After some confusion, the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education decided on a dedication plaque for the new central office building this week.

During the last meeting, the board decided to add the names of former board members and county commissioners to the plaque. The plaque originally only had the names of the current Board of Education members and Superintendent Dr. Lynn Moody, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Julie Morrow and Assistant Superintendent for Operations Anthony Vann. The plaque also had the names of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners, including Chairman Greg Edds, Vice Chairman Jim Greene, Judy Klusman, Mike Caskey and Craig Pierce, as well as County Manager Aaron Church.

The board decided to add former Board of Education members Kay Wright Norman and L.A. Overcash and former county commissioners Jim Sides, Jon Barber and Chad Mitchell to the plaque.

The board was shown two options for the plaque at Monday’s meeting: all the names on one plaque or a separate, smaller plaque for the additional names along with the original plaque.

Board member Chuck Hughes started the voting off with a motion to have the original plaque with the additional names on a smaller plaque, but that motion failed for lack of a second.

Board member Susan Cox then made a motion to have all of the additional names on one plaque.

Before the board voted on Cox’s motion, Chairman Josh Wagner said he thought the new options for the plaque deviated from the standard layout of other plaques in the county, although he made it clear that he has not seen every plaque in the county.

He also said adding the names to the plaque might make some people think the board was taking credit for something it did not physically build.

“I think when we start adding plaques for past board members, I think we kind of lose sight of the fact that as board members all we did was discuss and take votes. None of us paid for anything, none of us built anything, none of us designed anything. We’re just part of the process,” he said.

When the board voted on having all the names on one plaque, the motion failed.

Board member Travis Allen, who made the suggestion to add Overcash’s name during the last meeting, then made a motion to stick with the original plaque without the additional names.

“I’m confused then, because we had discussion at the last meeting, and it was passed to, I thought, add the names,” Cox said during the discussion of the motion.

“If we did approve it then we’ve had the wrong motion made here,” board member Jean Kennedy said.

Kennedy asked whether the board needed to make a motion to rescind the actions of the last meeting.

After a short discussion, the board and its lawyer decided a motion to rescind would be appropriate.

Allen withdrew his motion and then made the motion to rescind the motion from the last meeting.

Before voting, board member Richard Miller asked Allen why he changed his mind about adding the names to the plaque.

“I thought you were the leader on this issue with wanting the extra names, so I need to have some understanding. What changed about that?” Miller asked.

Allen said that what Wagner said changed his mind.

“This has been going on for 20 years. If we added everybody that’s fought for a central office and added names to it, it would be as long as the building is outside,” he said.

The board voted on the rescinding the vote, and it passed.

“Okay, so we’re back to where we started,” Wagner said.

Miller then made a motion to go forward with the plaque with all of the names on it, including the names they decided to add during the last meeting. The motion passed with a 4-3 vote. Cox, Kennedy, Miller and Hughes voted for the motion while Wagner, Allen and Hunter voted against.

In other business, the board:

• Discussed the parental consent for student participation in Department of Education-funded surveys and whether students should participate in the surveys at all
• Discussed the hiring/re-hiring process for teacher assistants and the necessary educational requirements