LUMBERTON — Eric Hall, the superintendent of the Innovative School District, is ready to flip a page and move onto the next chapter.

Hall will be at the meeting tonight of the Board of Education for the Public Schools of Robeson County asking its members to vote to surrender control of Southside-Ashpole Elementary School so he can begin his work to turn the low-performing school into a place where its students can get better educated.

Hall spent part of Monday calling board members and asking them to act on the matter. That followed a campaign of several months during which he has tried to convince those served by the Rowland school that the ISD offers real hope for change.

“Over the past several months, the Innovative School District team has spent a lot of time in Rowland listening to and talking with parents, local officials, faith leaders, and the community,” he said. “Our goal was, and remains, to inform them about the ISD initiative and raise awareness of our school reform model to improve student performance and success at Southside-Ashpole Elementary. We’ve been successful in that effort and have built a strong coalition of support across the community.”

Now, Hall said, it’s time for the school board to act. It appeared certain that vote would come tonight, but after a community meeting last week during which two entities bidding to manage the school were introduced to the public, some board members hinted they might want to have more time to decide.

The board’s options are to surrender the school to the ISD or close it and send its students to other schools in the district. The district includes 42 schools, 27 of which are deemed low-performing.

“We are now at a point where the Public Schools of Robeson County School Board must decide how they want to proceed,” Hall said. “At the school board meeting …, I am asking that the board vote to transfer Southside-Ashpole Elementary to the ISD, which would keep the school open and align with the desires of the community. This also helps to give the local community, parents and the educators working at the school some clarity as they consider plans and options for next school year.

“Alternately, the school board could choose to close the school at the end of the school year. If they do, it would be a tremendous disservice to the students at Southside and the Rowland community.”

The ISD is a creation of the Republican-led General Assembly, and is designed to provide a lifeline to low-performing schools. Southside-Ashpole was the lone school selected from more than 2,600 in the state. Initially there was a target list of 48 that included four other county schools — Orrum Middle, R.B. Dean Elementary, Rosenwald Elementary, and Townsend Middle — and it was pared down until only Southside-Ashpole remained.

The ISD would manage the school for five years. It would operate much like a charter, with flexibility, but would not pick its students, and would serve those in the district.

On Friday, Hall held a community meeting in Rowland during which the two nonprofit entities that have submitted bids to manage the school — Achievement for All Children, of Forest City, and The Romine Group, of Utica, Michigan — made their pitch to the community.

SchoolWorks, a national consulting firm on education issues, is expected to make a recommendation. The entity would hire a principal, who would then hire staff. Current staff of the school would have to reapply to remain there.

School members have been coy in how they will vote, but after initially taking a strong stand of defiance, some board members’ comments have softened in recent weeks.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Lumberton City Hall, where the board has met since its offices were destroyed by Hurricane Matthew.

Eric Hall
https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_Eric-Hall_1.jpgEric Hall

Donnie Douglas

Editor

Editor Donnie Douglas can be reached at 910-416-5649 or at [email protected].