They set a March 9 public hearing at Knox Middle School to get answers and hear public comment on the proposed plan. The hearing begins at 6:30 p.m. in the school auditorium.

The school board met Tuesday night at Knox Middle to hear Superintendent Dr. Joe McCann explain his redistricting proposal for the 2000-2001 school year.

The plan would shift 721 middle school students from four current school districts to the new Southeast Middle School.

It would also send students from two middle schools to other schools. Corriher-Lipe Middle would lose 105 students to China Grove and 26 West Rowan Middle students would go to Knox.

And it would bolster flagging attendance at Salisbury High School by reassigning over several years 186 middle-school students who otherwise would attend East, South and West high schools.

McCann and Transportation Director Jim Christy said the plan resulted mostly from sending students to schools closest to their homes while attempting to get all middle and high schools to 90 percent of capacity.

That would allow room for growth. West Rowan High, which has seen its enrollment grow by about 16 percent in the past five years, is the fastest-growing high school in the system.

Christy told board members the staff did not consider racial balance, and only looked at the racial makeup of the schools after drawing the new boundaries.

But board member Kay Norman said evening out enrollment figures isn’t all the plan would do, and she doesn’t believe that’s all it’s meant to do.

She represents the West District, where minority enrollment is 21 percent at the high school. And she lives in the neighborhood that would be reassigned to Knox and Salisbury.

Pulling students from schools in that area seems an attempt to decrease the minority percentage at Salisbury, where minority enrollment would fall from 54 to 51 percent under the plan, she said.

“What we’re doing is changing demographics at a school ... and if that’s what we’re doing, we need to say that,” Norman said.

“It’s the right color people to get into that school and whiten it up and change the demographics” she said.

The school system received 17 comment sheets before the meeting Tuesday, most from residents of the Summerfield subdivision on N.C. 150, where 26 students would move from West to Knox.

In the written questions, residents asked why the system hasn’t planned better, if Norman would still represent the West district and why the shifts would leave West Middle 70 students short of the 90-percent-capacity target and Knox only 29 students short of that mark.

Though it wasn’t a public hearing and audience members weren’t allowed to comment, the meeting at Knox Middle School drew close to 300 Rowan County residents, Knox Principal Tony Helms estimated.

Not many offered support.

Bruce and Debbie Kolkebeck sat in the fourth row with a group of adults, many wearing blue sweatshirts with “WEST” in plain letters on the front.

At one point, they held up green and yellow signs with messages such as “Be Fair to Summerfield” and “Don’t Pick on Summerfield,” referring to the Summerfield subdivision off N.C. 150 where children now attend West Rowan middle and high schools.

The Kolkebecks said they have two sons, one a junior at West Rowan High and one a rising freshman who would attend Salisbury under the plan.

They both play sports. They’re both in the same weight class in wrestling. To split them now, they said, would be unfair.

“We worked hard to be in a community,” Bruce Kolkebeck said. “To stay in the West Rowan community would be the most equitable thing.”

Board member Vick Bost suggested that such situations might be handled with the system’s transfer policy. He asked McCann if two students in one family at different high schools could be considered a valid reason to transfer. McCann didn’t reply at the time.

Board Vice Chairman Bruce Jones asked McCann for information on a high-school attendance option that wouldn’t affect anyone now living in Rowan County.

The option would allow students in families living in existing attendance areas to attend high schools in those areas but could send students who move into those areas to other schools.

This option mirrors a Cabarrus County Schools policy that “caps”enrollment at certain overcrowded schools and deters people from buying homes in particular areas simply to attend those schools.

Board member Clyde Miller asked, as he and other board members said they have been asked, why North Rowan middle and high schools weren’t included in the plan.

According the statistics compiled by McCann’s staff, attendance at North High has decreased during the past five years.

Christy unveiled an optional plan that could send students to the North district from the West, East and Salisbury districts, or that could send some of those students to the Salisbury district from the northeast part of the West district.

The term “community” came up several times. Board Chairwoman Dr. Bettie Starr said she’s concerned that the plan would split the Granite Quarry community between two middle schools, Southeast and Erwin.

The entire town of Faith is included in the new Southeast Middle district.

“I think we need to preserve communities as much as possible,”Starr said. “To me, preserving communities has to be weighed against the 90-percent” capacity target.

Board member Dr. Ada Fisher said that Rowan County must see itself as one growing community, and that the school board should do what’s right for the whole county.

She invited people in the audience to call and tell her what it is they don’t like about certain schools. The school system needs to improve the image of schools like Knox and Salisbury, she said.

Fisher and others pointed out that it’s unlikely a new high school will be built soon.

Board members said they may put a bond package to a referendum. But they can build three elementary schools and add classroom space at other schools for the cost of one high school — about $26 million.

And, they said, they don’t believe voters will approve paying for new facilities unless they’re using the ones they have as efficiently as they can.

“These schools are going to be filled, and they’re going to be filled with some lines drawn that are going to make some people uncomfortable,”Fisher said. “We’ve got to quit politicking and do it fairly.”

Board member L.A. Overcash said the board could keep coming up with reasons not to redistrict one place or another. But the fact remains, he said, that lines drawn on a map aren’t permanent.

“If you live near a district line, there’s always a possibility of change,” he said.

Norman said she believes those changes can be made in a better way than in the proposed redistricting plan.

“I want us to do exactly what’s in the best interests of every child in this system,”Norman said. “But I know there’s a better plan. We haven’t seen it yet.”

Residents can see the proposed redistricting plan and maps at the school system’s administrative offices at 314 N. Ellis St. Comment sheets are available and will be forwarded to school board members.

The school system has set up a voice mail box for comments and questions. The number is 639-7050 extension 7060.

Comments can also be faxed to the school board at the administrative offices at 633-8514, to the attention of Kathy Walters.

School officials request that the comments include:

• Name, address, home and work telephone numbers.
• The number of children attending school, the elementary, middle and high schools they attend now and the schools they would attend in 2000-2001 under the proposed redistricting plan.