There’s no glory in serving on a school board, at least not in North Carolina. State legislatures control your policies and purse strings. Parents sling arrows at you online and at public meetings. There are efforts to turn school board elections into overtly partisan affairs and pass legislation forcing teachers away from certain books, curricula and even classroom conversations.

This is the first in a two-part conversation with board members George Sieburg and Amy Ray of the Asheville City Schools, and Ann Franklin and Amy Churchill of Buncombe County Schools. We talk about the responsibilities and considerations that go into their work, how control at the legislature affects and limits how school boards respond to conditions in their own districts, and the evolving social and political climate playing out at school board meetings.

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