Cohen added to redistricting commission

BY SCOTT JENKINS
SALISBURY POST

The chairman of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners will serve on a committee to study long-term school redistricting issues.

A story in Tuesday’s Salisbury Post said that no county commissioners had been nominated to serve on the committee, though the county manager has.

Neither board member Clyde Miller nor school system officials notified the Post that Miller had substituted Cohen for Joe Wilburn, a North district parent who withdrew his name.

Board member Vick Bost called the Post on Tuesday, after the article ran, to explain that he referred to Cohen on Monday when he suggested banning county commissioners from the committee.

Along with commissioners, Bost asked the board to exclude school board members and principals as voting members of the committee, though they could attend the meetings and serve as resources.

Bost said he only learned of Miller’s substitution on Friday, when he received a newsletter from Superintendent Dr. Joe McCann with his agenda and information for the board’s Monday-night meeting.

All board members and some school system administrative staff received the newsletter, said Rowan-Salisbury spokeswoman Kathy Walters. The superintendent did not furnish the Post a copy, though it is a public record.

Walters said she learned of the substitution only Friday.

Miller said this morning that Wilburn removed his name from committee consideration for personal reasons. He chose Cohen because he “probably knew the county better than anybody I knew.”

He also named Cohen because he is a county commissioner, the source of a large part of the school system’s funding, and because he has been vocal about education, Miller said.

“He’s always had a special interest in education and it seemed perfect, because if our people on the committee see the need for a new school or anything like that, he should be one of the ones in on this, because that’s where our help comes from,” he said.

Early in planning the committee’s membership, another school board member, Dr. Ada Fisher, considered naming Cohen. But she withdrew his name when he didn’t respond to concerns Bost raised about Cohen’s views, she said today.

Bost said he believes Cohen favors closing Salisbury High School. He says Cohen made that statement “in the presence of witnesses” when the two men met at a grocery store.

“To my knowledge, I haven’t told him that,” Cohen said Tuesday. “The solution may be (turning Salisbury High into) some type of alternative or magnet school.”

Cohen — whose own proposed redistricting map ran in the Post — said he will be “level-headed” as a member of the committee but won’t rule out any options for redistributing students in the school system.

“All issues should be put on the table to be discussed,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything about the system that’s sacred, really.”