The Asheville City Board of Education approved a one-time employee retention bonus of $1,000 for the fiscal year 2025-26 budget at its Oct. 13 meeting.
According to the recommendation, written by Asheville City Schools (ACS) Superintendent Maggie Fehrman and Chief Financial Officer Heidi Kerns, ACS can afford the bonus due to “a better-than-projected fiscal-year ending for last fiscal year and a lower-than-anticipated impact on the fund balance for 2025-26.”
Because of Buncombe County’s tax rate, however, ACS did not qualify for state-funded teacher raises. As a result, teacher compensation will decrease by at least $826 for the 2025-26 fiscal budget…