BY BRAD A. HODGES
SALISBURY POST

Proponents of building a new Salisbury High School have repeatedly fueled their argument with the threat that the Kannapolis school system could someday dissolve.

But Kannapolis schools have no desire or intention to merge, Kannapolis Superintendent Dr. Ed Tyson said.

“It’s certainly not imminent,” Tyson said. “Kannapolis city schools are growing, not declining. Our kids are doing well, and scores are climbing. We don’t have the need or desire to merge.”

If the Kannapolis system merges with the Rowan and Cabarrus county systems, some members of the Rowan-Salisbury Redistricting Committee warn that hundreds of students who live in Rowan County and now go to Kannapolis’ A.L.Brown High School might have to attend South Rowan High School instead. And South Rowan already has 1,500 students.

“No one’s advocating it will happen, but if we’re looking long-term, we have to consider it,” said Rowan County Manager Tim Russell, who is on the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education’s Redistricting Committee and a prime advocate of a new Salisbury High.

State officials aren’t pushing Kannapolis to merge.

“We’ve got more than we can say grace over without stirring the redistricting pot,” said Phil Kirk, a Salisbury native who is chairman of the N.C. Board of Education. “We don’t have the time or desire to go in and get school systems to merge.”

The state accepted a merger plan this year between Shelby, Kings Mountain and Cleveland County, which the city systems immediately challenged in court. Then, earlier this month, the newly elected Cleveland County Board of Commissioners dissolved the merger.

City school systems have merged with county school systems all around the state in recent years, but 19 city systems remain, including Kannapolis, which straddles Rowan and Cabarrus counties. Davidson, Surry and Catawba counties each have three school systems.

Russell and many others on the redistricting committee who support an entirely new high school say replacing Salisbury High makes the most sense because it is so close to North Rowan. Others believe the existing Salisbury High has room to grow.

“Obviously,” Russell said, “I think at some point in time, when the number of city systems has diminished enough, there will be a move to merge the remaining city systems.”

The Kannapolis school system is in an unusual position, however, because unlike most city systems, it has no taxing authority. Instead, it relies on Rowan and Cabarrus property taxes. Salisbury’s school system levied a property tax of 10 cents before it merged with Rowan County schools in 1981.

“We don’t feel any pressure from the state,”Tyson said of a merger. “At this point, there’s no official move.”