By Josh Bergeron

josh.bergeron@salisburypost.com

A bill to prevent school boards across North Carolina from suing county commissioners and supported by local legislators, failed on Tuesday in the House by a margin of 14 votes.

House Bill 726, which had Reps. Carl Ford, R-76, and Harry Warren, R-77, as co-sponsors, failed on its second reading in the House with 52 members voting in favor and 66 voting against. The bill would have made decisions by county commissioners the final step in allocating school system funding. Ford on Wednesday said the measure isn’t dead entirely and could come back as a bill to study eliminating lawsuits.

A long list of legislators, including Ford, spoke about the measure during debate on the House floor. Many speakers drew on previous experience as a county commissioner or school board members as a reason for his or her opinion on the measure. Ford served as a county commissioner just before being elected in 2012 to the State House.

“Now, when the county commission gets sued, not one brick is laid, not one teacher is paid, not one kid is educated,” Ford said.

In his floor speech, Ford said only attorneys benefit from a lawsuit between commissioners and school boards. Ford used the Rowan County Commissioners’ 2014 mediation as an example during his speech.

Mediation between Rowan Commissioners and the board of education in 2014 resulted in $6.5 million to be used for a school central office at 500 North Main Street in Salisbury, $12 million in funding to be used for Knox Middle School renovations or replacing Woodleaf and Cleveland Elementary Schools, $18 million to be used for construction of a new facility to replace Woodleaf Elementary and Cleveland Elementary schools and a joint planning committee composed of commissioners and school board members.

“The school board needs to concentrate on one thing and that’s education,” Ford said in his floor speech. “The county commissioners will take care of the buildings and (in Rowan County) the county commissioners were taking care of the buildings and teachers supplements.”

He cited several financial figures relating to Rowan in his speech, including $500,000 given to the school system for teacher supplies.

“Not even a thank you,” he said. “Just, we want more.”

Asked on Wednesday about the future of the failed bill, Ford said a study bill could sway opinion.

Chairman of Rowan County’s Board of Commissioners Greg Edds was tight-lipped about his opinion on the bill following its failure.

“Whether it passed or failed, it didn’t matter to me,” Edds said. “That’s my statement. Pass or fail our commissioners and school board are still going to work together. That’s my honest opinion.”

Contact reporter Josh Bergeron at 704-797-4246