By Tim Gardner
Regular meetings between two governing boards help empower their members to work well together and exchange ideas and philosophies to help them make decisions for the betterment of the constituencies they represent. Such is the reasoning for periodic joint meetings of Avery County’s Board of Commissioners and Board of Education besides the joint meeting budget workshop they hold each year.
A Board of County Commissioners serves as the legislative and policy-setting body for county government; enacts countywide laws, authorizes programs, sets the county property tax rate, and adopts the county’s fiscal budget each year. The commissioners appoint a county manager who is responsible for day-to-day county operations.
A Board of Education determines the policies, budget, leadership, and administration within a certain county, city, or district’s public schools, setting the school’s system curriculum in each school, and choosing school officials, teachers, staff, and overseeing administrators. A Board of Education appoints a school superintendent who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the school system and is its Chief Executive Officer.
The amount of local funding (besides State of North Carolina funding) for the Avery County School System is determined each year by the Avery Board of Commissioners as well as the funding amount for any special construction, renovation, and/or school repair projects.
The Board of Commissioners and Board of Education will jointly meet on Monday, September 30, to visit every school in the county and determine what needs to be improved at each. The two Boards also had a regular joint meeting at the County Administration Complex in Newland on August 19 and will then have another regular joint meeting on Monday, November 21 at 5:00 p.m. in the County Administration Complex for a quarterly session, which will primarily center around developing a five-year plan for each public school.
Discussions promoting school and student needs, funding for schools by the State and the County Commissioners, and addressing questions about the Avery County Public School System’s operations highlighted the last recent joint meeting between the Boards held in the County Administration Complex in Newland.
All Commissioners– Tim Phillips (Chairman), Dennis Aldridge (Vice-Chairman), Martha Hicks, Wood Hall (Woodie) Young, Jr., and Robert Burleson were present at the meeting. County Manager Phillip Barrier, Jr., Assistant County Manager and Clerk to the Board Cindy Turbyfill, County Finance Officer Caleb Hogan, and County Attorney Michaelle Poore were also in attendance.
All Board of Education members—Pat Edwards (Chairwoman), Linda Webb (Vice-Chairwoman), Michelle Burnop, Randy Singleton, and David Wright attended the meeting. School Superintendent Dr. Dan Brigman, School System Chief Financial Officer Faith Cope, School System Information Technology Director David Reep, and Clerk to the Board of Education/the Superintendent’s Administrative Assistant Hannah Arnett were also present.
The meeting’s agenda topics included Pre-Kindergarten funding, Capital Projects, one-to-one devices, Avery High School’s kitchen renovation, declining enrollment plan, supply money distribution, waiving admission fees to high school sports events for Little League participants, teaching personnel qualifications, and other school-related items.
For fiscal year 2024-2025, the county commissioners allocated the Avery Public Schools $6,255,000.00, including $5,505,000.00 in operational funding and $750,000.00 in capital funding.
According to Hogan, Avery Public School System officials requested an operational funding request of $6,259,088.00 for the 2024-2025 fiscal year but did not request a certain amount in capital funding, instead giving county officials an amount of $11,872,392.83 that would cover the school system’s entire current needs and those of the next few years.
The operational funding the county allocated to the school system for the upcoming fiscal year is a 2 percent increase from what was allocated during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, although it is $754,088.00 less than the $6,259,088.00 that the school system requested for the upcoming fiscal year.
However, when all funding to and continued payments for school projects such as new construction and renovations which are not listed in the 2024-2025 budget ordinance, but are factored in, that amount increases to $9,668,279.00. Using that financial criteria, the Avery County Public School System moved to the agency that is the second highest funded by the County.
Additional funding for $143,421.00 for the following fees and projects was approved by the Commissioners during their September 3 meeting:
*$33,000.00 for kitchen roof architect fees as part of the entire kitchen renovation the commissioners previously approved for Avery County High School.
*$55,112.00 to replace the main boiler pipe at Avery Middle School.
*$22,150.00 for HVAC replacement at the Avery County Schools Central Office.
*$33,159.00 for water line replacement at Newland Elementary School.
That $143,421.00 added to the $9,668,279.00 amount that includes all 2024-2025 fiscal year funding by the commissioners to the school system and continued payments for school projects such as new construction and renovations which are not listed in the 2024-2025 budget ordinance, but are included in the financial equation increases the total to $9,811,700.00 for the current fiscal year and of this writing, Hogan told High Country Press.
Cope said that 90 students were enrolled in Pre-Kindergarten during the past 2023-2024 school year and that 57 qualified for low-income. That school year also had an expended total budget of $498,623.94 for Pre-Kindergarten, with 93 percent used for staff salaries. Cope added that the total included instructional supplies and student snacks.
Dr. Brigman told High Country Press that in the current school year (2024-2025) 86 students are enrolled in Pre-Kindergarten, with 58 qualifying as low-income.
Both Boards eventually determined that in the 2024-2025 budget, the Board of Education made adjustments according an amount of funding provided for capital projects, which moved a project back.
Cope detailed the expenses of Avery High School’s kitchen renovation, telling what each part of the project costs and which bills for such have been paid, and which remain to be paid. Cope stated further to High Country Press that $1,089,052.00 has been paid for the renovation project, and she estimated that between $800,000.00 and $900,000.00 remains to be paid.
Edwards talked about declining school system enrollment. She said that the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the state’s governing body of public school systems, could implement a feasibility study about the issue. However, she noted that after such a study, the Department of Public Instruction could determine that Avery County needs to consolidate its schools, keeping one high school as it has since the 1968-1969 school year, but having only one middle school instead of the two as Avery currently has and only two elementary schools instead of five as Avery currently has.
Many of the county’s citizens might be in stern opposition to such consolidation. Edwards added that she is “not recommending consolidating as Avery County is very blessed with wonderful elementary and middle schools.”
Elementary schools in the Avery Public School System are Riverside, Banner Elk, Freedom Trail, Newland, and Crossnore. Cranberry and Avery Middle are its two middle schools.
Edwards added: “School enrollment has not just started declining. It’s been doing so for around 20 years.”
Edwards and Dr. Brigman have declared that other reasons exist for declining enrollment including more students being homeschooled, a few others leaving Avery High and enrolling at nearby Cloudland High in Roan Mountain, Tennessee to play sports there, and losing State of North Carolina per-pupil funds.
Edwards added in a phone interview with High Country Press that the number of homeschooled students largely started increasing when the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic started in 2020 and that some students who have previously, or would be attending Avery County’s public schools, are currently attending area charter, private, or Christian schools instead.
Dr. Brigman also said that according to statistics, declining enrollment is not only affecting Avery County’s Public School System, but one that many school systems in counties across the state are having to address.
He added that because the state also funds private and charter schools, it is a contributing factor in the decline in student enrollment in its public schools.
Regarding the topic of school supply funding the commissioners provide the school system, school officials have indicated that teachers like regular supplies already available for students at the schools.
Members of both Boards indicated that they approve the waiving of admission fees to high school sports events for Little League participants. Burnop said the superintendent and school system athletic officials are in the process of ironing out the details to present to the Board of Education to adopt such a policy.
About a device refresh for all Apple computer products (iPad computer tablets and Macintosh personal computers), it was revealed their costs of almost $1.3 million can be divided over four years with a cost of approximately $391,000.00. Reep advised the commissioners that he doesn’t anticipate those computer products the school system currently has will remain in working condition by the end of the current school year and funds will have to be designated for their replacement.
The process the commissioners prefer about how money is moved from the budget for this and related expenses was also discussed by the Boards.
Burnop remarked: “For our understanding (Board of Education), the commissioners prefer that the school system handle the device refresh with the money they allotted the school system.”
Barrier, Jr. explained that “When the two Boards have the next joint budget workshop, the amount of Capital funds that will be allocated to each item will be finalized.”
Concerning teaching personnel qualifications, Burnop said the State Department of Public Instruction establishes guidelines and license requirements for teachers and other school personnel and that Avery’s School System must follow those mandates. She declared that the School System “has to adjust its personnel priorities based on the funding received from the County and State.”
Hicks declared that the August joint meeting “went well and was productive for both Boards and hopefully, the November one will also be most productive for both.”
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