RFP Staff
♦ The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education met at the Administrative Offices at 110 S. Long Street in East Spencer on Monday at 5 p.m. Newly elected school board members Travis Allen and Dean Hunter were “seated” on the board along with Chuck Hughes, Josh Wagner, Jean Kennedy, Susan Cox, and Richard Miller.
The new school board got right to work in electing a new chairman and vice chair. Josh Wagner was elected school board chairman with votes from Chuck Hughes, Travis Allen, Josh Wagner, and Dean Hunter. Jean Kennedy, Richard Miller, and Susan Cox did vote.
In the vote for vice chairman the board elected Dean Hunter. Travis Allen nominated Dean Hunter and Richard Miller nominated Susan Cox. Travis Allen, Chuck Hughes, Dean Hunter, and Josh Wagner voted for Dean Hunter. No further vote was taken because Hunter achieved a majority.
Early on in the meeting it was decided that starting in January 2015 school board votes will be recorded by name in the meeting minutes. The vote in favor of recording the votes by name was 4 against 3. Hughes, Allen, Hunter, and Wagner voted for the measure while Miller, Cox, and Kennedy voted against it.
One of the evenings highlights was a discussion of improved school board transparency through videoing the meetings. Here the school board began examining the options for putting videos on line like the County Commission and the Salisbury City Council do. An unedited video would make school board meetings more transparent and make the proceedings more available for those who might not be able to attend due to work or other commitments. At one time the school board had audio recordings of the meetings but that stopped over a year ago.
Candace Salmon-Hosey, the Director of Technology, suggested that video equipment required to stream meetings online would be expensive, likely costing in the range of $30,000 to $35,000. She cited various technological expenditures such as wall cameras, a video switcher, HDMI scaler and so forth with added expense coming from installation, streaming, hosting, and archiving.
Board members tossed out the idea of finding far less expensive alternatives of videoing until a new Central Office was constructed. School board members requested that Hosey come up with several proposals for less expensive alternatives for the school board’s next meeting.
Highlights of Monday’s School Board Meeting were:
• Approval of first readings of student behavior policies such as drugs & alcohol, student dress code, disruptive behavior, criminal behavior, assaults, threats and harassment.
• Approving the 2015-16 school year calendar and a resolution requesting the state provide more local control for academic schedules.
• Accepting a gift of 31.5 acres of property from JTW Reality of North Carolina, LLC on Heilig Rd. next to the school system’s bus garage. Anthony Vann, Assistant Superintendent, spoke of a property switch between the two adjacent properties leading to an access road to the school system and altering the corner of the other property.
• Approving a course offering at East Rowan High in Mobile Web Development Fundamentals.
• Requested Chief Financial Officer Tara Trexler develop a proposal for hiring school system grant writer.
• A brief review of the system’s roofing needs to be presented at the next meeting of the JPC.
• A discussion of the school system’s accreditation process.
• Hughes, Cox, and Kennedy were appointed to the school system’s appeals committee.
• Hunter and Miller were appointed to the JPC that meets to discuss the school system’s capital needs with the county commissioners.
• Changed the school system’s athletic policy to permit student athletes charged with felonies, but not convicted to participate in athletics as long as they maintain their grades and good behavior.
• Entered into a closed session to discuss personnel matters, school safety, and create plans for school violence incidents.
