What should be done with superintendent portraits ­caused some disagreement among board members during Monday’s meeting.

With the move to the Wallace Educational Forum inching closer, the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education did not quite know what to do with all of the items in the old buildings that may have some historical or sentimental value.

Superintendent Dr. Lynn Moody said there were some items, like a second-grade desk and the portraits of past superintendents that line the walls, that she did not know the appropriate place for.

“I think there was some confusion that we would throw things away,” Moody said during Monday’s meeting. “That’s not the intent, but I don’t know what to do with certain items, so I was looking for some professional help and expertise.”

Moody said she contacted the Rowan Museum to look through the items and see which ones would be better suited for a museum.

Moody also said the superintendent portraits are damaged, might be out of order and missing some superintendents.

“One that’s very obvious to me that’s missing is Judy Grissom that we don’t even have a portrait of. So it needs to be fixed or finished if you want to show the timeline,” she said.

Chairman Josh Wagner said when Moody contacted the museum about taking some historical items, the museum was upset that the board was not taking the items to the new building.

Wagner said that although they will not throw any items away, the board could not take all of them to the new building, including the superintendent portraits.

“The pictures themselves really will need to be reframed and matted. You’re looking at 150 bucks a piece times 30 or 40, however many are in there. It’s a lot of money to do that and find a place to put them,” he said.

Wagner suggested digitally scanning the portraits and displaying them on a screen in the lobby of the new building.

Board member Travis Allen agreed, adding that the school system could offer the original portraits to the families of the superintendents.

Board member Chuck Hughes said in an email that he thought the portraits were in good shape.

“It just seems a disservice not to take the superintendent pictures and to have them put up on the walls,” Hughes said at Monday’s meeting. “That’s the history of the Rowan County school system, and it seems it’d be more appropriate in the central office building as much as it is in Ellis Street, where they are right now.”

Board member Susan Cox said she would like to display the pictures, but not if they had to pay to fix the portraits up.

“I agree about them being displayed, but I wouldn’t be in favor of spending money if we had to spend money to do it,” she said during the meeting.

Wagner said he could not understand why some board members would be willing to spend so much money in some cases and not others.

“It seems silly that people will raise such a fuss over money on one hand and on the other spend $3,000-$4,000 to frame pictures of folks nobody’s even seen in their entire lives or could name,” he said.

Wagner asked Moody if she could put together a list of the historical items that they were considering. Moody said she would talk with the museum about getting that list together for the next work session.

Hughes wrote in an email that some of the other historical items might go to a historical society, but he has hope that the portraits will make it to the new building.

“I have reason to believe the photos will yet find their rightful place in the central office building,” he said in an email.

Contact reporter Amanda Raymond at 704-797-4222.