RFP Staff

♦ On Monday April 25th at 4 p.m. the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education is scheduled to conduct a business meeting at the Wallace Educational Forum board room at 500 N. Main Street in Salisbury, N.C. A public comment period is scheduled where the public can air their grievances and concerns about the proposed redistricting plans where six Rowan County elementary schools (Morgan, Faith, Mt. Ulla, and Enochville would closed along with Cleveland and Woodleaf Elementary Schools)

The school board will further discuss another retreat to examine the proposed redistricting and the potential six elementary school closings.

Monday’s BoE Agenda:

https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/ViewMeetingOrder.aspx?S=800&MID=1967

The rear of the Wallace Educational Forum:

RFP Staff

♦ EXODUS REAL ESTATE IS COMING TO SALISBURY! The Promised Land Waits O’er the County Line. No Fake Research, No Busin’ and No Gettin’ Up at the Crack of Dawn to Line Somebody’s Pocket!

Todd Paris, Staff Writer

♦ One of my favorite Broaday musicals is “The Music Man,” a Broadway hit and Tony Award winners with a hit 1962 movie adaptation. The plot concerns con man, Harold Hill, who poses as a boys’ band organizer to sell band instruments and uniforms to the naive townsfolk, promising to train the high school band members. The rub: Mr. Hill was not a musician and planned to skip town with the money. I highly recommend the child-friendly movie to families. Selections are on “YouTube.”

In a totally unrelated matter; on April 7, 2016 the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education, including members Josh Wagner, Chuck Hughes and Susan Cox under the leadership of Superintendent Lynn Moody released “Salisbury Schools Redistricting Preliminary Investigations.” This report includes only a “Scenario 1” and this preliminary investigation apparently was produced with the assistance of sfL+a Architects.

sfL+a Architects build schools:

See: http://www.sfla.biz/work/k12/

They appear to be quite competent and construct beautiful, energy efficient school buildings.

While a complete critique of this preliminary Investigation and its “Nightmare Scenario” is beyond the scope of this article, the “harm” sought to be corrected is school overcapacity. We have too many open seats and the answer is to close rural elementary schools, produce approximately 100% utilization in remaining schools and construct nice new merged ones closer to the I-85 corridor. BoE member Chuck Hughes publically stated the costs may exceed 100M. The plan would close down to six rural elementary schools and disrupt over 4,000 elementary school students and affect nearly every elementary school district in the county. No need to guess or estimate on this. This info comes from their plan attached at the bottom of this article.

Talks of spending huge amounts of money on new schools in a school system that is overcapacity are not unique to Rowan, nor is the involvement of sfL+a in such a discussion. This is also happening right now in Robeson County, North Carolina.

http://robesonian.com/news/86796/robeson-county-schools-plan-up-for-debate

To quote Gabrielle Isaac’s April 23rd, 2016 article in “The Robesonian,” Robeson County schools plan up for debate:

“The proposal is for 30 schools to close, 14 to be built, including a career and technical high school, and five to be renovated” and quoting an official with the firm, “Robbie Ferris, president of the sfL+a Architects, says the K through 8th grades schools would have one entrance with separate corridors for each grade level. “

The article goes on to say, “The Raleigh firm has built more than 1,000 schools in North Carolina and South Carolina. The plan is for the school system, under a lease-purchase agreement, to pay off the cost over the course of 40 years. Proponents say the system will save money in the long run because of reductions in the cost of maintenance, heating and cooling and other expenses related to the conditions of the schools.”

Businessdictionary.com defines “conflict of interest” as “A situation that has the potential to undermine the impartiality of a person because of the possibility of a clash between the person’s self-interest and professional interest or public interest.” This could occur if the architects that the BoE claimed to assist with the “investigation” to determine whether we need to close schools and build new ones are allowed to be the managing architects on the new school construction. Such fees regularly exceed 5% of the total cost of the project.

There may be some that assume I am off-mark and that awarding the managing architect for school buildings would be, by law, lowest sealed open bidding or some such scheme. They would be wrong. While a full discussion of this beyond the scope of this article, “the procurement of professional services performed by architects, engineers, surveyors, and construction managers at risk is governed by G.S. 143-64.31,” sometimes referred to as “The Mini-Brooks Act” (from NCSOG’s “Coates Cannons” – link below) The BoE is required to use the Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) scheme that “focuses on the qualifications of potential firms rather than their fees or the price of the contract.” Who better qualified to do the management than the firm that helped with the “investigation?” For those seeking a better understanding of this process:

http://canons.sog.unc.edu/mini-brooks-act-faqs/

This could easily have been be averted by a contract clause that said if sfL+a helps create the report that they will not be eligible to be managing architects the new construction. On April 19, 2016 I submitted a FOIA request to RSS asking in part, “Please provide any and all documents between sfL+a and RSS, including but not limited to any agreements or contracts that sfL+a will not be the managing Architects for any school construction.” There has been no response.

The only way to sell a school system on building more schools is to close schools. Then you create 100% utilization and need to build more schools. Standard rates for Architectural firms are about 5% of the total cost. The estimated cost published in local print media for the West Consolidated Elementary School (from at the board’s April 28, 2015 meeting) was $26,018,925. 5% of that is 1.3 million dollars. Multiply that by how many new schools? It is unknown at this time.

As far as the BoE is concerned, I guess if you have school system under capacity you need to build schools. That’s easy. If you have school system over capacity you don’t need to build more schools. That’s easy too. If you want to build more schools and have overcapacity, you need to close schools to achieve 100% capacity, and then if there is any growth at all, then you have under capacity again and have to build more schools, right? When I call my plumber and ask if I need a plumber…

Will sfL+a agree not to design the new schools and “bow out” due to the conflict?

The Rowan-Salisbury Schools Redistricting Research Posted Here:

Rowan-Salisbury Schools Redistricting “Research” Posted Here. Is This Research Legitimate? Does a “Conflict of Interest” Exist?

RFP Staff

♦ In a tale seemingly carved out of the old West, Timothy D. Graham AKA “Dakota”, 25, of 5855 Bertie Avenue in “unreconstructed” Rowan County and a breaking and entry felon, was the victim of a knife assault Sunday during an argument with a unnamed assailant. Sometime around 12:29 p.m. residents at the Bertie Street address called 911 and Rowan County Sheriff’s Office deputies showed up. “Dakota” Graham sustained minor injuries during the assault. No suspects were named and no motive revealed. The knife assault remains under investigation.

Recently “Dakota” Graham was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon (felony).

Persons with any information about this assault are urged to call the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office at 704-216-8700 or the Salisbury-Rowan Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.

Timothy “Dakota” Graham’s Previous record:

http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi/viewoffender.do?method=view&offenderID=1081513&searchLastName=Graham&searchFirstName=timothy&searchMiddleName=d&listurl=pagelistoffendersearchresults&listpage=1

**This article will be updated as more information arrives.**

Knife fighting legend Jim Bowie and American hero in the motion picture “The Alamo”:

RFP Staff

♦ Yesterday ROWAN RURAL SAVE OUR SCHOOLS, many sporting red shirts, packed the School Board meeting at the Wallace Educational Forum on 500 North Main. Some 14 Rowan Rural Save Our Schools supporters spoke at the meeting’s public commenting period against school system’s redistricting plans. The plans promise to close Morgan, Faith, Mt. Ulla, and Enochville elementary schools along with Cleveland and Woodleaf elementary schools already scheduled for consolidation.

Brooks Overcash, a 9-year old student at Enochville Elementary and 2nd speaker up, stirred the crowd when he said: “If you close our school, you close our community.”  Tough act to follow.

Leaders, all familiar to ROWAN RURAL SAVE OUR SCHOOLS and to a growing legion of public support across Rowan County and Salisbury, spoke out against the school’s redistricting plans and SfL+a architects byzantine “research” that would ship youngsters on endless bus rides to lower performing schools and toward Salisbury. The parents and their supporters say: “No can do–not happening.” The Bringer of All Light is rumbling in the heavens.

The case against school redistricting is a slam dunk and if the nightmare scenario is ever actualized, it will no doubt lead to a human wave motoring out of Rowan to higher ground in other counties, far from the Salisbury’s corruption and greed and a bottom-rated school system.

Todd Paris, Andrew Poston, Michael Julian, Mike Lyerly, Doug Cline and others at RRSOS who became overnight household names throughout Rowan County for their school system activism. Many of RFP’s thousands of readers across the region are surprised by the school board’s announcing their redistricting plans prior to an election and then attempting to distance themselves from it when they saw the massive outcry against it. Their original hardline allegiance to the redistricting plan is not forgotten or is Wagner’s claims on Charlotte TV that RRSOS gatherings threatened violence. When Cox, Hughes, and Wagner announced their original support for redistricting, observers saw their position as a mindless lemming leap into a sea of public anger unlikely to waver come election time.

Yesterday Andrew Poston announced his intention to run for the Southeastern Board of Education Seat (currently occupied by Susan Cox) and Michael Julian announced his run for the Board’s Eastern District Seat (For the moment occupied by Chairman Josh Wagner). RRSOS is currently vetting worthy candidates to replace Chuck Hughes who swore undying allegiance to the redistricting plan.

The current BoE will be conduct meetings across Rowan County to discuss the issues and allegedly hear feedback. The first in the series of meetings will take place on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at West Rowan High School where the BoE will attempt to discuss the merging of Cleveland and Woodleaf. RRSOS will speak out about at the county-wide consolidation because that’s by far the more pressing issue.

Is this meeting for the parents and taxpayers? Or is it for the BoE only?

A Potential Conflict of Interest Revealed in Rowan-Salisbury Schools Preliminary Redistricting Investigation:

A Potential Conflict of Interest Revealed in Rowan-Salisbury School’s Preliminary Redistricting Investigations

RFP Staff

♦ “She had a hundred hideouts, but was never safe in one.” Hollywood subtitle.

The world suddenly shrank around Stormy D. Wilson, a longtime felon on the lam with a record in North Carolina and allegedly West Virginia, when she was snared this morning at 517 North Enochville Avenue in South Rowan.  Stormie was handcuffed just after 3 a.m. and led out to an awaiting Sheriff’s Office vehicle.  This run was over.  She’d be cooling her heels in a steel cage at the Rowan County Detention Center.

Wilson was charged as a fugitive from justice (felony).  Under a secured $100,000 bond, she remains in the Rowan County Detention Center.  Her first hearing is scheduled for May 27th.

Arrested along with Wilson was 16 year-old Catherine Sumner Snow who was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia (misdemeanor).

Stormi D. Wilson’s Previous Record in North Carolina:

http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi/viewoffender.do?method=view&offenderID=0619463&searchLastName=wilson&searchFirstName=stormi&searchMiddleName=d&listurl=pagelistoffendersearchresults&listpage=1

**This article will be updated when more information arrives.**

Stormi D. Wilson:

ThePilot.com/John Lentz

♦ Big Trouble in Moore County: Cost of School Construction Projects DOUBLE

http://www.thepilot.com/news/cost-of-school-construction-projects-doubles/article_2fff3a32-505a-11e5-b1ca-6770662a90aa.html

CEDMagazine.Com/Laura Hamilton

♦ Reactions to FCC Chair and DoJ’s Approval of Charter/Time Warner Cable Deal:

http://www.cedmagazine.com/news/2016/04/reactions-fcc-chair-and-dojs-approval-charter-time-warner-cable-deal

RFP Staff

♦ ALERT: A community meeting, put on by the current Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education, will take place at West Rowan High School on Thursday April 28th at 6:30 P.M. 8050 N.C. 801, Mt. Ulla, N.C.

The meeting is being promoted as a so-called discussion of the “merging” of Cleveland and Woodleaf.  The present school board chairman Josh Wagner is quoted saying that “no county-wide consolidation discussion will occur at the meeting”.  Really?  Rowan Rural Save Our Schools isn’t interested in discussing county-wide consolidation because that isn’t the issue.  The issue is redistricting 4 elementary schools (Morgan, Faith, Mt. Ulla, and Enochville) based on hokum research that will send our youngsters on endless bus journeys to underperforming schools in the direction of the “Bury”.  Not happening Buster Brown!

We are calling out ROWAN RURAL SAVE OUR SCHOOLS in an powerful demonstration of free speech and protest to tell the world we are not down with the Board of Education’s plan to do in our local elementary schools based on hokum research.  We are welded to the process of immediately deep sixing the redistricting plan, clearing out three seats on the BoE up for grabs in November, and ending Superintendent Lynn Moody and Anthony Vann’s contracts immediately.  The Rowan-Salisbury School System has been damaged enough and taxpayer money flung into the wind.

Rowan County is outraged and will come out in force in November.  Moody and Vann must go!

FIGHT THE POWER!  FIGHT THE POWER!

RFP Staff

♦ Devin A. Brown, 22, made his bid and put 12 hours and 50 miles between him and the Brown Creek Correctional Facility in Polkton, Anson County before state correctional officers, K-9s, and area law enforcement surrounded him in a lonely wooded area in Landis, N.C.  N.C. State Highway Patrol helicopter blades thrashed the air overhead and dogs yowled as they handcuffed Brown after his surrender and marched him out of the woods to awaiting law enforcement vehicles.

Our collective hearts weep for the young man who will no doubt add to his 5 year sentence for habitual impaired driving. Record has it that Brown was due for release in March 2019…That was before he rolled the dice and came up snake eyes in the woods by Cannon Farm Road.

A lot of young men make bad decisions and he’ll be getting some extra time to think that last one over. Unless he gets another bright idea again.

Mama Tried.

Devin A. Brown’s Previous Record:

http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi/viewoffender.do?method=view&offenderID=1181458&searchLastName=brown&searchFirstName=devin&listurl=pagelistoffendersearchresults&listpage=1

Rabbi Will McCubbins, China Grove, N.C.

♦ That Salisbury, N.C. became a major hideout for “hard cases” and sex offenders in flight from law enforcement from across North Carolina and from Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee comes as no surprise to anyone noticing Salisbury’s meltdown over the last decade. You could even toss in the absconders from Chicago and border cartel towns in Mexico. “Salisbury is the Place”.

Someone on the run can blend in Salisbury easy and find a spot to bed down and go virtually unnoticed until they get caught speeding, pop one convenience store too many, or start messing with underage children and come up on the radar.

Hardly a week goes by when some criminal absconder or sex offender from way outside the county shows up in the Rowan County Detention Center compliments of Sheriff Auten and his deputies. That Salisbury became a magnet for criminal types fleeing justice has not gone unnoticed.

Why has Salisbury become a draw for the criminal element and sex offenders? When I’ve talked to my friends in local law enforcement, retired peace officers, and big shot attorneys on Council Street they’ll all tell you just about the same thing. Salisbury became a HUB CITY for Criminals and Sex Offenders on the run owing to following reasons:

• Words out in the prison networks that Salisbury is a super place to disappear in.  Like small cities everywhere they lack the manpower of police departments in larger cities like Charlotte and Raleigh.  The Salisbury Police are well known to be badly understaffed and inexperienced.

• The Bury is an easy spot to blend in and go unnoticed.  A fellow or woman strolling around in a dirty t-shit, soiled pants, and a gray hoodie is not going to stick out in Salisbury.  That’s standard dress in the Municipal Services District.

• The police in Salisbury can’t check the guest list at North Carolina’s largest homeless shelter so a new guy in town can fade into obscurity quickly.

• What is it now?  Almost 900 plus abandoned houses in Salisbury to bed down in.  Numerous squats and tarp cities around town and down by the creeks provide ready protection from the elements and an entry point for a newbie to the local criminal networks.

• Looking to find heroin, meth, or crack?  In Salisbury it’s beyond easy to score drugs Downtown and on many street corners.  This easy access lays down the welcome mat for new arrivals.

Salisbury is the Place.  It’s got EZ painted all over it.

Still the best advice for law abiding citizens is to get a permit for concealed carry and pack if you have to adventure into the Bury.

RFP Staff

♦ In a town full of unsolved murders and viscous street assaults, Harold Clinton James, 57, of 809 Park Avenue in Salisbury, got a taste of the area’s late night street crime when he got jumped on the 500 block of Park Avenue before midnight on Tuesday.  Shaken by the event and its suddenness, James luckily came out of the assault uninjured.  The robber came away empty-handed.  The 500 block of Park Avenue in Salisbury is not to be confused with New York’s upscale Park Avenue.

The assailant was a Black male.  No other description is available at this time.

If someone has information about this robbery they are requested to call the Salisbury Police at 704-638-5333 or the Salisbury-Rowan Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.

A church stands sentry on the 500 block of Park Avenue in Salisbury, N.C.:

RFP Staff

♦ An armed robbery was reported by the Salisbury Police at Livingstone College at 701 Monroe Street Wednesday at around 6 p.m.  Raphael Randolph Love, Jr., 22, a Livingstone student from Highpoint, N.C. was allegedly held up at gunpoint in Livingstone’s Tucker Residence Hall by three fellow Livingstone students: Dashawn Maurice Watson, 19, of Columbia, S.C., Dajon Pierre Amaker, 19, of Gaston, N.C., and Reginald Christopher Rohadfox, 22, of Charlotte. All three students were known to the victim.

The victim Love was called to his dorm room by a friend and when he arrived the alleged trio of robbers confronted him.  One of the suspects allegedly pulled a .40 caliber pistol on the victim and aimed at his face, saying: “Gimme what you got.”  The other two suspects searched Love’s pockets, but came up empty.  The three left and Livingstone security was contacted.  No one was injured.

Within 40 minutes Watson, Amaker, and Rohadfox were rounded up by the Salisbury Police and identified as suspects.

Watson, Amaker, and Rohadfox were all charged with robbery with firearms or other dangerous weapons (felony).

Watson received an additional charge of weapons on campus or educational property (misdemeanor).

Each suspect is under a secured $25,000 bond.  All three are currently being held in the Rowan County Detention Center.

Police also seized the alleged handgun used in the crime as well as ammo and reloader equipment.

Dashawn Maurice Watson:

Dajon Pierre Amaker:

Reginald Rohadfox:

Todd Paris, staff writer

♦ The meeting at West Rowan, despite current School Board Chairman Josh Wagner’s statement in the paper about what we could and could not talk about, was well attended by Rowan Rural Save Our Schools (RRSOS). Wagner’s directive was largely ignored, though most RRSOS speakers worked in challenges with the proposed West consolidation. The meeting was well attended despite the forecast of heavy thunderstorms and torrential rains. The auditorium at West incredibly large, yet we more than halfway filled it. Channel 9 was present. While I can’t begin to mention everyone who showed–East BoE Candidate Mike Julian gave a rousing talk for three minutes, mentioning the hazmat fire at the natural gas plant next door to the new “West Consolidated” site and was called down by Chairman Josh Wagner (Freedom of speech–Wot’s Dot?) for saying he was running for office. Southeast candidate Poston sent word he couldn’t attend because he was scheduled to referee or announce a children’s sporting event. The kids are a priority with our Southeast candidate Poston.

County Commissioner Craig Pierce was there as well as commission candidate Valeria Levy.

The BoE was clearly taken to task for wanting to plop the consolidated Western Elementary in a dangerous location and for hiring a group like sfl+a, who rakes in huge money from building schools and helping to decide if a system is overcapacity and needs more schools. Hmmm. When you call the plumber and ask him or her if you need a plumber–what answer might you expect?

All speakers were magnificent and in response the board provided no real information except that Travis Allen took partial responsibility for placing an elementary school next to one of the most dangerous industrial facilities in Rowan County.  When the facility exploded and caught fire last week, the VFD’s lacked the equipment to put into action and had to call in the “foam truck” from the National Guard at the Airport. Thank goodness the foam truck was there or facility could’ve put Rowan on the map as a hazmat disaster.

Chris Cohen gave a rousing and cogent history of bad BoE decisions (lots of em’), the dangers of the consolidated site, and was applauded numerous times. He mentioned all the folks who make oodles of money off of this BoE’s construction are all from out of town and do nothing to help the local community. He ran over his three minutes and Wagner, with a mere hand gesture summoned a deputy to either arrest him or make him leave. Cohen, stopping just a few yards from being grabbed, left with a thunderous ovation.

Most telling tonight was the testimony of some far western Rowan parents who much like the far eastern students at Morgan have kids already experiencing more than an hour’s bus ride. Earlier in the night, sfl+a’s representative announced that no student would have to spend more than 15 minutes (yeah right) on the bus. That statement was met with cat-calls, laughter, and derision.

I had many more questions than three minutes would allow and handed them to Josh Wagner and the media present. We’ll repost them in the RFP later today or tonight when they can be converted into the proper format.

The BoE ended this night passing the microphone back and forth answering basically nothing. When the microphone was handed to Chuck Hughes, he did his best “Don Rickles” impression and said, “I want to know where you were a year ago when we were working on this?” The crowd answered in one voice, “Working.”  Calling meetings when they don’t want working people to attend is so typical of the BoE.  They don’t need taxpayer and parent input.  BoE knows better.

It is quite clear that those warming seats on this BoE are all lame ducks within the next few years and realize it.  The real harm? Rowan’s voters generally always approved school bonds by large margins. When the present school bond is paid off in 2017, voters will be unlikely to vote to give this BoE any more money which they can use to do questionable things to harm their children and property values.

Photo Gallery from Last Evening at West Rowan High School:

WSOCTV.Com

♦ WSOCTV Video: Parents Confront Rowan-Salisbury School Board Over School’s Plan:

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/parents-confront-rowan-county-school-board-over-schools-plan/248043880

Todd Paris, RFP Staff Writer

♦ The tax money about to be spent belongs to the whole county.  Suggesting that Woodleaf and Cleveland residents only speak sounds like the Wizard saying “ignore the man behind the curtain.”

This Board and Superintendent are much less trusted these days (for hiding Scenario 2 and 3) and that opens up question about Woodleaf and Cleveland that have may not been asked before:

Questions:

Is there a report on the bad well water at Woodleaf, and if so, will you post a copy?

Was there a study done as to the expense of buying a small piece of nearby property, digging a well, and piping water into it as opposed to the expense of this huge multi-million dollar school?

How far away is the nearest waterline to Salisbury-Rowan Utilities? What was the cost on that?

Why did you turn down an offer of free land for a different site? Is it true that the earnest money to be lost would only be $10K?

Will the BoE commit to razing the abandoned structures in Woodleaf and Cleveland and cleaning up environmental issues such as septic fields and underground fuel oil in the ground so as to prevent the “Dunbar-ization” of these small towns which would allow them to be returned to commerce and productive use? You remember Dunbar. You used to have to drive by its wreckage to BoE meetings.

Was there any report done by the Fire Marshall or other qualified expert that does not have a financial interest in this project being completed, as to the safety of an elementary school being so close to a natural gas fired power station? Do they share a lot line?

Is it true that hundreds of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel are stored there? Is it true when it caught fire there last week that the VFD’s couldn’t use water and that the National Guard Foam Truck from the airport had to be called in? What happens if it’s broken down or under maintenance?

If it catches fire after the school is built and hundreds of parents panic and drive to get their children will they be allowed to do so or is the plan to cordon off the roads for fire equipment?

Will enough buses be kept on site at all times for an evacuation?

Have sfL+a, the consultants on the redistricting plan, already been awarded a contract under the Mini-Brooks act for construction of this consolidated school? If so, how much will they be compensated?

If so, has the BoE reviewed past projects in Rowan County completed by them, to see if these buildings were brought in over or under budget in determining if they are the best qualified firm under NCGS 143-64.31? Did they do the work on Carson High School? Is it true that it’s still under-capacity and that so many high school-ers were bused from South Rowan to try to partially fill it, that South went from a 4A to a 2A school? What about your own headquarters.

Has the BoE contacted the Moore County BoE where the “The Pilot” reports that the cost of their 10 year master construction plan has doubled from 110 million to 237 million since 2014. An article in “The Pilot” quotes Tom Hughes, a principle in SfL+A regarding the issue. What has been that Board’s experience?

Has the BoE contacted the Robeson County BoE where a proposal to close 30 schools and build 14 schools is creating quite a controversy. Do they also suffer from the scourge of over-capacity? A recent article in the Robesonian quotes Robbie Ferris, president of sfL+A. It does say that the firm has built over 1000 schools in North and South Carolina.

How much money has RSS paid SFL+A in the last ten years to the current date?

I call upon the BoE to answer these questions publicly, pause the Consolidation part of this project, be open and fair with the tax-payers, force Ms. Moody to take the gag off of system employees so that they can speak out without her being able to fire them by repealing:

Policy Code 1701(3) “3. Direct complaints regarding the work environment to the appropriate supervisors and/or file formal grievances or complaints in an effort to promptly address concerns in a professional manner, instead of acting to undermine or diminish the authority of co-workers and supervisors (through informal comments, gossiping, or unproductive promulgation of rumors and negative miscommunications).”

Suppressing dissent just creates more hidden dissent.

I saw Ms. Rider’s article today in the Salisbury Post. Tell Ms. Moody to stop treating media like they are visiting North Korea when they want to visit, replete with monitors and handlers.

Rowan County voters have never, ever turned down a school bond. Keep treating us like this and there is always a first for everything.

.

RFP Staff

♦ Gunfire broke out early Friday morning in Salisbury.  Several shots were fired into an occupied multi-family dwelling at 607 S. Shaver Street, sending the people inside scrambling for cover.  A bedroom window was shattered, leaving glass scattered on floor and an interior wall was damaged by bullets.  Thankfully no one was injured.

A neighbor called 911, bringing the Salisbury Police to South Shaver Street near Old Concord Road.  Investigators spoke with Brigitte Desiree Woodson, 55, who lives at 607 S. Shaver Street. She was in her living room when she heard a loud bang. She did not know who would shoot up her house.

The shooting remains under investigation. The firearm used in this attack remains undermined at this time. No suspects were named and no arrests were made.

If you have any information on this shooting please call the Salisbury Police Department at 704-638-5333 or the Salisbury-Rowan Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.

RFP Staff

♦ Trevor Wayne Timm, 16, was arrested Wednesday at around 6 p.m. on Westfork Drive in Rowan County by Sheriff’s Office deputies for an alleged metal pipe beating of a 15 year-old boy during a dispute over girl.  The alleged beating occurred on April 21st and led to the victim being emergency helicoptered to Wake Forest Baptist Hospital.   According to reports a physician on these scene voiced concerns to the deputies that the victim may have sustained a head fracture and needed immediate medical attention.

The victim allegedly told deputies he went to a garage on Poole Road to talk with Timm and an argument ensued over a girl.  The argument grew more intense and escalated with Timm allegedly whacking the victim’s head with a metal pipe.  The deputies  also interviewed several who allegedly witnessed the altercation.  Timm became a suspect and warrents were set in motion for his arrest.

Timm was charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury (felony), 2 counts of probation violation (felony), and failure to appear/comply (misdemeanor).  Under a secured $35,000 bond, Timm remains in the Rowan County Detention Center.

Trevor Wayne Timm’s Previous Record:

http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi/viewoffender.do?method=view&offenderID=1482009&searchLastName=timm&searchFirstName=trevor&listurl=pagelistoffendersearchresults&listpage=1

Jim Sides, Salisbury, N.C.

♦ If the school board exists to serve the children and the citizens of the communities of Rowan County, why does it not give the citizens what they want? If $26,000,000 is available for building a consolidated Woodleaf/Cleveland elementary school, how far would that much money go to resolve any and all issues with the two existing schools? Then, no children are affected negatively, no parents have to change their schedules, no longer bus rides, no safety issues due to site location, the communities remain intact, and everyone is happy, except those with other ideas.

If the citizens would rather have THEIR money spent to update and improve the two schools where they are, why is that such a bad idea? If the “county” only gives the school system $2,000,000 per year for capital improvements, where did the $6,500,000 used on the new central office come from? Where does the more than $7,000,000 per year in debt service payments for past capital projects come from? If the county did not have to pony up millions upon millions of tax dollars for current expenses for the schools, more money would be available for capital needs. None of this is the “county’s” money, nor is it the “school board’s” money. All this money belongs to the taxpayers of Rowan County.

Rowan County taxpayers pay more for education today than they ever have in the past and we have less and less students in the system. I still believe the mall purchase gets you more bang for the buck than what is being spent on education in Rowan County.

One last thought: the Board of Education should be just that–a Board of Education, concerned with the education of the students in our schools. School construction should be a function of the Board of County Commissioners and completely out of the hands of the Board of Education.

Todd Paris, Staff Writer and Salisbury Attorney

♦ Three weeks in the life of a Superintendent Lynn Moody: You just published “The Nightmare Scenario” and placed three of your board member’s re-election prospects in grave jeopardy by announcing a plan to move 4400 elementary school students from all over the county inwards towards urban areas. Your heavyhanded attempts to suppress dissent even angered the (formerly supportive) local paper and transformed a small Faith/Morgan PTA meeting into a 5000 member FB page. They may form a PAC. Two challengers, Michael Julian (a known vocal critic of RSS and who is widely respected in the east) and Andrew Poston (an up and coming political figure working towards a Masters in Education) have stepped forward months early to run. Then you have Chuck Hughes from the Salisbury District (who is really looking after Salisbury’s interests at the expense of the rest of the kids in the county), “melting down” at a public meeting on television and insulting the tax-payers. Who knows who else may file?

We learned that in figuring schools as “under capacity,” you included the seats in mobile units and that one school you claimed was built in the 1920’s was almost completely torn down and rebuilt in the 1990’s.

Then the formerly “non-controversial” West Consolidated site suddenly has a natural gas fired power plant next door explode and catch on fire. Did anyone notice that happening? Next, folks were made aware that the experts who were called in to tell tax-payers that a school district with OVER CAPICITY should spend hundreds of millions on new schools may be awarded the contracts to design them under NC’s no bid statute. Their representative got openly laughed at when he claimed the busrides to West Consolidated would be only 15 minutes longer. It was on television! Then you have the watchdog Rowan Free Press with thousands of local readers posting links to other newspapers about the same expert’s being involved in similar projects in Robeson and Moore Counties and the newspaper articles don’t look all that positive about these shenanigans.

Of course, this operation is all being conducted from your new, palatial abode with a completely out-of-place dome on top which tax-payers now refer to as “The Blunder-dome.” Suddenly, as soon as it was completed, you inform people that you can no longer maintain most rural schools and must shut them down. Not good.

Finally, today in the local paper, you have the chairman of the county commission, who previously spoke favorably about “The Nightmare Scenario” now distancing himself and the rest of the Commission as fast and hard as he can from the site of this “train-wreck.” Oh, and then you hear out that one of the County Commissioners has a child that goes to one of your “doomed” schools.

All in all, you have to be concerned for your contract renewal.