By Andie Foley
andie.foley@salisburypost.com

The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education will meet on Tuesday at 1 p.m. to consider renewal plans for 10 schools.

The schools  — Hanford-Dole, Knollwood, Landis and Overton elementary schools; West Rowan Middle School; and East Rowan, North Rowan, Salisbury, South Rowan and West Rowan high schools — are scheduled to have 15 minutes to present plans that explore the charter-like flexibilities offered by Renewal, which the system received in August of last year.

The renewal legislation allows for districtwide school autonomy in certain aspects of curriculum, budget, personnel, calendar and scheduling, and schools are proposing implementing a mixture of each to meet identified needs at each site.

Needs were identified through site-specific needs assessments, identifying struggles such as low literacy levels, low parental engagement and involvement, high discipline referrals, struggles with trauma and transience and more. Proposed implementations range from schedule changes like once-weekly late start times to repurposed positions for student support.

After hearing the presentations, school board members will have the opportunity to ask questions before possibly voting to approve the proposed plans.

The board will meet in the Wallace Educational Forum board room, 500 N. Main St.

In other business on Tuesday’s agenda:

• The board will consider the system’s 2019-2020 strategic plan.

The plan lists means of achieving real-world immersion, interpersonal skills and a personalized educational experience for all students by 2023, reflecting objectives announced last fall.

• The board will consider its 2019-2022 plan for Academically and Intellectually gifted learners.

Proposed updates to the plan include a new way of screening and identifying gifted students and classroom-based instruction. This differs from the traditional means of separated instruction for gifted learners.

• The board will hear an update on an effort to remove excess mobile units from across the district.

Eighteen of the system’s remaining 88 trailers were put out to bid on April 28 this year. According to Assistant Superintendent of Operations Anthony Vann, four individuals placed bids on all available units, with offers ranging from $200 to $3,200 per unit.

Accordingly, the school system should not be required to contribute funding toward the mobile unit removal.