SALISBURY — The Rowan County Board of Commissioners and the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education will hold a joint meeting at 4:30 p.m. Monday.
The two boards are meeting for mediation purposes in an effort to resolve funding disputes, according to North Carolina General Statute 115C-431.
After the county approved its budget last Monday, the school board unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday to begin the dispute process. The resolution says the funds appropriated by county commissioners for the 2013-14 school year “are not sufficient… to support a system of free public schools.”
If no agreement is reached at this meeting, the statute calls for private mediation sessions with each board’s chairman, finance officer and attorney, along with the school superintendent and county manager. The mediator is named jointly by both boards or by the senior resident Superior Court judge.
If the two sides reach an impasse, the school board can file a lawsuit in state Superior Court.
The joint meeting will be held after the county commissioners’ scheduled 3 p.m. board meeting, on the second floor of the J. Newton Cohen Sr. Rowan County Administration Building, 130 W. Innes St. in Salisbury.