LUMBERTON — The Board of Education of the Public Schools of Robeson County voted in a special meeting Friday to rescind its July 9 decision, and it will close South Robeson High School this academic year.
After hearing a presentation from Superintendent Shanita Wooten, the board voted without a dissenting vote to close the school and send its students, about 450, to PSRC’s three remaining high schools. School board member Brenda Fairley-Ferebee, who represents South Robeson, did not vote, and Craig Lowry was absent.
The agenda called for personnel actions only, but it was rumored that the high school was once again on the chopping block. After a brief closed-door meeting, a meeting to make personnel decisions, including principal assignments, was set for 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Chairman John Campbell, who voted on July 9 to keep South Robeson open, made a motion to close the school, calling it a “very, very, very hard decision.”
“This board takes no pleasure in closing schools,” Campbell said. “We know how important schools are to our communities, but we have to consider the well-being of the entire system.
“This is not an emotion-driven decision, this is a facts-driven decision,” he said. “We made a mistake, we erred.”
The central office conference room was full, but none of the parents and students who protested South Robeson’s closing earlier this month were in attendance. In attendance was a small group of representatives from the state Board of Education, who had worked with school staff and board members for several weeks.
From the state board were Olivia Oxendine, who represents Robeson County and the region on the Board of Education; Alan Duncan, state board vice chairman; Eric Schneider, state board attorney; Beverly Emory, deputy superintendent; and several staff members.
“We’ve been in and out for the last two weeks meeting with staff, and small groups of board members today,” Emory said. “Finances were the catalyst.”
The state board became directly involved after sending a letter of concern to Public Schools of Robeson County in May. The letter instructed the school board to “take all necessary remedial steps” to bring finances back into line.
The public schools, which lost 1,688 students over the past three years, ran a $2 million deficit during the 2018-19 school year, a deficit paid for using hurricane insurance money. The school’s independent auditor recently called the financial situation a crisis and pointed to a general fund balance that could not cover a month of bills.
Wooten has said all along that personnel costs, especially at PSRC’s smallest schools, are driving the deficit. Wooten said the schools have 190 teachers too many, and with 100 teacher losses this summer, the bottom line is there are 90 too many teachers.
“A reduction in force is our last option,” Wooten said. “Excess staff has gotten us where we are today.”
The superintendent said she and her staff will examine every opportunity to bring the budget back into line without layoffs.
A sticking point with the July 9 school board decision was merging Rowland Middle School into South Robeson High School. It turned out to be an untenable mix of sixth- through 12th-graders that would actually cost the schools $1 million.
On June 18, the school board voted to terminate the high school and to close four schools, including R.B. Dean Elementary School in Maxton, Green Grove Elementary in South Robeson, Rowland Middle School and Janie C. Hargrave Elementary in Lumberton.
In the weeks following the June 18 decision, a transition plan was put into place, Wooten said.
“It was on go, it still is,” she said.
“We must have a more efficient organization,” Wooten said. “We must become a fiscally solvent school system.”
The closing and consolidation plan gathered steam early this year when the board learned of its financial difficulties. Creation of the plan began in earnest in March, but it appeared to be stalled after the board rejected 27 staff cuts proposed by the superintendent.
Afterward, the superintendent and her staff laid out a comprehensive plan to save at least $2 million through closing inefficient schools with enrollments under 500 students. The smallest schools required at least a third more teachers and staff to provide an education on par with larger schools, the report noted.
The school consolidations call for students at Rowland and Fairgrove Middle schools to move to the South Robeson High School campus, Green Grove students to move to the Fairgrove campus to join its fourth-graders, Hargrave students to move to W.H. Knuckles, all Lumberton fourth-graders to move to Carroll Middle, and Carroll Middle’s sixth-graders to move to Lumberton Junior High School.