If Rowan County had to choose between building a new school central office and paying teachers, the teachers would come out on top, no question about it.
But that is not the choice the school system and the county face right now. Building funds cannot be used to pay teachers’ salaries. Instead, our leaders have to decide if now is the time to initiate construction of a new school headquarters, a process that could take as much as a year just to get started. The answer is yes.
Some people will never get past the preliminary question to this debate: Does the Rowan-Salisbury School System need a new central office? Despite dangerous conditions in the East Spencer building that houses 66 school employees and despite the difficulty of coordinating an administration of 151 employees spread over five buildings, some people will always oppose spending money on a central office.
That’s fine. Classroom construction must be the system’s top priority. But now that the system has completed a round of school construction and growth has slowed, a small window of opportunity has opened up for bringing its school offices up to date, too, in a functional, practical way.
The window opened as the economy turned from the boom times of 2006 ó when China was buying up building materials, and cost overruns on new schools were in the millions ó to the global recession of 2009, with high unemployment and low tax revenues. For those who have a source of funds, though, the cloud has a silver lining. Contractors are eager for work and bidding is competitive.This could be the perfect time to build.
Assistant Superintendent Gene Miller learned that when he opened bids for a project at West Rowan High School recently. The low bid for stadium work expected to cost $400,000 came in at $246,000, and aluminum bleachers expected to cost $230,00 or more came in at $139,000. Across the country, community colleges and schools are finding good news when they open bids for public projects.
No one knows what will happen with the economy. Let’s hope the recession runs its course in the next 12 months. Constructing a new school headquarters is a longterm project that can take a year to put up to bid and a year or more to build. The county’s first payment could be more than a year off. The school system’s payments would come from its capital fund, funded by the sales tax and corporate income taxes. (The county uses N.C. Education Lottery proceeds to make bond payments.)
Commissioners have given this project a tentative OK, but a final vote is yet to come. Some people consider the central office an ill-timed waste of money, and Chairman Carl Ford says this may be the hardest decision he’s had to make. He certainly won’t be able to please everyone. But Rowan County is in better shape than most; so far it has not cut education funding this year, while Mecklenburg and Cabarrus have.
Ford and the other commissioners should make their decision based on longterm needs, not just present circumstances. The need for a central office will not go away if commissioners vote no this year. It will be put off until another day, a day when the economy is better but costs will have risen and bidding won’t be as competitive. This is a rare moment. The county should make the most of it.