Commissioners vote to reduce school funding despite pleas

Just before the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners’ Jan. 21 meeting, several dozen supporters of Buncombe County Schools (BCS) and Asheville City Schools (ACS) gathered outside the county administration building in freezing temperatures to protest the projected $4.7 million budget cut to the school systems. Protesters held signs that read: “Cuts hurt our kids.” Just before the 5 p.m. meeting, the group marched into the building chanting, “I believe that we will win.”

Things did not go as they’d hoped. 

The meeting went on for over four hours, the majority of the time devoted to school funding. Several school officials, including BCS Superintendent Rob Jackson, ACS Superintendent Maggie Fuhrman, BCS Board of Education Chair Rob Elliot, and ACS Board of Education Chair Sarah Thornburg addressed commissioners, outlining the impact the proposed budget cut would have.

Jackson pointed out that 83% of BCS’ budget goes toward salaries for school personnel, indicating that a cut would impact staffing. Jackson explained BCS can use money from its $19 million fund balance to prevent staff cuts for the remainder of the 2024-25 school year, but the budget cut could impact the 2025-26 school year. Jackson said the district has already pulled out $6 million from savings since Tropical Storm Helene. ACS has $12.7 million in its emergency fund.

After school officials, another 18 people addressed the board. Parents, teachers, students and a school social worker all made impassioned pleas to keep funding intact and cited increased needs amid an already stressed budget. They described students who had lost their favorite teachers and subjects to budget cuts; children who go to school hungry and under emotional distress; a student with disabilities who was not able to receive consistent assistance due to staff cuts; larger class sizes; teachers acting as bus drivers; and “stretched thin” English as a second language teachers. Nearly 3,000 new multilanguage students having enrolled in BCS since the storm. All worried the cuts would be another blow to students after an already difficult year.

Several speakers asked the commissioners to raise property taxes rather than cut funding, but John Hudson, county budget director, said state law prohibits the county from raising taxes midyear.

The other avenue to generate revenue is to pursue those who haven’t yet paid their property taxes, which were due Jan. 5. But commissioner Martin Moore said many people aren’t paying taxes because they are out of work or their properties were damaged in the storm, including 9,200 home. Going after them for tax payment would be adding pain to an already difficult situation, he said, adding that raising taxes or pursuing those behind in paying taxes would essentially be harming one constituency to help another. 

Budget cuts across the board

Reductions to funding are happening across county government, not just in education. The county has instituted a hiring freeze, leaving 89 vacancies unfulfilled. Areas of public health, social work services, justice services, economic development and economic services will all see “programmatic reductions,” Hudson said. Deferred maintenance of county facilities; reduced library and recreation programming, animal shelter capacities and medical supplies; as well as reductions in tax reappraisal funding and future conservation easements are all planned cost-cutting measures to make up for an expected $15 million to $26 million deficit in fiscal 2025.

“Climate change took this money from us already, months ago,” commissioner Parker Sloan said, citing the impacts of Tropical Storm Helene. The effects of the storm have increased county spending while revenue is lagging. Property taxes are the county’s largest revenue source, accounting for 64.8% of funding. As of Jan. 16, nearly 1% of collections were past due.        

The proposed budget cuts are to prevent the county from dipping further into its fund balance — the county’s savings account. If the balance were to fall below a certain amount, it risks losing its AAA rating — the highest possible bond rating — which enables the county to get lower interest rates.

“Spending down county reserves puts our bond rate in jeopardy, puts our services in jeopardy and puts the entire county in jeopardy for decades to come,” explained Commissioner Drew Ball. The cuts will ensure that the county fund balance stays at 10.5%-13.5% of the overall budget, which is $41 million to $57 million. 

Casting the vote

In the end, a motion to cut the county’s budget, including school funding, passed, 5-2, with commissioners Jennifer Horton and Moore opposed.

“As a mother and a product of Buncombe County Schools, I have a hard time sitting here before my community, when I ran on strong communities, to take $4.7 million away from our students,” Horton said before the vote.

“This is very painful for all of us,” commissioner Terri Wells said. “And I feel a necessary decision that we have to make to ensure that we are fiscally healthy. … It is an awful, awful choice to have to make.” 

Commissioners who agreed to the cuts said they had to choose between putting the entire county’s bond rating at risk or including education cuts. Several expressed hope money would be coming from the state to shore up school budgets. 

“What all of us have got to do is lobby the state,” suggested commissioner Al Whitesides.

Wells added, “We are advocating very strongly at the state level to be able to get flexible funding and with good terms that can help us with this revenue loss that we are facing.”

Commissioners have their eyes on a potential $100 million loan from the state, which could be distributed throughout the county as needed, including as a reimbursement to the school systems.

 In other news

•  Commissioners voted 7-0 to rezone 14 Hitching Post Lane, a 10.35 acre Asheville property near Leicester Highway, from an R2 residential zone to a CS commercial space. No members of the residential area spoke during public comment. Barney Danzansky of Equity Development Group, speaking on behalf of the property owners, said the rezoning would allow the property to keep up with other commercial developments in the area.
•  The board unanimously approved a request from Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry (ABCCM) to ask for an additional $2.8 million from the state’s Community Development Block Grant Recovery Housing Program. The money would go to Transformation Village, which provides housing to unhoused women, mothers with children, and veterans, to build a four-story, 64-unit building with 32 units dedicated to women and mothers in recovery from substance abuse. 
•  Commissioners voted unanimously to withhold $325,000 from the county’s property reappraisal and $596,342 from conservation easements. Commissioners voted to retain $78,000 in Early Childhood Education funding. 
• The board accepted a $500,000 grant from N.C. Parks and Recreation Trust Fund to replace the existing playground at the Buncombe County Sports Park. The project is expected to be completed in spring 2026.
• Lee Ann Smith was reappointed to the Library Advisory Board and Co-Kema Hines to the Juvenile Crime and Prevention Council. The reappointment of Andy Bobowski was postponed after  commissioner Moore asked for additional information about his employment history.   

This story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Reporting and Editing.