Letter: Better to renovate Enochville than close, build new later

Published 12:00 am Sunday, February 16, 2020

Here we go again with Enochville School. I’m with the readers. We want to keep it.

Can’t the people of Rowan County have a voice? Can the board of education hear us?

I just read the article published Tuesday (“RSS board to revisit Faith, Enochville closure scenarios”). This board makes no sense at all. Why are they complaining about Enochville school not having enough students? They are the ones that built a school and bused students 50 miles out of their neighborhood.

With our tax money, they want to spend a staggering fortune to demolish the school and then build more elsewhere. Wouldn’t it make better sense to upgrade Enochville school, which would be a tremendous savings? Let’s not forget about what all has been done to update this school and not so long ago. There could be additional maintenance personnel hired.

All this factored in would still be much cheaper than building another school.

This is a community landmark. I would like to pose a question to the board: do you not think that land near Enochville school will develop with businesses, jobs and houses in the very near future? Those houses will have children that will need a school to attend. If you tear down Enochville school, what will be the solution? Build another school in the Enochville area? This board of education needs to use their college education and go figure. They will spend more money building new than if they left Enochville school alone.

Upgrade as necessary and hire more maintenance people. We, the people, pay our taxes and say “no” to destroying something that is totally unnecessary. Growth and development will be practically next door. Supply and demand will require students to attend school, and Enochville Elementary should be right there, conveniently located for new home buyers.

Gwen Johnson

China Grove