RFP Staff
♦Monday evening’s joint budget mediation between the Rowan County Commissioners and the Rowan-Salisbury School System met in closed session at the school systems administrative offices at Long Street in East Spencer. After the 5 hour long session concluded, County Commission Chairman Jim Sides told the Rowan Free Press that neither a point of negotiation or an impasse was reached. A further mediation session was decided upon prior to the evening’s adjournment. The two bodies agreed to meet again on Monday, August 5th at 5pm at a site yet undetermined.
During last evening’s mediation the two bodies met separately with their lawyers. Mediator Willis Whichard often acted as a messenger between the two groups, bringing proposals and counter-proposals. Commissioner Chad Mitchell, out-of-town, participated via phone and joined in a 5 to 0 vote to employ state sales tax money to restore $225,000 in funding to the school system. Previously that money was chopped from the county budget, but this past June the commissioners decided they would restore the money if the state provided more sales tax revenue to the county. The county now funds the schools at the same level as last year with the restoration of the $225,000.
From the first session the county maintained it is unable to provide the money missing due to a loss of state and federal funding to the Rowan-Salisbury School System.
**As soon as the video of the open portion of last evening’s mediation becomes available, we will update this article with it.
