Chuck Hughes, Board of Education
♦ Mr. Paris is right. I did suggest that the board go ahead with the school closings as soon as possible by starting public comments as legally required. I did so, because I believe the board has an obligation to the entire county to conserve limited resources whenever an opportunity rises, and consolidation of six elementary schools is such an opportunity.
Fourteen full capacity schools are more economical to run than 20 under-utilized schools, and each consolidation will save the county more than $800,000. Each consolidation will mean one more school does not need to have roofing and pavement repair or replacement now or in future years. In fact, it is a disservice to the county not to combine two undeserved schools that will only continue to have decreased student enrollment over the coming years. How do we know this? The science tells us so.
The dollars invested in demographic science was a wise investment. The study enables a glance into a community’s future allowing prediction of growth or decline with a high degree of certainty. Past birthrates are documented predictors of the number of children that will be enrolled in K-5 over the coming years, even up to the number of school aged children per acre of land, as well as which school district they will attend. Because of this investment, the six schools being considered were not random choices based upon personal preference; they were chosen based upon future need or lack thereof and in such a manner that assures minimal displacement of students from their current schools.
Change is always controversial. However, if we do not embrace change when logic demands, our social and economic environment becomes static. Nostalgia is the underlying argument against most efforts to change. Although nostalgia can be a warm and comfortable pacifier, it can also be a detriment to progress and sediment that deters your children and their children from having a chance at their own nostalgia years from now. I lived through this rough time when the Brooklyn Dodgers, my team since I could pick up a baseball bat, moved to L.A. However, some other young boy grew up knowing only the L.A. Dodgers. The Brooklyn WHAT? A new era of nostalgia emerged.
The safe move for an elected official is not to suggest anything controversial if you want to be reelected. However, if you govern with this belief, you do not deserve to hold the office to begin with. The fact that this board is being forthcoming in its consideration of such a controversial issue speaks well of its integrity and that its first obligation is to what it believes will be in the best interest of the Rowan/Salisbury School System.
I urge the community to put emotions away and participate in the upcoming town hall meeting with open minds.
