Morgan Parents Oppose Redistricting

BY SUSAN DICKERSON
SALISBURY POST

The meeting said what the Rowan County Board of Education has been reluctant to say all along: redistricting comes down to racial integration or segregation, depending on which parent you talk to.

The 140 parents, the majority of them from Morgan Elementary, started filling the room where the balcony's shadow began, avoiding the first two rows. They filled those seats forcing the late comers to fill the first two. As people still strolled in, the latest ones had to stand in the back.

Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education's second public hearing, this one on redistricting, filled the Long Street board room.

The crowd of all white faces had only one black person among them, former board member Eldridge S. Williams.

Of the schools considered for redistricting:

-Morgan Elementary is 98.1 percent white, .7 percent black (with three students), 1.2 percent other.

-North Elementary is 42.5 percent white, 53.6 percent black, and 3.9 percent other.

-Granite Quarry Elementary is 52.8 percent white, 41.2 percent black, and 6 percent other.

The board held the public hearing to get public input on Superintendent Dr. Joe McCann's recommendation on how to fill the new Henderson Elementary.

The first public hearing was to get public input on closing the year-round school at North Elementary.

The new school, scheduled for completion in July, has capacity for 768 students, and it has only 354 students enrolled now. When the school board originally expanded the capacity, the intent was for the new Henderson to absorb some of the overcrowding at North Elementary.

But McCann's recommendation brought in two additional schools for redistricting, Morgan and Granite Quarry Elementary.

However, at the last board meeting, McCann only presented numbers for redistricting North area into the new Henderson area, which would keep racial numbers about 50/50.

Granite Quarry Elementary has a capacity for 720 students and has 770. Staff predict and enrollment of 778 next year.

Morgan Elementary has capacity for 312 students and has 424. Staff predict 450 for next year.

North Rowan has room for 864 and has 946. Staff predict an increase there up to 956 for next year.

To alleviate the overcrowding in those schools, McCann has recommended the new Henderson attendance area include:

1 - the North Elementary area in East Spencer from Andrews Street south on Long Street to Correll Street, which would affect 157 students.

2 - the North Elementary area east of Interstate 85, Long Ferry Road and all roads that open onto Long Ferry, which would affect 90 students.

3 - the Heiligtown community that currently attend North Elementary, which affects 22 students.

4 - the Correll Street community that attends North Elementary. The East Spencer/Salisbury area on Long Street, Kenly Street, Butler Street and others, which affects 64 students.

5 - a Morgan Elementary area that includes Bringle Ferry Road and all roads that open onto Bringle Ferry, which affects 68 students.

6 - And lastly, a Granite Quarry Elementary area also on Bringle Ferry Road and all areas that open onto Bringle Ferry.

The new attendance areas would allow the new Henderson School to absorb the overcrowding at the other three schools, and the demographics at all four schools would remain the same, McCann predicted.

At the public hearing, board members heard from several more speakers this time the threat of another charter school, the day before the first received its approval from the state. (See related story.)

And parents were much more emotional this time in attempts to stake out their school boundaries, especially Morgan Elementary parents.

Fourteen of the 25 speakers spoke about Morgan Elementary and their desire not to move.

They don't want their children bused nine miles when their homes are three miles from the school. People have bought property in the Bringle Ferry area with the intention of sending their children to Morgan Elementary.

With such phrases as ''my child is happy at Morgan,'' and ''the caring and concerned staff at Morgan,'' those parents also said was they were happy with the caring staff, teachers and principal at Morgan.

Those statements brought tears and defensive attitudes from Henderson teachers and its principal, Dorothy Heath.

To the parents who spoke before her, one Henderson teacher and a parent, Leigh Yelton, said: ''It's an insult to our staff and faculty to imply that any child will not receive a quality education at Henderson. ... Your children will continue to be in a caring and nurturing environment at Henderson.''

Henderson has caring, creative, talented and supportive staff. ''Yes, we do serve a large number of (exceptional children). Our children may not be the richest children, but they have a lot of heart,'' she said tearfully.

She said she couldn't imagine parents not wanting to send their children to a brand new facility.

Speaking to the board, Yelton said, ''I hope you will not succumb to political pressure.''

Some of the other parents who spoke demanded that the school board take a courageous step and racially balance out all the schools, as some of them are 98 and 93 percent white.

Henderson parent Wendy Edwards, who also spoke at the Monday night public hearing, said she wanted ''an immediate redistricting of all of our schools.''

With so many schools with small percentages of black students, ''Rowan County is still living in the 60s,'' calling the self-imposed segregation ''unconstitutional.''

The high numbers of black students, a large number of whom come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, can't flood North Elementary any longer, Edwards said. ''No one teacher can give the needed attention to students with so many great needs.''

And she closed by saying, ''don't let your vote be guided by family or by district.''

After the 25 speakers ended, the board quickly adjourned with no discussion.

The board holds its regularly scheduled meeting Monday, and on the agenda is review and discussion of the year-round program and redistricting.

But will the board make a decision? Members don't even know.

After polling all seven of the board members, three are ready for a vote, one wants to postpone, one wants to see a redistricting map, and two others don't know.

That board meeting starts at 7 p.m. Monday and will be at the same location, the board's Long Street offices in East Spencer.