It was a quick but busy night at the Rowan-Salisbury School Board meeting Monday.

The recently elected Rowan-Salisbury School Board members took their oaths of office on Monday during the board meeting.

Dr. Rebecca Childs, the lone newcomer, was sworn in for the first time. Childs represents the Salisbury district. Incumbents Dr. Lynn Marsh and Kathy McDuffie Sanborn were also sworn in. Marsh represents the Southeast district and Sanborn represents the East district.

New namesakes for East Rowan sports facilities

The board subsequently approved a measure that will rename sports spaces at East Rowan High School.

Requests were made earlier this year to rename the gymnasium after longtime girls basketball coach Jesse Watson and the football stadium in honor of championship coach W.A. Cline.

A committee formed which consisted of school administration, district staff and community members. According to information from the school system, the committee reviewed and discussed how instrumental Watson was in “changing mindsets” for female athletics.

Watson’s career record was 324-147. Watson had eight 20-win seasons and 16 total winnings season. Watson was inducted into the Salisbury Rowan Hall of Fame in 2011.

That same committee pointed out how Cline “exemplified hard work and perseverance with great moral character.”

Cline’s football record was 56-31-3 with four conference titles.

Cline was inducted into the Salisbury Rowan Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.

New activity buses

Funds are currently available to allow purchase of three 72-capacity Thomas buses.

The last 72-passenger activity bus was purchases in 2017. There are currently 41 activity buses in the RSSS fleet.

The three buses in the proposal are manufactured to N.C. specifications.

“Nothing says the holiday spirit like purchasing a couple of new activity buses,” Chief Operations Officer Dr. Jamie Durant quirked on Monday.

Durant indicated that upon purchase of the buses, they could join the fleet as soon as January of next year.

“These would be purchases through the state procurement process and off of a state contract,” Durant said.

The three buses are slated to cost $419,250.

Durant mentioned that there are buses that are housed at each high school because “they use them daily,” but there are additional buses that are at the transportation depot, which are in a rotational cycle. Durant added that the new buses would be entered into that rotation and not assigned to a specific school.

Director of Transportation Brian Moeller said that currently the system has ten activity buses that at 66- capacity which are more than 30 years old.

“The goal is to cycle some of those out,” Moeller said.

The transportation director brought up that the price of buses have gone up significantly in the past few years.

“There were under $100,000 before COVID,” Moeller said. “If we don’t purchase these now, the vendors are saying that next year they could increase (an additional) $10,000 to $15,000. It would be crucial to jump on this purchase now with Thomas.”

The motion to purchase the buses carried unanimously.

In other board news, Superintendent Dr. Kelly Withers said that the school system was making progress at the site of the former Knox Middle School.

“We have the permit in hand for the Knox project,” Withers said. “We have finally gotten across that. I want to thank Dr. Durant and his time for that continuous work. He shard with us this morning that we should start to see some progress very soon. Hopefully even over the next couple of weeks as the holidays come. Our gift will be seeing actual work done on the building.”