LUMBERTON — A member of the State Board of Education will be present at the public hearing Monday on the county public school district’s plan to consolidate schools, but only to listen.
The hearing starts at 6 p.m. in the auditorium at Lumberton Junior High School, which is located at 82 Marion Road, and is an opportunity for county residents to tell members of the Public Schools of Robeson County Board of Education what they think about district leaders’ plan to consolidate schools in an attempt to eradicate a $2 million deficit. In the audience will be State Board of Education member Olivia Oxendine, who also is a professor at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke’s School of Education and a veteran of many years of teaching in Robeson County’s public schools.
Oxendine said the state board needs to hear the concerns of county residents, hear the community’s responses to the local board’s actions and leadership, and to the district’s plans to address its problems, including the school consolidation plan.
“It’s all building into a big picture,” said Oxendine, a Lumberton resident who was appointed to the state board by then Gov. Pat McCrory in 2013.
When a school closes, it’s not just a financial decision, she said. There’s an emotional component, particularly for the affected students and parents who stand to lose a part of their lives and their communities.
“It’s not an easy thing,” Oxendine said.
Oxendine’s presence Monday represents more than two years of the State Board of Education’s involvement in and work with the Public Schools of Robeson County.
The State Board of Education began paying particular attention to the Public Schools of Robeson County after hurricanes Matthew, in October 2016, and Florence, in September, struck and left a wake of devastation that included damage to schools and the total loss of the central office complex on Caton Road, said Oxendine. That attention intensified after it was learned the PSRC was operating with a $2 million deficit.
“We can’t sit by and allow that to happen,” Oxendine said.
The state board would not be holding true to its constitutional obligations and duties if it did not try to help any school system that was trying to meet the needs of its students while hampered by such a financial burden, she said. One reaction to PSRC’s problems was the formation by the state board of a committee to gather information and to work with Robeson County’s education leaders to find solutions.
Toward that end, Oxendine, state board attorney Eric Snider, state board Vice Chairman Alan Duncan and other board personnel will meet Tuesday with schools Superintendent Shanita Wooten, Board of Education Chairman Mike Smith and district administrators. The topics include the schools consolidation plan, finances, the Exceptional Children program and the K-12 curriculum, and perhaps more.
“It’s going to be a very heavy meeting,” Oxendine said.
It’s too hard to say how long the state board will work with the county schools’ leadership, she said. It depends on how long it takes to correct the problems plaguing the district. The work being done in Robeson County is above and beyond what the state board and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction normally does hand-in-hand with a local school district. But they would do this with any school system with a history of low achievement by its students, as is the case in Robeson County.
“We may be working with the public schools for a full year, until we see the schools are on the right track.” Oxendine said.
What state education leaders are hoping to avoid is a situation where it becomes necessary for the state to assume supervision of the PSRC, she said. State control of Robeson County’s public school system could happen if the financial deficit is not corrected, if local leaders fail to take action to correct the problems faced by the district, or local leaders reject the help offered by the State Board of Education and the North Carolina Department of Instruction.
Chairman Smith said he believes the school district is moving in the right direction in the search for solutions. But finding and implementing those solutions will take time.
The consolidation plan to be discussed Monday at Lumberton Junior High School was approved with a 9-0 vote by the county Board of Education on June 18. It was developed by Superintendent Wooten as a way to deal with the financial shortfall caused at least partially by declining student enrollment throughout the school system, which has caused a reduction in state funding.
The plan is for R.B. Dean Elementary School students to be consolidated with Townsend Middle School, Green Grove Elementary students to move to the Fairgrove Middle School campus, and Janie C. Hargrave students to attend W.H. Knuckles Elementary and Carroll Middle.
South Robeson High students would be spread among Fairmont, Lumberton and Purnell Swett high schools.
Wooten originally suggested closing South Robeson High for the 2020-21 school year, but school board members advised her to see if the closure could happen in advance of the school year that begins in August. School administrators have been working toward that end.
The parents and guardians of affected students, particularly those at South Robeson High, have expressed a variety of concerns. Among them are the safety of South Robeson students being forced to attend rival schools, the loss of a key piece of the community, the loss of athletic programs, long bus rides, and the disruption to students, especially rising seniors at the high school.
The county Board of Education has a regular meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Lumberton City Hall, located at 500 N. Cedar St.
