By Rebecca Rider

rebecca.rider@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — The Rowan County Tea Party was the first to get a close look at Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education candidates when it hosted the election’s first candidate forum Tuesday.

Seven of the eight candidates vying for seats on the board attended. Gene Miller, running for the board’s fifth seat, did not attend.

Rowan County Commissioner Craig Pierce opened the night by asking candidates if they would be open to restructuring the school system’s administrative personnel in order to eliminate duplicate positions and cut costs.

All seven candidates said that they would be in favor of examining the administrative structure.

“When you run a business it’s one of those things that has to be done,” Michael Julian said. Julian is running for Seat 3, representing the eastern part of the county, against incumbent board Chairman Josh Wagner. Julian added that he hoped that such a request from the county would not also reduce funding for the system.

But candidates also cautioned that such a move would need to be done strategically.

“It’s very difficult to take jobs away from people, to take positions away from people. It’s easy to say, ‘Absolutely, I’m for that. Let’s just start cutting.’ You gotta look at it more strategically than that,” Wagner said.

Susan Cox, running for re-election for the board’s southeastern seat, said that administration had gone through a restructuring in recent years. Byrd and Hughes said they would like to see any money saved from restructuring go towards increasing teacher salaries.

School consolidation

Local attorney Todd Paris asked the next question, addressing a proposal the board heard in spring of this year. Paris asked if school consolidation, presented in April as the potential closure of six area elementary schools, was still on the table, and if candidates thought it was a good idea.

Byrd, Julian and Andrew Poston — running against Cox and Dr. William “Rob” Robertson — said they were against the idea.

The April proposal prompted Poston and Julian to run for seats on the board.

Hughes said that he was against closing schools and tailoring attendance zones, but that he would be in favor of merging — where two schools were closed after a new school was built. Poston said he would also consider such a situation.

Cox and Wagner pointed out that in April the board was just receiving information, and was beginning to look for a solution to a problem: too many old buildings, rising capital costs and a tight budget.

“We know we needed to do something,” Cox said.

But Cox said the board is still seeking answers to the problem, and said she could not give an answer while there were still so many unknowns.

“We’re still going to look at information and we still need to consider,” she said, “But I cannot give you an answer today because we have not done enough due diligence.”

Wagner added that the board knew that the proposal wasn’t feasible, which is why it was removed from the table. Wagner was one of four board members who voted to dismiss the proposal in May.

Salisbury High

Another Tea Party member dug up an old Board of Education debate about Salisbury High School. A few years ago, he said, the board had discussed closing Salisbury High School due to a shrinking student population. Were any of the candidates open to doing something like closing Salisbury?

Wagner said, in regards to that specific question, “I don’t know,” but said that the closure of any school had to be considered strategically and with a long-range plan.

“You can’t just close schools and start shipping kids out … because then you’re setting yourself up for failure down the road.” he said.

Poston said that student population decline was worrisome, and added that turning the building into a vocational school could help boost numbers — but there wasn’t enough information for him to say for certain, one way or another.

“I think closing Salisbury is a discussion,” he said, “I can’t give an opinion on that without looking at numbers and crunching things.”

Julian said he wouldn’t be opposed to the closure, and mentioned that before Carson was built he’d remarked that the board should close Salisbury.

“So to say that, I think it would probably be a good idea to close Salisbury and move those kids out into the county,” he said, “There’s plenty of schools that are close by … but to say that it’s not a good idea, it would have to be definitely looked at. Would we ever be able to do it? I don’t think so but, I don’t think it would be a bad idea.”

Hughes, Byrd and Cox were against the idea.

“Isn’t it rather disingenuous to say, ‘Well, we don’t want these community schools closed … but we could close Salisbury?’” Cox said.

Robertson, who arrived late, used the question to give his thoughts on consolidation, in general.

“I will never say I’m 100 percent against consolidation, but I’m very, very cautious about it,” he said.

Other questions asked included if members thought the school board should have taxing authority, and if candidates thought that the board’s seat 6, representing East Spencer and parts of Salisbury, was fair.

The next forum will be held on Saturday, Oct. 1 at Johnny’s Barbeque, 8640 U.S. 52, Rockwell. The Rowan County Republican Breakfast Club is hosting the forum. The meeting begins at 8 a.m., and the forum will begin at 9 a.m.

Contact reporter Rebecca Rider at 704-797-4264.