ROWLAND — There is a meeting Monday for those concerned about the planned closure of South Robeson High School.
The meeting is to start at 6:30 p.m. at the Rowland Expo Center, which is at 102 E. Main St. in Rowland. It is being organized by Melissa Davis-Ocean, who ran unsuccessfully last year against Brenda Fairley-Ferebee for the District 2 seat on the school board.
The Board of Education for the Public Schools of Robeson voted Tuesday to enact Superintendent Shanita Wooten’s plan to turn South Robeson High into a middle school and close Janie C. Hargrave Elementary in Lumberton, R.B. Dean Elementary in Maxton, Rowland Middle School and Green Grove Elementary in Fairmont.
The plan is designed to pull the school district out of a $2 million hole dug during the 2018-19 school year.
School officials say South Robeson High was picked because it only has about 450 students. Rowland and Fairgrove middle school students would then go to school there.
The superintendent’s plan called for the consolidation and closures in South Robeson to occur in the 2020-21 school year, but the board members voted to make the changes in the 2019-20 school year, with the option to delay it if Wooten finds issues that would cause safety, transportation and staffing problems.