By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
The second public hearing on the proposed high school redistricting plan for the Rowan-Salisbury School System will be held at 6 p.m. Monday in the Southeast Middle School gymnasium.
Southeast Middle is located at 570 Peeler Road.
Those who wish to speak will be asked to sign up before the hearing and limit their comments to three minutes. Dr. Jim Emerson, chairman of the board of education, said at an earlier meeting that the hearings would be limited to 90 minutes and that another one would be held if there are people who do not get an opportunity to speak.
The first public hearing, held this past Monday in the Knox Middle School auditorium, lasted only an hour, and 22 people spoke. The delegation from North was in favor of the plan and those from the East and West districts opposed it. All seemed to agree on their opposition to Salisbury being the only one of the six high schools that would not be affected by the proposed redistricting plan.
About 350 people attended the hearing.
Emerson said he expects the Southeast hearing to be conducted about the same way as the one at Knox, which he said went pretty well overall.
“I know we had a number of outbursts of applause,” he said, “which is to be expected when you’re dealing with a highly controversial and an emotional and contentious issue. I thought all in all that the people acted very civilized.”
Emerson said he hopes all the board members are keeping an open mind and listening to what people have to say. “I don’t want this to just be a public venting,” he said. “I think we have public hearings in order to do the will of the public. We’ll just have to see.”
The proposed redistricting plan is expected to be on the agenda for the board’s November meeting, Emerson said, “depending on the outcome of this or when we have time to digest what’s been said to us.”
“Then it will be a question of ‘Do we proceed?’ and ‘If so, how, and what groups will be involved and what grade levels will be involved?’ ”
Board member Bryce Beard said at the board’s Oct. 26 meeting that members were in agreement on ensuring any approved redistricting plan would not affect students currently in any of the high schools.
Emerson and board members Kay Wright Norman and Patty Williams voted against redistricting the high schools at the board’s Oct. 12 work session. But they were outnumbered by the others who voted to proceed.
Norman said she also thought the Knox hearing went well. “I wish when people are expressing their views that they would not express their views at the expense of someone else,” she said. “I don’t know when we will grow to the point when we can do that as humans.
“You state your case that is relevant to you … but there’s no reason to attempt to destroy anyone else. We’re just talking about a different perspective.”
Norman said she would hope speakers would keep in mind that all of the high schools have students and teachers who work hard and not put any of the schools down.
“I am not in favor of redistricting,” she said. “I don’t see the purpose for it right now. … We have a lot of stability in our schools right now, and we haven’t always had that. … We may not be at that perfect 10, but we surely are not at imperfect three. I think seven, almost an eight, is where we are right now.”
Board Vice Chairwoman W. Jean Kennedy said it’s important for board members to hear from citizens before making certain decisions “because what we do is going to impact the lives of a lot of people.”
“I would not have considered doing any type of redistricting without any input from our citizens,” she said. ” We know that everybody won’t be happy with what happens, but I always keep our student population as my focus of decisions we make, and I feel that students deal with change much better than their parents do.”
Kennedy voted in favor of the proposed redistricting plan at the board’s Oct. 12 work session along with Beard, Karen South Carpenter and Linda Freeze. Emerson, Norman and Williams voted against it.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249.