The plan is intended to address discipline and safety issues raised by parents and teachers at a Jan. 10 Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education meeting.

After the meeting, at which the parents and teachers asked for help getting the school under control, the school board ordered an investigation.

Their concerns included discipline and academic progress, and the plan includes measures aimed at addressing them.

“They seem to go hand in hand,”board member Vick Bost said. “I think the plan attempts to focus on both.”

School board members adopted some initiatives proposed in the schools superintendent’s plan, but deferred action on others.

Initiatives approved by the school board or enacted by McCann under administrative authority are:

• A Rowan-Salisbury Safety Administrator assigned by McCann to schools with safety, discipline or health problems. Cost is $25,000 this year, $50,000 next year. He arrived at North Rowan Middle Jan. 14 and will stay as long as McCann wants.
  
• A school security officer to work with the current school resource officer, a police officer assigned by the Spencer Police Department. Cost is $12,000 this year, $24,000 next year.
  
• A licensed teacher to instruct and monitor a self-contained classroom for repeat offenders. Cost is $15,000 this year, $35,000 next year.
  
• System-wide staff training in crisis response and working with students who have behavioral problems. Cost is $25,000 this year, $25,000 next year.
  
• Invite N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s Western State Safety Team to assess North Rowan Middle and make recommendations.
  
• Give North Middle an additional two slots at Henderson Independent High School, the system’s alternative school, bringing the total to five.

The board decided to delay and study other proposals:

• Incentive pay for teachers working in schools that have never achieved exemplary status.

McCann recommends $2,000 a year per teacher, totalling $164,000 for 82 teachers at North Middle and Henderson Independent High School.

• An early-hire program to fill anticipated vacancies with experienced or newly licensed teachers.
  
• Changing voluntary transfer guidelines to require new teachers to work at least two years at a school before becoming eligible to transfer.
  
• Two new lead teachers at North Middle with limited teaching responsibilities to serve as mentors, demonstrators, observers and evaluators for other teachers. Cost would be $45,000 this year, $90,000 next year.

The total cost of McCann’s proposed initiatives would be $122,000 for the remainder of this school year and $388,000 next year.

While he supports what’s needed to improve North Middle, board member Vick Bost said, “Money doesn’t grow on trees”and he doesn’t want to spend it unwisely.

Bost and Norman voted against the staff training. Norman said she’s not sure the training would be right for North Middle’s problems, and Bost agreed.

“I am not opposed to spending money for staff development,”he said. “But Ido not want to buy a pig in a poke.”

Bost also expressed doubts about hiring a security officer, who would overlap schedules with the school resource officer.

Bost voted to hire the officer pending a visit to the school by the state’s Western State Safety Team.

The team, which travels western North Carolina evaluating schools for safety, could come as early as next week, McCann said.

After visiting the school for two to four days, the team will make recommendations to the local school board, he said.

At least one board member said she doesn’t like the image projected by hiring a second security officer at North Middle. No other school has two.

“That has the look of, I want to say, a prison,”said board member Kay Norman.“It certainly doesn’t look like people in charge of day-to-day activities have a handle on things.”

But board member Bruce Jones said if students, teachers and parents at North Middle are concerned about safety, then the officer is needed.

“We heard several weeks ago that we have a desperate need,”Jones said. “I am not really worried about the image right now. I’m worried about getting results.”

That measure passed unanimously, but Norman abstained from the vote on Safety Administrator Johnny Brown, which passed 6-0.

The measure passed only after board members changed his title from North Rowan safety administrator to Rowan-Salisbury safety administrator.

Some board members don’t like Brown reporting directly to McCann.

Bost acknowledged that Principal Dr. Lamont Foster has come under fire from some parents and that the board has replaced principals, but he said Foster remains in charge of the school.

“As long as that principal is there, we ought to have a chain of command,”Bost said. “I’m very bothered about having a staff member there who doesn’t report to the principal.”

The board made Brown’s job a “roving”one. McCann can assign him to any school with safety, health or discipline problems and keep him there as long as needed. He’ll still report to McCann.

Board member Dr. Ada Fisher, who excused herself from the meeting after the first few votes due to the flu, said the entire plan leaves her wanting more.

“It sounds good, but I’m profoundly concerned that it makes North Rowan Middle School students sound as if they are somehow different,”Fisher said. “We have a systemic problem.”

She said Knox Middle School has similar problems, if not of the magnitude faced by North Middle.

Norman pointed out that the problems at North Middle are being addressed now because parents and teachers asked for help.

Parents and teachers filled the meeting room Monday night, though not to overflowing as they did on Jan. 10. After the meeting, parents said they think the plan is a step in the right direction.

“I feel like Dr. McCann has really put together a good plan,”said Peggy Mills, a North Middle parent. “I think he’s trying to help our school.”