School board votes to close Asheville Primary School

After a year of public hearings, community protests and parents fighting tooth-and-nail to keep Asheville Primary School open, the Asheville City Board of Education voted Dec. 13 to close the campus on Haywood Road.

In a 3-2 vote with board Chair James Carter and member Peyton O’Conner the opposing votes, the board heeded Asheville City Schools Superintendent Gene Freeman’s recommendation to close the West Asheville school effective beginning in the 2022-23 school year.

School board member George Sieburg introduced the motion to close the campus at 441 Haywood Road after dozens of parents, teachers and community members addressed the board in a nearly three-hour public hearing Dec. 13. The board also held a public hearing Dec. 7.

“I came onto the board with a commitment to close the achievement gap and to advocate for black and brown students,” Sieburg said. “And as I look at this study, I see a school that even pre-COVID was under-enrolled. I see a school that is over-resourced in terms of its ratio of students to teachers compared to the rest of the district.”

Read more: https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/2021/12/13/teachers-parents-object-closure-relocation-asheville-primary-school-school-board-vote/6503466001/
(Asheville Citizen-Times)