Future of Salisbury High stirs dissension

Continued debate about the future of Salisbury High School has divided the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education.

Three members had planned to meet last Tuesday with Superintendent Dr. Wiley Doby and several business leaders from around Salisbury. The other four school board members were not told of the meeting.

The other members found out after rumors spread that some people planned to protest the meeting. But organizers then canceled the meeting.

School board member L.A. Overcash, one of the members who was not invited, said the planned discussion about Salisbury High contradicts the school board’s pledge to operate openly — a commitment stated repeatedly since Dr. Wiley Doby was named superintendent in January.

“They’ve talked about keeping people informed,” Overcash said. “I’m tired of it. I’m not going to put up with it.

“Everything we do should be in front of the public with a vote. We can’t be running around doing things on our own.”

Board member Dr. Ada Fisher said she wasn’t too surprised when she found out about the meeting.

“I wasn’t too excited when Ifound out,” she said. “There’s always been an undercurrent of people who want to close Salisbury High School.”

School board member David Aycoth arranged the Tuesday meeting to gauge support for building a new Salisbury High and moving Knox Middle School to the present Salisbury High building on Lincolnton Road. He would like to see the current Knox Middle campus used for the school system’s central offices, which are now scattered among several sites in Salisbury, East Spencer and the county.

Aycoth said support is growing within Salisbury to build a new high school. But he realizes that many oppose the idea.

“There is a segment of the population that does not want us to even put this discussion on the table,” he said last week. “...If the people of Salisbury are so adamantly against it, then so be it.

“I know I’m catching a lot of heat. That comes with the job, I suppose.”

Overcash said he hasn’t heard from any staff members or families of students at Salisbury High who want a new school. “I think (Aycoth) is finding out he’s wrong. With the new facilities needs we have, we don’t need to replace a high school,” he said.

To build support from the public for a future bond referendum to pay for new schools, the school board must operate openly, Overcash said.

“We’re not going to get a bond passed doing stupid stuff like this,” he said of the canceled meeting.

Aycoth had invited school board Chairman Clyde Miller, board member Martha West, Doby and business leaders from around Salisbury. One of those business leaders invited did not return a phone call from a Post reporter.

Miller defended the meeting, saying it was only intended as a way to hear what some residents think about Aycoth’s ideas. Legally, members didn’t have to announce the meeting publicly because only three of them were going to attend — just one short of the “quorum” that requires public notification.

“We still want to be as open as possible,” Miller said.

Board members Miller and Fisher have stated that they would rather see Salisbury and North Rowan high schools expanded to the size of Rowan County’s three other high schools before a new high school is built.

North Rowan High has a capacity for 800 students; Salisbury High has room for 975 students. East, South and West Rowan high schools can house 1,428, 1,554 and 1,113, respectively.

“I personally would love them to add on to” Salisbury High, Miller said. “I’d love to see all of the high school students added onto to make them 1,200 students.

“That would be the cheapest way to house our high school students.”

Bryce Beard, who graduated from Salisbury High when it was still Boyden, wants to exhaust every possibility before building a new school. But he’s glad Aycoth is at least offering options to handle the school system’s bulging enrollment.

As with any changes, opening and closing schools will always upset people, Beard said.

“In a community that can find an argument about a median down the middle of a highway, don’t you think there’s going to be at least as much passion in an argument about where our children are educated?” he asked.

Contact Brad A. Hodges at at 704-797-4266 or bhodges@salisburypost.com .