She wants her daughter, an eighth-grader at China Grove Middle School, to go to South Rowan High School. Under the Rowan-Salisbury schools redistricting plan proposed last week, her daughter would go to Salisbury High.

“I know what the school board’s trying to do,” said Leazer, who lives off Roseman Road near U.S. 29. “But you can’t uproot a child from friends she’s known since kindergarten and put her in a school. High school’s scary enough, without having to lose all your friends.

“I think we would honestly move. And we moved here in 1975, added on and have it just the way we want it. It’s paid for.”

Leazer wonders how many students are already in schools out of the districts in which they live. Her concerns sound typical of rural Rowan County residents fearful that their children may have to attend school in Salisbury.

Kay Norman, who represents western Rowan County on the school board, said she’s heard only criticism of the plan — especially from those in the Summerfield subdivision. For years, residents there have fought the city of Salisbury against annexation, and only recently won a case in the N.C. Court of Appeals.

“My telephone has been in overload all weekend,” Norman said this morning. “People have some real concerns. They ask me what my opinion is, and I’m waiting for all the information.

“ ... I’ve not heard one positive comment. Not one. This community feels enormously put upon, because it spent all this money to fight Salisbury against annexation.

“When you take out a cluster of people who care about a school and you pull them away, that takes something from that school. I don’t want to see a school that has a selective, country-club type of atmosphere.”

Rick Parker lives in the Summerfield subdivision and has a daughter in sixth grade at West Rowan Middle that would have to move to Knox. He doesn’t understand why the plan calls for 26 children in his community to move to Knox, while more than 50 at Knox would attend the new Southeast Middle School that will house 720 students this fall.

“We’re supportive of the schools. But to slice through the families out there doesn’t make sense. There seems to be a lot of politics involved. I’m just trying to work a job and raise three kids. But I’m going to have to get involved in this.”

Steve Drinkard, also of Summerfield, wonders why the redistricting plan doesn’t move more students to the north.

“Our feeling is that it’s not equitable,” Drinkard said. “They’re not even looking at north.”

Because most new house construction takes place on Salisbury’s outskirts, enrollment has risen in rural schools while dropping in the city. That has school officials trying to ship more students from the rural schools to Salisbury High and Knox Middle. At the same time, they must keep bus rides short.

The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education meets Tuesday night to talk about the plan and to set a date for the first of at least two public hearings, system spokeswoman Kathy Walters said. The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium at Knox Middle School.

A map of the proposed districts is on display in the lobby of the school system’s administrative offices at 314 N. Ellis St.

Walters said she has assured many parents since the plan came out that it is not final.