SALISBURY — The Rowan-Salisbury Schools Board of Education is scheduled to get its first look at more detailed plans for the closure of Faith and Enochville Elementary schools on Monday.

The presentation is scheduled to come roughly two weeks after school board Chairman Josh Wagner presented a plan that would shutter Faith at the end of this school year and Enochville at the end of the 2019-2020 school year, but the school system is also gathering data on closing Enochville at the end of this year, too. To date, the most controversial part of Wagner’s plan would shift Faith students to Koontz Elementary and disperse about 240 Koontz students among nearby schools.

The plan seeks to make some progress toward consolidating schools — a possibility discussed for years about which no decision has been made. Wagner says there are enough empty seats in the Rowan-Salisbury School System for five and a half average-sized elementary schools. That’s coupled with the fact that capital needs at aging schools have exceeded $200 million, according to data compiled last year by a capital needs committee of community members.

In the weeks since Wagner’s presentation, Faith parents have rallied to protest the closure through in-person meetings, letters to the editor published in the Salisbury Post and posts on social media. Faith Alderman Randall Barger, helping organize an opposition effort, says the group is also raising money for attorneys fees and to stop the plan and exploring the possibility of opening a charter school.

“We’re told, ‘It’s a gift. Just pick up Faith and move it. Bring your community to Koontz. We’ll give you a brand new school,’” Barger said. “You can paint the school a different color, change the mascot and all of this bologna. And (Wagner) thought we were going to be happy about it. And we weren’t”

One particular item of concern has been that Faith Elementary’s school performance grades are consistently among the best in the Rowan-Salisbury Schools district. Koontz consistency ranks among the worst in the district. But Koontz students are also more likely than Faith to have experienced one or more of a number of adverse childhood experiences such as poverty, abuse, violence, divorce or sexual abuse. And those traumatic experiences can have an affect on the academic performance of students.

“This is all about bringing up test scores at Koontz,” Barger said.

Transitioning to a new school may be difficult for Faith, Koontz, Enochville and any other elementary school that receives students as a result of the consolidation, Barger said.

While the logistics and the feasibility of Wagner’s plan are expected to be presented Monday, specifics about staff findings are unclear. Wagner told the Post he’s only seen pieces of staff findings and that the school board and general public will both hear information for the first time on Monday during the school board’s 5 p.m. meeting at the Wallace Educational Forum — 500 N. Main St. in Salisbury.

On Friday, Wagner said binders of information were being put together. Binders will be handed out at Monday’s meeting and are expected to include information about closing Enochville at the end of this school year, too, he said.

‘Not fair to anyone’

The speed at which the school board could go from introduction of a plan to closure — a few months — is “borderline unethical,” said Tim Williams, a former mayor of Faith and an organizer of the opposition effort.

After hearing the staff presentation on Monday, the school board could choose to schedule a public hearing about the closure of Faith and/or Enochville. However, that would require a majority of school board members — four of seven — voting in favor of scheduling the public hearing.

A vote to close could not occur on Monday.

Still, Faith parents have raised questions about a wide range of items related to the closure, saying dollar amounts tied to capital improvements at Faith Elementary are “fabricated numbers.”

One frequent question among Faith parents is an estimated $470,000 needed for paving at the elementary school. There’s simply not enough asphalt at Faith to justify that estimate, Barger said.

Other concerns from Faith focus on how the elementary’s school closure might affect the surrounding community. Barger, who previously owned the Faith Soda Shop, said parents and people associated with Faith Elementary would come in the morning for breakfast and in the evening, too. Business was particularly tough on snow days or in the summer, he said.

Businesses in town depend on the traffic from Faith Elementary, he said.

Until the year 2044, the town is also making annual debt payments of about $100,000 for a sewer project that included Faith Elementary, said town clerk and finance officer Karen Fink.

Barger raised the specter that closing Faith might negatively affect the debt payments, as the school is the town’s largest, single sewer customer. Barger, however, said he wasn’t sure exactly how finances might be affected.

Williams said he’s hopeful that the school board hasn’t made up its mind.

“They received a proposal written by Josh Wagner and suddenly everything has changed right before our eyes,” Williams said. “Everything was just pushed away that was worked on for more than a year.

While there’s been a loud cry against closure from Faith, voices in the Enochville and Koontz communities have not been as vocal or organized to the closure plan that emerged earlier this month. And Wagner says he “feels bad” that the general public has not heard as many voices from Koontz and Enochville through media reports.

Finances

Prior to Monday’s meeting, the only piece of funding tied to Faith and Enochville’s closure has been $500,000 to allow for cosmetic changes or improvements to Koontz Elementary.

A much larger chunk of funding in Wagner’s plan— $59.5 million — is allocated to three basic items — $20 million for renovation of Knox Middle School in the 2020-2021 school year, another $20 million to renovate North Rowan High School and move a career and technical education center there and $19.5 million to address existing capital needs across the district.

Those dollar figures rely on estimates prepared by County Manager Aaron Church showing that the county will have capacity for about $60 million in new debt in the 2022 fiscal year. That total, however, comes with caveats that interest rates remain low, the county does not incur any additional debt for the next five years and that property values and sales tax revenues remain at or above the current level.

And, while county government has incurred some additional debt since Church first prepared the estimates, financing has been relatively small, he said.

Finance Director Leslie Heidrick said the county’s annual debt payment for public schools is $9.8 million this year, $10.1 million in the 2020 fiscal year and $5.7 million in the 2021 fiscal year.

Contact editor Josh Bergeron at 704-797-4248.