The Asheville City Board of Education at its Feb. 10 meeting adopted a letter that agrees with a recent report that Asheville and Buncombe County Schools don’t need to consolidate but, yes, the districts should collaborate more.
Charlotte-based Prismatic Services Inc. concluded in its report released in January that consolidating Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County Schools would not likely result in better student outcomes or significant cost savings. The report was mandated by the N.C. General Assembly in 2023.
“Prismatic Services also identified certain diseconomies of scale that would increase the cost of operating a consolidated district. We agree with and affirm these findings,” the school board’s letter said.
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners weighed in on Prismatic’s report at its meeting Feb. 4. Its letter said, “We agree with Prismatic that the most effective and pragmatic path forward is not the full consolidation of Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County Schools but rather a strategic consolidation of shared services, optimization of facility usage, increased collaboration among all entities and enhanced flexibility for student enrollment within district boundaries.”
Commissioners asked the two districts to consider collaborating on child nutrition, transportation and facility maintenance. They also asked the districts to meet quarterly to develop budget forecasts that look ahead five years and review enrollment practices and boundary lines between the districts.
Asheville’s school board addressed collaboration in its letter.
“The Board of Asheville City Schools is eager to extend our collaboration and efforts are already underway between both school systems’ board chairs to foster a productive collaborative relationship.”
Board Chair Sarah Thornburg said she would work with Rob Elliot, chair of the Buncombe Board of Education, to potentially refine the letter so that both school districts could sign on, if they agreed on the general message. The Buncombe school board meets Thursday, Feb. 13.
Submission of the report and associated letters concludes the process dictated by the legislature. The school districts asked Buncombe County to lead the study. The county hired Prismatic for $300,000 last March. The study is the latest of at least 10 that have been commissioned since 1963, according to Prismatic’s report.
This story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Reporting and Editing.
