First public input taken on potential Asheville City, Buncombe Schools merger

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — It’s been six months since Prismatic Services Inc. has been looking into the possibility of Asheville City and Buncombe County Schools becoming one district.

The next step in the process is to gain the public’s input. That started Monday with the first of 10 sessions held at Owen Middle School.

Those who came out had their reasons.

“I care to be here because I care deeply about all students,” former educator Elaine Ferguson said. “I feel like (student) equity is No. 1. Academics of course, but equity in those academics. I don’t have to have children in the schools to care about children, their education and their futures.”

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“I want future people’s high school quality of learning to be as good, if not better, than mine was,” Owen High Junior Eliza Martin said. “Even though I came in here not knowing what the heck was going to happen, I thought OK, I understand how to do this. I was able to go through each station and input my feedback.”

Expectations didn’t meet reality for some.

“I thought it was going to be kind of a town hall forum,” Owen Middle Community School Coordinator Josh Wells said.

It took around 30 minutes to give valuable input to Prismatic Services.

“(Participants) can come and spend as much time or as little time as they want,” Dr. Tatia Prieto, Founder of Prismatic Services, said. “Some people come in and just want to talk to a consultant, and there’s a station where they can do that. When we say we have a community forum, people immediately think about sitting through a two-hour session. That’s why it’s designed this way.”

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Participants took to the setup well.

“People can write their own words,” Wells said. “Being heard in their own words is probably the most important part of the stations I’ve been to so far. This is very interesting. It separates into different pieces. You can focus in on and home in on what the pieces are that you’re looking for. It’s very important to come out and just see what the conversation is like so far, what questions are being posed, and what are some of the data being gathered.”

“(Participants) are open-minded about it,” Prieto said. “Change is always a difficult thing to consider. There’re always potential unknowns. What would it look like? We don’t always get that on projects. Sometimes people come in and have their pitchforks in their back pocket. We haven’t seen that so far, so that’s wonderful.”

Prieto told News13 that the first session is usually lightly attended. She also stressed the importance of making it out to one of the next nine dates.

“A big factor for us is what does the public think,” she said. “This is one of our primary ways of getting input from the public. Our goal is to try and get input from a cross-section of the public…everyone who wants to come and participate.”

The remaining dates, times, and locations of the other sessions are listed below.

• Tuesday, Sept. 10 – 3:45-6:30 p.m. – East Asheville Library
• Thursday, Sept. 12 – 3:45-6:30 p.m. – Cane Creek Middle School
• Friday, Sept. 13 – 11:30 a.m.-2:15 p.m. – Weaverville Community Center
• Monday, Sept. 16 – 3:45-6:45 p.m. – Isaac Dickson Elementary School
• Tuesday, Sept. 17 – 3:30-6:30 p.m. – Erwin High School
• Wednesday, Sept. 18 – 5:30-8:30 p.m. – Enka Intermediate School
• Thursday, Sept. 19 – 3:45-6:30 p.m. – Hall Fletcher Elementary
• Friday, Sept. 20 – 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. – Skyland/South Buncombe Library
• Monday, Sept. 23 – 5:30-7:30 p.m. – Online forum

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