The Rowan-Salisbury school board is proposing the closing of Faith Elementary School on the basis of a large deficit in the capital improvements and maintenance budget. The amount of savings toward the deficit is very small compared to the school closure.

All of the students from Faith will be assigned to Koontz Elementary. The school system’s website shows that the performance of Koontz elementary is ranked as one of the county’s lowest.

Faith is listed as one of the higher-performing schools. One school-ranking website has Koontz rated 1,428 out of 1,432 elementary school in all of N.C. Faith is ranked 460 by this same site.

This raises many concerns and questions. Why close a top-performing school and transfer those students to a lower-performing one? Why increase the number of students and the class size in an already struggling school? That is not fair to the student body and staff of either school.

Are there other motives other than cost here? Is this a quick fix for scores in the lower-performing school? Is there a funding result from these changes? These questions and more come to mind, where such a small financial gain is made by this small cost savings.

I would urge the board not to penalize Faith Elementary students and staff. They have performed at a high level. How are they being rewarded? By possibly closing it down.

Regardless of cost and the budget crisis, they must see value in proven results. The motives are not as they seem. Or are they?

— Eric Webster

Faith