Blue Ridge School families demand action
Members of the Blue Ridge School community showed up to the Jackson County Board of Education’s August meeting to express concerns regarding the state of the school.
“Our school gets forgotten about quite a bit,” said Jamie Bumgardner in a letter to the board.
Board Chairman Wes Jamison said that board members have heard some concerns from Blue Ridge families over the last couple of weeks. He said that some of these complaints are the result of misinformation.
One of the complaints from families concern staffing shortages at Blue Ridge School. The school is currently in need of a media specialist, a fourth-grade teacher, a high school math teacher, data manager, school counselor and several child nutrition workers.
“At the end of the last school year, my fourth grader asked me, ‘Mom could I have you as my teacher next year?’” said Blue Ridge School mom Kim Aiken. “He explained that he didn’t have a teacher. My heart broke for him.”
Families also complained that the cafeteria is not operation. However, this is not due to any capital issues, rather that the school system has been unsuccessful at staffing the cafeteria at Blue Ridge. [see Staffing ,pg. 6]
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As a temporary fix, hot meals are being bussed twice a day from Cullowhee Valley to Blue Ridge School.
“Of course, we’re having staffing shortages district wide and we currently only have two schools that are fully staffed,” said Jamison. “We’re competing in a very competitive job market and it’s tough for us to compete based off the amount of funds that we received for these salaries, for these positions.”
In addition to meals from Cullowhee Valley, Blue Ridge School is receiving custodial support from other schools over the next several weeks; the media specialist from Smoky Mountain High School will be assisting on Tuesdays and Fridays for the foreseeable future; the school system is looking to hire a permanent substitute that can float to fill in where they’re needed; and central office staff have been working at the school almost daily to fill gaps as well.
The roof at Blue Ridge School was originally scheduled for replacement in two years’ time, however, because there has been such bad leakage, the timeline has been accelerated and the roof will be replaced this year. The board voted on a contract for the work at its August meeting.
According to Jamison, the average age of school buildings in Jackson County is 42 years. Blue Ridge School is among the older buildings in the district.
“Maintenance issues are inevitable, and just from some of the numbers I saw last year along our maintenance staff completed about 300 separate work order at Blue Ridge dealing with various issues,” said Jamison.
Six people came to speak in public comment about the challenges that Blue Ridge School faces, and two letters were read aloud by the board clerk.
“We are not treated the same, not even close,” said Kelly Miles, a mother of two Blue Ridge graduates and one current Blue Ridge Student.
Parents took to the public comment podium to complain about leaking roofs, faulty bathrooms, staffing shortages and more.
In an effort to allay staffing shortages at Blue Ridge School in years past the school system has offered certified staff, $100 extra per month for travel over a 10-month period. Additionally, at one point Jackson County transit operated a twice-daily shuttle from Cullowhee Valley to Blue Ridge School for staff at just $1 per trip. However, that was discontinued after seven months because, on average, one adult was riding per day.
In 2022, the school system offered principals at the school a $10,000 sign-on bonus and implemented a $3 pay differential for custodians.
“We started that last year and we’re continuing that,” said Ayers.
Jamison urged members of the public who showed up to voice concern for Blue Ridge School to continue advocating to other elected officials that control the amount of funding allocated to the school board.
“I think one of the most impactful things we can do is to advocate for more funding for public education,” Jamison said. “We do that by reaching out to our state representatives, our county commissioners, we need to let them know what we want our tax dollars spent on and that’s public schools.”
Jamison said that while those officials expect the school board to ask for money, it is important for them to hear from the public and know that that is what their constituents want money spent on as well.
The chairman also emphasized the importance of community support for the school.
“There are things we can all do to contribute to our schools’ success,” Jamison said. “We can volunteer, join the PTA, advocate for more funding. For example, I know Fairview School PTA, in the past couple of years raised money for a new playground, installed it with parent volunteers. Cullowhee did the same thing a few years ago. Fairview reached out in the past week or so because they’re short staffed in their cafeteria as well and asked for volunteers and I know I saw that Gayle [Woody] was volunteering out there the other day.”
The school system is actively recruiting to fill all vacant positions.
