Asheville City Schools may freeze positions, cut staff; NC schools face fiscal ‘cliff’

City schools looking at freezing positions and cutting staff

ASHEVILLE – The city school system is looking at freezing some vacant school positions and cutting central office personnel to cope with a $1.2 million shortfall. Much of the funding gap stems from the loss of $1 million in annual federal pandemic funding, a situation experienced by other school systems, according to Maggie Fehrman, Asheville City Schools superintendent.

Central office cuts approved by school board

Fehrman was given the go-ahead to consider the central office cuts with a 5-0 approval by the school board at a June 27 special called work session. Board members Rebecca Strimer and Jesse Warren were absent. If Fehrman comes back with recommendations to eliminate positions, the board will also have to approve that, something that could come in August. The freezes don’t require school board approval.

“I think we definitely need to consider reducing some staffing positions,” she said at the school board meeting about the central office cuts. As for school-level positions, Fehrman said, “At this point, I don’t recommend any positions being reduced.” “We’re … looking at any open and unfilled positions to see how we could reallocate those duties and responsibilities with current staff,” she told board members.

No open teaching positions will be frozen

ACS spokesperson Kimberly Dechant told the Citizen Times July 1 no open teaching positions would be frozen. “If a school needs a teacher, a school gets a teacher,” Dechant said. A listing of job openings on the school system web site showed 36 vacancies for teaching and non-teaching positions. Among the non-teaching jobs were a girls swimming and diving coach, a child nutritionist, a custodian, a groundskeeper, a plumber, and a bus driver.

Budget shortfall to be partially offset by reserve funds

ACS has an annual budget of more than $80 million. The $1.2 million hole would be bigger, except for plans by ACS to use $3 million in reserve funds, which is one-time money. Along with the loss of the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, the gap anticipated for the July 1 fiscal year is fed by $1.4 million in salary increases and other pressures.

State schools also facing funding struggles

At the June 27 meeting, Fehrman said ACS was not alone in its funding struggle. “Neighboring counties are having the same conversations and looking at reducing positions, 70 or plus,” she said. The Citizen Times reached out to spokespeople for Buncombe County Schools and Henderson County Schools, which are also losing the pandemic funding.

Katherine Joyce, executive director of the North Carolina Association of School Administrators, said there’s a “common misperception” of central offices being “bloated bureaucracies,” but that loss of personnel there hurts students. “The truth is that many are forced to consolidate positions and make cuts there year after year,” Joyce said.

Lack of aid from General Assembly

The General Assembly has not responded this year to calls for more aid. Teachers will get an average 3% raise approved a year ago by the state legislature, which allocates the majority of teacher pay. But public school advocates called for 8.5%, pointing to teacher turnover — with ACS experiencing the state’s highest attrition.

Positions at ACS that will continue to be filled, according to the superintendent, include student support specialists who work with at-risk students and whose nearly $400,000 in funding has come from the federal pandemic money. “Coming out of COVID, it’s just different. There are more social and emotional needs,” said Dechant, the ACS spokesperson.

New hire announced despite possible cuts

Despite the possible cuts, ACS announced July 1 it would hire Ernest Sessoms Jr. as elementary and federal program director. Sessoms’ duties will include leading efforts to “ensure that curriculum and instructional programs incorporate the best and most advanced educational research,” an ACS release said. That will include overseeing federally funded poverty-based programs and targeting the school system’s racial achievement gap.

The Citizen Times requested Sessoms salary.

Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government, and other news. He’s written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Got a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter.

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