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Board of Education to hold public hearing on Tuesday, March 16
Please know the Asheville City Board of Education is holding a special called meeting and public hearing tomorrow, Tuesday, March 16, 2021 at 5:00 PM in the Board Room located at 85 Mountain Street.
The purpose of the meeting is for the Board to hear from you as they receive public input on the potential closure of Asheville Primary School and relocation of the Montessori program to Hall Fletcher Elementary School. As a reminder, the Board is not considering selling the APS building at this time and comments will be limited to the issue of closing the school and re-assigning the students effective for the 2021-22 school year. To learn more, please refer to the drafted Asheville Primary School Study here.
In order to keep our families and staff safe, individuals have two choices to provide input:
1) Speakers may appear in-person; however, attendance in the Board Room will be limited. Speakers may not be able to remain in the room after making their comments.
2) Individuals can send their comments via email to kimberly.jones@acsgmail.net by tomorrow, Tuesday, March 16th at 4:45 PM. Emailed comments will not be read but will be provided to all Board members and, as public records, all emailed comments will be posted on the Board’s website.
In order to ensure that every person who wants to speak in-person is able to speak, we are asking families to please follow the guidelines below:
- Sign up for in-person public comment will be set up outside the Board Room starting at 4:00 PM. Each person speaking will be assigned a number and time limit (3 minutes for individuals and 10 minutes for an individual speaking for groups of ten or more). Each person speaking will be allowed to speak one time during the hearing.
- As we move from one speaker to the next, we will make an announcement so those waiting in their cars can hear and see when it is their turn to speak.
- In order to ensure the announcement is both seen and heard, we are asking speakers to please park in the lots closest to the Board Room.
- Knowing there is limited seating in the Board Room, we will ensure that the speaker and the next to speak are included in the capacity count for the duration of the Public Hearing.
- Locations for the speaker and next to speak will be clearly marked on the Board Room floor.
- There will be waiting space available for the next three to speak outside the Board Room on our covered walkway.
- We will provide additional seating in the Training Room for viewing should the attendance in the Board Room exceed social distancing guidelines.
- Similar to how all public comments operate during our regularly scheduled monthly meetings, the Board will not reply to what is shared or answer questions but may seek clarification.
In order to support our families, please know the Public Hearing will be available for viewing on the district’s website and YouTube.