Consultants advise against consolidating Asheville City and Buncombe County schools; urge targeted collaboration

A consultant team contracted to assess whether Asheville City Schools (ACS) and Buncombe County Schools (BCS) should merge recommended against consolidation, concluding there is no compelling evidence it would improve student performance or substantially reduce costs.

Prismatic Services lead consultant Dr. Tasha Prieta presented the firm’s analysis and recommendation to the three elected boards, citing a legislative mandate (House Bill 142) that required a consolidation study but did not prescribe analytic methods. “We did not recommend consolidation of ACS and BCS,” Prieta said near the end of the presentation, summarizing the team’s conclusion after reviewing data, interviews and community feedback.

Why this matters: the study was ordered by state law and could influence local and state decisions about whether to merge the two districts. The recommendation against consolidation does not end policy work: Prismatic identified a range of operational, boundary and equity issues that the two districts and Buncombe County should address together to reduce costs and improve student outcomes without merging.

What the study found and recommended

Prismatic reviewed more than 1,100 documents, conducted 68 interviews, hosted nine in-person community forums and visits to 35 schools. The firm’s framework combined research evidence, constituent preferences and functional reviews (governance, transportation, child nutrition, finance and…