Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education
Work Session Meeting
January 9, 2012
Minutes
The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education met on January 9, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. at the Long Street
Administrative Office with the following members present: Dr. Jim Emerson, Mrs. W. Jean Kennedy,
Mrs. Linda Freeze, Mr. Mike Caskey, Mr. Bryce Beard, Dr. Richard Miller, and Mrs. Kay Norman. Also
present were Dr. Judy Grissom, Dr. Rebecca Smith, Mr. Gene Miller, Mr. Nathan Currie, Mrs. Delores
Morris, and Mrs. Bonnie Holder, Clerk to the Board.
Call to Order / Roll Call
Dr. Emerson called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. Mr. Caskey officiated the Pledge of Allegiance.
Dr. Miller shared the opening meditation.
Adopt Agenda
Dr. Emerson made a request to make Discussion Item #6, Central Office Update, the first discussion
item. Dr. Miller moved to adopt the agenda as amended. Mrs. Freeze seconded. Unanimously
approved. (7:0)
Superintendent and Board Comments
Dr. Emerson read a thank you message from Mrs. Norman for the gift of a poinsettia for her mother’s
funeral service.
Discussion Items
Update of the Proposed Central Office
Mr. Miller began with a recap of the meeting of the Board of Commissioners meeting held on January 3.
He informed members that there were many business owners and citizens of the community giving
reasons why the building needed to go downtown. Mr. Miller stated that he also gave a presentation to
the commissioners, the same one that he had given to the BOE on December 23, 2011.
Mr. Miller explained that he discussed with Mr. Barwick that the lease/purchase option was looking less
favorable based on the amount of interest that we would have pay back on the loan. Mr. Miller said Mr.
Barwick worked to obtain a lower interest rate and was able to get a rate of 3.95%. Mr. Miller said that
interest rate drops the amount of interest to about $$200,000. Therefore, now being about $60,000
under on a 3% conventional versus a 4.5% lease/purchase, we are now about $150,000 under what the
conventional rate would be at 3%. He noted that Mrs. Heidrick made the comment that they had
borrowed money for about 2.25%. Mr. Miller said he continues to believe that now is the time to build.
Mr. Miller said that he presented the downtown location because that is all that he had been asked to
propose.
Dr. Emerson asked if the commissioners lent the school system the money, would Mr. Barwick be out of
the picture. Mr. Miller said he would be. Dr. Emerson asked what would happen with the new market
tax credit. Mr. Miller explained that if the Board would go with a lease purchase, and would have to
borrow a little less than $7 million, the building is still an $8.4 million building. However, because of the
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$1.5 million tax credit and the $200,000 option to purchase that the Board will save, there is $1.7 million
that comes off the loan that we will not have to deal with, the commissioners will not have to deal with
it. Nobody will have to deal with it. Mr. Miller said it will be less interest and less fees to pay with a
conventional loan, but asked the question if you want to give up $1.7 million to save approximately
$15,000 in interest because that is about what it would come down to.
Dr. Miller asked if the Board would lose the new market tax credits if we did ask the commissioners to
fund the building in the downtown, a depressed area. Mr. Miller said we would not get the tax credits.
Mr. Beard asked why that would be. Mr. Miller said because it would be a conventional loan.
Dr. Emerson said he spoke to the press about what the Board charged him to do. He asked members of
the Board if there were any other options or parcels that they wanted Mr. Miller to consider.
Mr. Miller said the commissioners did not make a decision last week, but decided to go to a work
session on January 25. The commissioners will evaluate eight different sites. Dr. Emerson said that’s
what bothers him, because if the Board of Education is supposed to make the decision on the site,
why are the commissioners even bothering to discuss sites when their discussion should be on
whether they are going to fund the building.
Dr. Miller said it would be helpful to him for Mr. Miller to briefly recap the history of proposals that
have been submitted on a central office. Mr. Miller said he came back to RSSS in 2007 and
immediately began to work on proposals for a central office. Mr. Miller summarized the proposals that
have been submitted.
Mr. Beard said it is more important to inform Dr. Miller that every time we submitted a proposal, we
were being told by the commissioners that there was no money. Also, other sites would not serve our
needs. Mr. Beard said we have never had a building proposed that included all that we need. He said
the important thing here is that we have come to a time to do something. The commissioners have
now said we need to be out of the Long Street building because they didn’t want to spend the money
on this building. Now is a good time for construction. Mr. Beard said the central office is the hub and
nerve center of our school system. He said this decision requires a collaborative effort of people in
position to make it happen.
Mrs. Kennedy said the commissioners have to understand that they have the authority to give the
Board of Education the money, but the Board of Education chooses the site.
Mrs. Norman said our Board knows what the problem is. It is a matter of control. She said if this
continues, she blames our Board because we have taken every step to do what we are supposed to
do. Mrs. Norman said she would love for everyone to be in agreement, but that rarely happens. She
said she feels it is time to do something.
Mr. Beard said he appreciated Mr. Barwick for what he has done. He has made this come to the
table. Mr. Beard said that if we build, it would be a legacy that the County Commission and the Board
of Education take credit for together.
Dr. Miller said that his comments in the paper were important to say that we get the people in the
community to understand that we are one of two top employers in the county, one of the most
depressed counties in this country, with a $110 million payroll. He said folks need to understand what
that kind of payroll does to the county. Mr. Miller said a percentage of that pays sales tax and
property tax. He said about 90% of the school system employees live in Rowan County and
contribute to the economy. Mr. Miller stated he was offended Tuesday over innuendo that was made
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at the commissioner’s meeting that the employees were just going to come downtown to eat and
shop.
Dr. Miller said it is time to get over how many sites we have, but what we do for the community and
students. He said we cannot isolate it as just constructing a building, but building a community for
Rowan-Salisbury.
Mr. Caskey asked if there was a list of employees that are in the central office and the positions they
hold. Mr. Miller gave a recap of that with a total of 167.
Dr. Emerson asked if there was any other site to consider. He requested that Mr. Beard attend the
Jan. 25 BOC meeting with Mr. Miller.
Mr. Beard said the thing that impressed him the most when he heard the proposal was the amount of
money we would save if we consolidate.
Capital Improvement Update
Mr. Miller reviewed the Capital Improvement Report made available earlier to the BOE when the
Mr. Miller said the only revision since the last report is that the first project would be the central office
as a health and safety issue. He continued to review the report stating that the 2nd and 3rd item on
the list would be the replacement of Woodleaf and Cleveland Elementary respectively. Mr. Miller said
the two schools were the oldest schools we have that need to be replaced. He said there continues to
be a big water problem on the Woodleaf site. Mr. Miller said the projects total $109,921,148. He
noted that this figure was less than five or six years ago because construction costs have gone down.
Mr. Miller said that the Board could certainly rearrange the order, but he did need action from the
Board.
Mr. Beard said that Knox Middle could still use some more uplifting, but that he didn’t think that a new
school needed to be built. Dr. Emerson said he thought the upgrade on the security was the main
issue, but that has been addressed with the cameras. Dr. Grissom said the major concern was that
Knox is so spread out and was considered a safety issue.
**Mrs. Norman moved to approve the Capital Needs List as submitted. Mrs. Kennedy seconded.
Mr. Caskey said that he would like to see Woodleaf Elementary moved back to the top of the list.
Mrs. Norman called for the question. Approved. (6:1) Mr. Caskey opposed.
Alterations, Repairs, and Additions Report for Capital Outlay
Mr. Miller reviewed the report. He said it is an ongoing list of projects that they would like to see
done and needs to be done in our schools. Mr. Miller noted that the total project costs are
$29,490,600 with $249,200 being Healthy/Safety projects, $500,000 are critical needs, and
$28,741,400 are construction/major issues. He said as projects are completed, the cost will be moved
over to the budget for 2011-12 and brought back to the Board at the end of the year. Mr. Miller said
he has never seen this list under $24-25 million dollars.
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Mr. Miller advised that every year the list is sent out to the schools to review and make any changes
or additions. He said the list is a compilation of what the principals’ want done, with input from Mr.
Bill Hill and Mr. Butch Bivens.
Options for Distribution of the DVD – Why We Pledge
Dr. Emerson said that he and Mr. Caskey were interested in the DVD prepared and submitted to the
Board by Mr. Ty Cobb. Dr. Emerson said he liked the presentation, but would there be a problem with
the DVD going into the classroom with Mr. Cobb making the presentation. He asked if this would be
something that could be shown on a voluntary basis. Dr. Grissom stated that after Mr. Cobb and Mr.
Gerry Wood spoke at a previous board meeting, her staff was charged by the Board with creating a DVD
and that was completed. Dr. Grissom said she has no problem with Mr. Cobb’s DVD, but feels where the
Board has to be careful is when any person would come forward with a DVD, CD, or book for us to use in
the classroom. She said there is a set curriculum that the teachers are responsible to teach. Dr. Grissom
said the teachers certainly like resources to use, but we can’t have things forced upon us. She said her
staff had reviewed Mr. Cobb’s DVD previously, and had thought of making it available to the history
classes.
Dr. Emerson said he didn’t see anything in the DVD that was offensive. Mr. Beard said he did not either.
Mrs. Norman asked what the difference was in Mr. Cobb’s DVD and the DVD made by Mrs. Feimster. Dr.
Grissom said Mrs. Feimster took the Pledge of Allegiance and explained what each sentence in the
Pledge meant.
Dr. Miller asked if there was any reason why we couldn’t use Mr. Cobb’s DVD as another resource. Dr.
Grissom said that is what she told Mr. Cobb she would do because it does fit in with the curriculum in
Social Studies.
Discussion on High School Block Scheduling
Dr. Emerson said he has had the topic of block scheduling brought to him by some parents and some
teachers who were not in favor of it. Dr. Grissom said that she was aware that the superintendent in
Orange County was researching this topic, and she had asked Ms. Kathy McDuffie to contact the
superintendent and to do some research on this issue.
Dr. Grissom recognized Ms. McDuffie to present the information she had gathered about the pros and
cons of block scheduling. Ms. McDuffie said she spoke with personnel at Orange, Guilford, and Wake
counties and the best that the state could tell her was that 85% of the high schools are falling into block
scheduling. Some could be hybrid courses where the course is taught all year long and some could be
the AP courses.
Ms. McDuffie stated that there are 417 high schools in NC and 85% are going to block. Ms. McDuffie
explained what one of the negatives we have heard in our district is that it hurts our art program.
However, looking at some of the other courses, she said she believes that you have to look at the
individual student.
Dr. Emerson said his experience in the high school is that the teacher had about 30 good minutes of
good instruction and use the rest of the time for seat work.
Ms. McDuffie said they are not recommending 1½ hours of instruction, but to teach a chunks of
information and give the student a chance to use it and continue that for the block period. She said she
tells the teachers that 90 minutes of anything is not good. They must break down the instruction time.
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Ms. McDuffie said the dropout rate has dropped some with the block scheduling. Block scheduling gives
schools an opportunity to do some remedial classes.
Ms. McDuffie said another thing to consider is that if we go away from the block schedule, we will have
to change our graduation requirements. Right now our system requires 28 with the possibility of earning
32. However, if we go to a 6 or 7 period day, we will have to change our graduation requirements and
with the new requirements that are coming down from the state, which is 22 requirements. We only
offer the students 28 if we are on a four period day, or 24 if we are on a six period day. there will be
problems with that. She explained that we will not be able to students the opportunity to take courses if
they need to or be able to offer those support courses that they will need before they go to that main
graduation requirement.
Mrs. Norman asked if the middle schools are preparing our students for the high school block scheduling.
Ms. McDuffie said the same expectation is done in the middle schools to break the instruction down. She
said this is just a good instructional strategy.
Ms. McDuffie said students can get in more credits under the block scheduling.
Dr. Grissom said that one of the frustrations that the principals have with block scheduling goes back to
the school calendar. There are problems that arise with the school calendar.
Mrs. Kennedy said that when block scheduling was first discussed at NRHS, it failed. However, once the
teachers took more workshops to learn how to use it more effectively, the school accepted it. She said
as a teacher it made her look at how she delivered the instruction and how she had to change to engage
her students. She said this worked.
Discussion of the Student Transfer Policy, 8-30
Dr. Emerson said that he felt there is still some gaps in the student transfer policy that the Appeals
Committee runs in to. He said he felt there are some decisions being made below the Board level. He
noted that principals made the decision when student transfers first began.
Dr. Emerson said a committee approves some student transfers because they meet the criteria of family
daycare. He questioned if the transfer policy needed to be strengthened or weakened. Dr. Emerson said
that the Appeals Committee doesn’t like to deal with issues that the transfer committee didn’t deal with
it.
Mrs. Norman said she felt the policy is too selective and unfair. She said she if there is a policy, it needs
to be carried out 100%. Dr. Emerson said that more than one person needed to look at it. Mr. Beard
said that he didn’t believe that the Appeals Committee wanted to be making the initial decision. He said
he believes that the policy is efficient. It is not going to always be fool proof.
Mr. Currie said he met with the transfer coordinator, Mrs. Patricia Lentz, and they are going to monitor
the system through NC Wise. He explained that with this system, the principals will be able to see when
a student is on transfer and needed to be updated.
Dr. Emerson said he was feeling better knowing that the student transfer coordinator does investigate all
transfer requests for child care.
Dr. Emerson asked if there were any Board members that wanted to change from their subcommittees. Dr. Miller asked if there would be a need for a technology committee. Mrs. Freeze said
she thought that would go through the curriculum sub-committee.
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Dr. Emerson asked to have discussion of forming a new committee on the agenda for January 23. Dr.
Grissom said that the important thing is that if a committee is established, there needs to be Board
member in attendance.
Dr. Emerson said he would like to also add discussion about committee restructuring to the January
23 agenda.
Announcements
1/16 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday (Schools and Offices closed)
1/18 - BOE Curriculum Sub-Committee Meeting/Long St./2:00 p.m.
1/19 - NBCT Celebration/Horizons/6:30 p.m.
1/23 - Required Teacher Workday (Students Out)
1/23 - BOE Meeting/Long St./5:00 p.m.
1/25 - Board of County Commissioners Work Session/3:00 p.m.
1/31 - Report Cards Issued
Adjournment
**Dr. Miller moved to adjourn at 6:39 p.m. Mrs. Kennedy seconded. Unanimously approved. (7:0)
Dr. Jim Emerson, Chairman
Dr. Judy S. Grissom, Ed. D., Secretary
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