SALISBURY — The Rowan County Board of Commissioners voted during their meeting Monday to support a state grant application for Kannapolis City Schools that, if approved, would allow the system to renovate and expand A.L. Brown High School.

The request was brought before the board because the grant, called the Needs-Based Public Schools Capital Fund Grant, requires a percentage match from a local government entity, which varies based on the tax base for each county. Rowan County’s match would be 15 percent.

The school system applied for the grant in the previous two application windows but was unable to secure funding, said Superintendent Kevin Garay. The commissioners endorsed the application both times.

If approved, the grant funding would be used to renovate the Bullock gymnasium, built in 1958, and replace the Cannon Gym, built in 1939, with a new multi-purpose building. The new building would house a new cafeteria, administrative offices and around 20 classrooms, said Garay. The old cafeteria in the school’s main building would then serve as the location for the school’s JROTC program.

Garay also said that the school’s main reasoning for the renovation is to keep up with the student population growth the district expects within the next decade. Director of Operations Scott Rodgers said that in between the student’s already in the district’s lower grades and students expected to move into new housing within the district, the school system expects A.L. Brown to have a population of 2,000 students by 2030. Currently the school serves 1,750 students.

Commissioner Chairman Greg Edds asked the two school representatives why they believe they have been unable to secure the funding during the last two windows and if they believed something could be changed to make approval more likely. In response, Garay said that the state’s feedback has been that Kannapolis City Schools is not doing anything wrong but that the state has had to prioritize Tier 1 counties. The state has a three-tier system for ranking counties economically, with Tier 1 being the most economically distressed and Tier 3 being the least. Cabarrus County is a Tier 3 and Rowan is a Tier 2.

If the state awards the system with the grant during the upcoming fiscal year, Rowan County would be expected to put up a 15 percent match. Garay said that they applied for $62 million, which is the maximum allowed for renovations, which means the county would be expected to put up $9.3 million. Garay said that Cabarrus is willing to partner with Rowan and pay a percentage based on the number of Cabarrus students at the school vs. Rowan students. Currently, 75 percent of students are Cabarrus, so the partnership would reduce Rowan’s price tag to around $2.3 million.