RFP Staff
♦ The 2nd day of the Annual Future Directions and Goal Setting Retreat for City Council and staff at Livingstone College was packed with presentations. The line up included Downtown Salisbury, Inc., the West End Initiative, School Superintendent Moody, the Knox Middle School co-principals, city department heads, the County Manager and the County Commission Chairman. During the almost 8 hours of the retreat, priorities were set, a “brand” was established, and various ways to promote these items to the public were discussed.
Co-principals at Knox Middle School, a school that plummeted from a “D” to an “F” on the most recent N.C. Department of Public Instruction Report Card, Michael Waiksnis and Laytoya Dixon presented their ideas to install a magnet school concept at Knox.
It appears sub-mediocre performance is rewarded at the Rowan-Salisbury School System. Superintendent Lynn Moody pitched the idea that she wouldn’t expect co-principles like Michael Waiksnis and Laytoya Dixon (who were guiding Knox when it got smacked with an “F”) to remain at Knox if they were not paid what they “deserved”. Moody, sounding like a TV miracle preacher looking for “seed money”, talked up wanting to be committed and loyal. Commitment and loyalty eventually paid off with $70,000 from the city. Has anyone ever heard of giving performance bonuses if someone actually does well? And nothing if you don’t. That’s the way successful businesses operate. Nobody can call either city hall or the school system a successful business.
Councilman Brian Miller mentioned that education is at the center of solving the city’s other problems. Education is just one of many major roadblocks to the Bury creating job growth and a healthy tax base.
As if on script council person Maggie Blackwell decided to make a motion to assist the school system and Waiksnis and Laytoya Dixon to the tune of $70,000 starting in 2016-17 and continuing through 2017-2018. City council voted for it. Such is the state of education in the moribund “Paris of the Piedmont”.
John “Magic Math” Sofley, recently removed from his former Fibrant duties at City Hall, now heads up public services and parks and recreation where they have no need for his magical talents as a certified public accountant. He desires to change the negative perception of Salisbury and it’s City Hall. That perception “may” begin to change when the citizens vote out the incumbent city council. Salisbury is an undeniably dangerous town where the police are understaffed and underreport crime. Spendable income is way below par causing chain retailers and restaurants to nest elsewhere. The public schools in the city get nothing higher than Ds and Fs. The price of homes is plummeting as the working class and upper class move out for better and safer situations. Is Salisbury past the point of “no return” for the next decade? Doesn’t look good.
Ruth Kennerly, the HR director, talked up healing community relations. Talk is cheap–action is everything. Black and Brown Salisburians recognize they are left out of the pie. Safety lights on a certain bridge never gets done. Covert gentrification carves up Black communities and runs off the elderly and the poor who can’t keep up with the escalating taxes. “Shrinking” basic city services to the West End and other Black areas is well noted. The “spite hole” never gets fixed. A backlog of unsolved murders prepares to grow in 2016. Police who don’t answer calls in the West End, don’t file reports because they never showed, then claim a miraculous statistical turn around. This could not happen unless city hall supported it.
Is the alleged “Paris of the Piedmont” going to become a leader in diversity, inclusion, sustainability, livability, education, and actual collaboration? Talk is cheap during these typical City Hall “dog and pony” shows. Action? Not happening.
The Dog and Pony Show:
