The committee has until Feb. 1, 2001, to recommend options for redistributing students, with an interim report due Nov. 1.

It will meet for the first time by June 20.

The Board of Education approved the committee’s membership at its Monday night meeting. It also approved hiring a $500-a-day consultant to moderate the meetings.

The committee will be made up of the seven school board members and two people nominated by each board member, for a total of 21.

The committee includes local government leaders, school administrators, residents of various areas and parents of children in schools around the county.

Board member Vick Bost expressed concern that school board members and school principals might exercise too much influence over the committee’s process.

Tina Hall, Bost’s sister and Landis Elementary School principal, is a committee member, but Bost pointed out that he didn’t nominate her and said he didn’t know she’d be nominated.

“It’s not too late in the process to begin consideration of who should be on the committee and why,” Bost said.

In addition to school board members and principals, he suggested excluding Rowan County commissioners from the committee, though none of the commissioners was nominated.

He said he also fears that with school board members on the committee, the board would be “locked in” to any recommendations the committee makes.

All of those groups, he said, could attend the meetings as observers and provide information, but would not have any say in the committee’s work or decisions.

Board member Kay Norman said that while she wouldn’t mind excluding county commissioners and school principals, she thinks the school board has a role on the committee.

“I thought of it as a collaboration,” Norman said. “I thought of it as the community and the board partnering to come up with solutions.”

The rest of the school board agreed, and a 6-1 vote defeated Bost’s motion to exclude the three groups from the committee.

The board voted 4-3 to approve their nominees. Chairwoman Dr. Bettie Starr and members Dr. Ada Fisher, Clyde Miller and L.A. Overcash voted to approve the list. Bost, Norman and Vice Chairman Bruce Jones opposed it.

The board directed Superintendent Dr. Joe McCann to set a first committee meeting by June 20. And, at his suggestion, the board approved hiring a consultant to move the meetings along.

McCann said the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill has recommended a consultant at $500 per working day, which is less than Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools paid a similar consultant for its redistricting committee.

Starr said the moderator will be important because “in the best circumstances, redistricting is contentious.”

Under guidelines developed by McCann and approved by the board, the committee will determine what it needs to know, compile its findings, explore solutions, build consensus and make final recommendations.

Those recommendations should provide stability for student assignment in the 20,300-student system, as well as efficient use of existing schools, McCann said.

The committee should also consider the need to increase the diversity of students in the schools, he said.

Committee members are:

• Bost and his nominees: Lorna Rufty-Medinger, a parent of children in Salisbury schools, and Bryce Beard, a Salisbury businessman and volunteer teacher.
• Fisher and her nominees: East Spencer Mayor Kenneth Fox and Susan Norvell, active in Salisbury’s historic preservation.
• Jones and his nominees: Dr. Alan King, principal at South Rowan High, and Landis Mayor Fred Steen.
• Miller and his nominees: Joe Wilburn, a retired North district parent, and Johnny Smith, a North district parent and computer analyst.
• Norman and her nominees: Jay Boulter, a licensed family therapist, and Rick Parker, an executive at Rowan Regional Medical Center.
• Overcash and his nominees: Landis Mayor Pro Tem Gary Beaver and Hall, the Landis Elementary principal.
• Starr and her nominees: Rowan County Manager Tim Russell and Mary Ponds, Granite Quarry’s mayor and a teacher at South Rowan High School.