are worthy of our very best efforts. I am confident that this will be our finest year ever.

To our team and to our Board Members, thank you for all that you do for the students, families, teachers, and staff of Buncombe County Schools and welcome to an incredible new school year, a year that I firmly believe will be our finest year ever..

Madam Chair, this concludes my comments.