Stanly County is vastly different than it was even 10 or 15 years ago. Alcoa is gone. There are virtually no textile or large
manufacturing plants left. The city and county have settled on a new vision for the future that leans more toward tourism, small business, and technology than on manufacturing. That's a good and logical goal, but it won't come about overnight. Meanwhile, our children graduate from high school and head off to Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston, Raleigh, etc. never to live here again. The cities are starting to boom again, but this once thriving area is stagnant at best and dying in some ways.
Communities tend to rally around schools, and any time change is mentioned, it pushes a lot of 'hot buttons.' It's only been a couple of years since Ridgecrest Elementary and North Albemarle Elementary were closed. Prior to that, the last time any school in Stanly County was closed (except for desegregation in 1966-67) was at the end of the 1961-62 school year when
the high schools at Aquadale, Badin, Endy, Locust, Millingport, New London, Norwood, Oakboro, Richfield, and Stanfield consolidated into North, South, and West Stanly High Schools. Even then, these ten schools remained open as elementary schools (and yes, I'm that old). It's not something we Stanly Countians have gone through very often.
The fact of the matter is that Stanly County is no longer big enough, and no longer has the tax base, to operate the number of school facilities it does...especially when some of them are barely 50% full. BR has said he perceives a bias on the school board against Albemarle, and he is certainly entitled to that opinion. But I don't believe they have set out to target AHS or SSHS for any reason. And I have gained GREAT respect for this new school board in that they are finally taking some action to do what has needed to be done for the last 20 years! What they are doing is attacking a problem that is
draining the school board and county budgets of resources that can be better utilized by combining facilities and reassigning students...even though it will create some controversy and quite likely cost some of them re-election.
If the previous school boards would have taken action on the multiple re-districting studies that have been done over the years, then sat unused on the shelf, we might not be in a situation today where such drastic action is needed.
This post was edited on 1/31 9:29 AM by new_dawg
This post was edited on 1/31 9:40 AM by new_dawg