EAST SPENCER — Defenders of Salisbury High School continue to suggest that it must draw more students from Rowan County’s more crowded high schools before a new one is built.
But others on the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education’s 21-member Redistricting Committee say a new high school is needed even with Salisbury High now 200 students below its capacity.
County Manager Tim Russell said Rowan County’s five high schools are already near capacity overall. He and several others proposed a replacement school for Salisbury High just outside the city limits.
“We’ve talked about moving the kids to Salisbury,” said Russell, a member of the redistricting committee. “Have we ever talked about moving Salisbury tothe kids?”
Committee member Bryce Beard believes Rowan County taxpayers aren’t likely to want to go $35 million in debt for a new high school when Salisbury High has ample room.
“That’s good and well to say,” Beard said. “But when you’re talking about asking people to pass a $35-million bond referendum, that ain’t gonna fly.”
Prompted by signs along N.C. 150 and flyers in their mailboxes, about 20 residents in West Rowan High School’s district turned out Monday night. It was the Redistricting Committee’s ninth meeting since it began its weighty task almost four months ago.
Many curious parents peered over maps on a table to see where committee members suggested lines be drawn to separate high school districts.
Like Beard, school board member Dr. Ada Fisher said she opposes building a new high school until Salisbury High is filled. Minorities too often must leave their neighborhoods to attend schools elsewhere, she said.
“The reality is black people are always having to move,” said Fisher, who is black. “They’re going to have to travel out to the suburbs. What we do is take the disadvantaged, the poor, the disenfranchised, and we always make them move. I think it’s time the well-off moved.”
Fisher wondered whether families outside Salisbury only oppose sending their children to Salisbury High because minorities represent about half the school’s enrollment.
“This county is afraid of the diversity of that school and it needs to get over it,” she said. “…Why don’t certain people want to be in certain schools? You can call it what you want, but that’s the way it comes across to me.”
Few members suggested where district lines should go. But several committee members again proposed “grandfathering” students affected by changes — thus affecting only those who enter ninth grade.
They also said that those farthest from the schools they would normally attend should be the first to face reassignment.
Bruce Kolkebeck, a Summerfield resident who has two children at West Rowan High School, said he helped spread word among neighbors about Monday’s meeting.
At the next meeting on Nov. 14, the committee is expected to discuss racialdiversity among the high schools.
Though school board members serve on the committee and have attended most meetings, the committee is expected to give the board an interim report of its progress when the board meets on Nov. 6. It won’t likely finish its task of redistricting high schools until early next year, and only then will begin looking at redistricting elementary and middle schools.
Dr. Alan King, a committee member and principal of South Rowan High School, urged committee members to be patient.
“There is certainly no idea on anybody’s part to push an idea through,” King said. “I don’t think that would ever happen. I think there’s fear in the community that we’re going to do that.”
Committee member Rick Parker agreed. “I’ve done some self-reflection over the weekend, and I think we should take some time and not rush,” he said.
Superintendent search
School board members Monday night continued to discuss finalists for the Rowan-Salisbury Schools next superintendent.
But board Chairwoman Dr. Bettie Starr doesn’t expect a decision before mid-November. Superintendent Dr. Joe McCann retires on Dec. 31.
Candidate forum
A final forum for school board candidates before Election Day takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday in the cafeteria at the new Southeast Middle School. The school is on Peeler Road near Interstate 85.
All candidates except Starr, who is unopposed, and David Bates have committed.
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