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SNOWFALL TO REACH 4-6 INCHES, FORECASTERS SAY

Henderson County News

Class size mandate would cost county $3.5M and could crowd upper grades

A law ordering smaller class sizes in K-3 classes would cost Henderson County schools $3.5 million a year for new personnel and new mobile classrooms, the School Board learned on Wednesday. And if the schools did not come up with extra money, the class-size mandate could mean bigger classes in higher grades or dropping music, art and other non-core instruction in elementary schools, administrators said. After a site visit at Edneyville Elementary School, the School Board met briefly in the school library and previewed items on Monday night's regular business agenda. Among the items on the docket is a report from Scott Rhodes, the school system's chief human resources officer, on implementing the class-size mandate the Legislature enacted last summer. In a presentation he prepared for the Monday night meeting, Rhodes reports that the mandate would force the school system to add 48 teachers or shift that many from higher grades to kindergarten and first, second and third grades. The personnel cost would be $2.5 million. A second consequence of the law is that the school system would have to add new classrooms to meet the class-size mandate. Rhodes calculated that elementary schools would need to add 21 mobile units to accommodate the new classrooms. "When you start adding 48 positions you have to have some place to put them," Rhodes said. Chair Amy Lynn Holt brought up the class-size mandate on Wednesday and asked whether the Legislature had allocated money for the extra teachers the law would require school districts to hire. It did not, Superintendent Bo Caldwell said. School Board members had little immediate reaction since they had just learned of the cost and potential impact on upper grades or other programs. "In other words, we have to find 48 teachers with no additional money and no additional alotment (of state-funded teachers)," said board member Mary Louise Corn. In interviews on Thursday, Caldwell and Rhodes said school districts are lobbying the Legislature to pull back from the mandate. Although the state House passed a fix that school districts favor during a special session last month, the bill died in the Senate when the General Assembly adjourned. "I think you can find out how other school systems have really started looking at this and how it’s going to change how we look at class size," Caldwell said. "A lot of schools don’t have the extra space for these classes." He cited Atkinson Elementary School as an example. "He’s got to have two more or three more K-3 classrooms. Well, there’s no place to put them." Administrators also say putting a request for more money in their budget request for the 2017-18 school year is not a good option because counties adopt their budgets by July 1 while the Legislature often goes into overtime and enacts a budget later in the summer. "There would not be an expectation for that to happen," said Rhodes, of a request for an additional $3.5 million for 48 new teachers and 21 mobile units. "The commissioners have been generous in trying to give the schools what we've asked for. To ask for another $3.5 million, that's not a realistic expectation." Last summer the Legislature ordered the state's school districts to lower the maximum average K-3 class size from 21 students to 18 in kindergarten, 16 in first grade and 17 in second and third grades while reducing the maximum individual K-3 class size from 24 students to 21 in kindergarten, 19 in first grade and 20 in second and third grades. House Bill 13, which local school systems favor, relaxed the changes. The maximum average class size next school year would be 21 students in kindergarten, 19 in first grade and 20 in second and third grades. The bill also would have set the maximum individual class size next school year at 24 students in kindergarten, 22 in first grade and 23 in second and third grades.     Read Story »

Henderson County News

City puts protective roof on mill

The city of Hendersonville is putting a temporary protective roof on the Grey Hosiery Mill, not paying to reroof the 100-year-old building.   Read Story »

Flat Rock News

Go tail it on the mountain: Dogs coming to Playhouse

Canines and comedy collide at the Flat Rock Playhouse in a smash hit performance that’s leaving audiences everywhere howling for more. From shelters to showbiz, the amazing mutts unleash havoc and hilarity in a breathtaking, action-packed comedy dog spectacular, featuring some of the world’s most talented 4-legged performers. Deemed a "Must See" show by the Washington Post, Mutts Gone Nuts: A Canine Cabaret features furry stars that are sure to steal your heart and then your socks! Performances are 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11. Individual tickets for this event and the rest of the Flat Rock Playhouse 2017 season go on sale on Monday, Jan. 9. For tickets call 828.693.0731 or visit flatrockplayhouse.org.   Read Story »

Hendersonville News

Volk, Stephens urged no vote on county's HHS plan

In advance of a crucial up-and-down vote, Hendersonville Mayor Barbara Volk and Councilman Ron Stephens urged Henderson County School Board members to vote no on the construction plan for Hendersonville High School that the Board of Commissioners had approved. The calls came in the days before the School Board voted, under pressure from the commissioners, to endorse the $53 million construction plan that abandons the historic core classroom building and auditorium as a part of the county’s oldest high school.School Board members said in interviews this week that they had received calls from both Volk and Stephens. Two members who spoke with the Hendersonville Lightning, Rick Wood and Michael Absher, voted in favor of the county-endorsed construction plan. Chair Amy Lynn Holt, the most outspoken advocate for continued use of the old Stillwell-designed classroom, said she was aware of the calls but had not received one herself. She assumed that may have been because “they figured they had my no vote.”“They basically were encouraging us to not go to forward — to vote no,” said School Board member Michael Absher, who voted with the 4-2 majority for the HHS plan the commissioners first OK’d last spring. “They just felt like they didn’t want to be put in an awkward positon.”Absher wasn’t happy with the communication from Volk and Stephens.“It kind of really irritated me,” he said, “…based on public officials shouldn’t be calling another public official trying to sway their vote. I didn’t think it was right. You didn’t hear the county commissioners calling me and saying, ‘Hey, you got to vote this way.’”(Commissioners had made their position known publicly by demanding the School Board take an up or down vote on the HHS plan and pledging shelve the plans of the School Board voted no.)“Yes, she did give me a call,” Wood said. “I don’t remember the particulars so I’d rather not quote her. If I remember correctly the overall tone I got was that she would prefer we voted to stop it so that the city didn’t have to make a decision on it. I don’t remember if she said she was speaking as an individual. When Ron Stephens called me he did make it clear like he did in the School Board meeting that he was speaking as an individual and not as a member of the City Council. She didn’t put bigtime pressure. I just got the feeling she would prefer that if we voted to stop it the city wouldn’t have to deal with it.” ‘What our voters want’ In one call, Volk suggested that the will of city voters is against the county’s HHS plans.“I just for very selfish reasons hope that you would vote against the proposal for Hendersonville High School Monday night,” she said in a voice mail she left with one School Board member. “That throws it into the City Council’s lap and I know it would be very defensive for us and (it) very well might get turned down for problems with the parking and what our voters want. I know it’s a difficult situation for you and I wish you the very best at that meeting and thank you for your consideration.”In an interview on Monday, Volk confirmed she had made the calls to School Board members.“I called some of them just explaining (that) I hoped they would turn it down because it was going to put the City Council in such an awkward position,” she said. “It was so controversial and they were putting the decision off on the council. It was putting us between our citizens and the voters. I hoped they would just wait until the strong feelings calmed down and it would be discussed in a less emotional fashion.”Stephens defended his public statement at the Dec. 12 School Board meeting in which he accused the Board of Commissioners of bullying the School Board into accepting the all-new HHS plan.Both Stephens and Volk say they saw nothing in their efforts that would disqualify them from hearing and voting on an expected zoning request for the new school.“No, I am not” disqualified, Stephens said. “Before I did that I met with our city attorney and he agreed that if I stated at the beginning that I’m not there as a representative of the city but as a taxpayer and a concerned citizen it would not be (a conflict). I never mentioned the zoning. The only way I ever mentioned the high school is that I asked them to postpone that and my main reason was to to ask them to do the (Edneyville) grammar school first. And I am convinced that they are violating the law and I think that’s very disturbing. I feel like the Board of Education let the county commissioners bully them and I think they joined the county commissioners in violating the law. I wasn’t even thinking about the zoning. That’s not the reason I was there.”Stephens acknowledged that the zoning applicants may object to his comments and to Volk’s behind-the-scenes lobbying.“They may try to make an issue out of it but the city attorney strongly feels like I am not disqualified,” he said.City Attorney Sam Fritschner said attorney-client privilege barred him from answering a reporter’s questions about the matter.“I can’t answer that for you,” he said when asked if their comments would disqualify Stephens and Volk. “I can only give legal advice to my clients.” Nor could he confirm, he said, whether he had spoken with Stephens and/or Volk about their right to express an opinion about the HHS project in advance of a council decision on the matter. Fact-based hearing Mayor Volk said she has not made up her mind about the project and emphasized that in the quasi-judicial setting of a special-use permit her opinion doesn’t matter.“It’s not something that I can really talk about one way or the other because it is quasi-judicial,” she said. “We have to consider what is presented to us at the meeting. We have to go by what the ordinances say. If they can prove that they have abided by all the requirements it would get approved. If they can’t prove it, they would have to go back and make some modifications before we could approve it.”In fact, she predicted that HHS supporters may be frustrated that the council won’t be able to vote no just because some members disagree with the decision not to use the historic building.“In a quasi-judicial hearing we really have to look at the law and whether they have proved that they have fulfilled” what the city ordinance requires. “It’s not just our opinion (or the council’s view that) I don’t like this,” she said. “It’s kind of like a court case. It has to be legally binding. You can’t consider what people would like to see. It has to be what the law will allow. That’s why we have to be very careful. We’ll just wait and see what happens.”Absher also said the city had sent a letter on city letterhead expressing opposition to the county commission-approved plan. The Lightning obtained a copy of the letter. The undated letter was on plain paper and sent to the School Board in a city of Hendersonville envelope. The letter heading said it was from “A Taxpayer and Voter in Henderson County” and was intended for School Board members. “Please vote against the plan the Henderson County commissioners are trying to force upon the taxpayers and HHS,” it said. EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Stephens' last name as Edwards.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Gerton Fire & Rescue receives higher rating

Gerton residents could see lower homeowners insurance costs with the news that the Gerton Fire & Rescue Department has received an improved fire protection rating from the state. Insurance Commissioner and State Fire Marshal Wayne Goodwin announced Tuesday that Gerton received a rating of 4 from the previous 6. (The lower the rating number the better.) An inspection, conducted by officials with the Department of Insurance Office of State Fire Marshal, is required on a regular basis as part of the North Carolina Response Rating System. Among other things, the routine inspections look for proper staffing levels, sufficient equipment, proper maintenance of equipment, communications capabilities and availability of a water source. The fire rating goes into effect April 1 and some homeowners and  businesses could see a decrease in fire insurance premiums. "It truly depends on each insurance company" when it comes to premium reductions, said Gerton Fire Chief Jay Alley. Businesses could be more likely to see reductions than homes, he added. "We had increased training, which helped tremendously," he said. "The Grand Highlands water system (on Bearwallow Mountain) helped, too. We now have paid staff." The department has a full-time firefighter covering the station 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. "We're just excited about it," Alley said. "For us with the limited resource we have to get a 4 is astronomical.""I'd like to congratulate Chief Alley for the department's performance and for the hard work of all the department members," said Commissioner Goodwin. State law requires OSFM officials to inspect departments serving districts of 100,000 people or less, which makes up all but six of the state's fire districts.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Don't miss this week's Hendersonville Lightning (111)

You won't want to miss this week’s Hendersonville Lightning.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Commissioners predict Clemson v. Alabama outcome

The annual college football national championship predictions was a rerun of last year’s, when Henderson County commissioners broke 4-1 for Clemson and only one got it right. This time three commissioners said Clemson would win and two went for Alabama. Only Grady Hawkins called it a year ago, predicting Alabama's win over the Tigers in the national championship game. The same two teams play on Jan. 9 for the college football championship. Chairman Michael Edney, a South Carolina graduate with a son who roots for Clemson, said this year the matchup was "close enough that I can go for the Clemson Tigers this one time,” Edney said. (Actually, he also predicted Clemson a year ago.) “All I can say is my money and my no. 3 son went to Clemson so I have to go with Clemson,” said Commissioner Bill Lapsley.Hawkins again went with Alabama. “I’m going to pull for Alabama because I haven’t seen them play yet,” he said. Commissioner Charlie Messer, the only commissioner to predict Florida State’s win over Auburn in the 2015 championship, said, “My heart is with Alabama and my brain is with Clemson so I’m going to go with Alabama." Commissioner Tommy Thompson, who likes to say that he knows fishing better than football, was the only one to predict a point spread. "I say Clemson my 3 points," he said. County Manager Steve Wyatt, the instigator of the annual picks, suggested it's Clemson's time. "If they play five times Alabama wins four but I think Clemson’s going to win this one," he said.     Read Story »

Henderson County News

County SWAT team assists in Rutherford arrest

The SBI is investigating an officer-involved shooting in Rutherford County on Thursday during which sheriff's deputies shot at a man who fired at them. The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call for service regarding a domestic disturbance with weapons in the Bostic area of Rutherford County on Thursday afternoon. Responding deputies encountered Tony Brandon Lane. During the course of the encounter, an armed confrontation ensued. Initial reports indicate deputies encountered sporadic gunfire from Lane, the SBI said in a news release. Four Rutherford County deputies fired at Lane during the armed confrontation. The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team was requested to respond to assist in approaching Lane and determine his status. Lane was located some time later with a gunshot wound to the torso and was transported to a medical facility. The four deputies who discharged their weapons during the incident were identified as Andrew Weathers, Zachary Walker, Tyler Greene and Jeffery Smith. The independent SBI investigation is ongoing, and the SBI will provide the criminal investigative report to the district attorney when complete, the news release said.   Read Story »

Flat Rock News

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Four stories to watch in ’17

As soon as they ring in the New Year, Hendersonville and Henderson County leaders will confront plenty of leftover issues and new challenges. Here are four things to watch in 2017:   Read Story »

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