The Faith Elementary property is finally in the hands of Faith Academy Charter School. This comes last minute after a frustratingly slow process lasting from October to June.

A number of major steps were required, ranging from the Rowan-Salisbury Schools board officially voting to close Faith Elementary through the recent sale of the property. It all unfolded slowly because the RSS board meets just bimonthly, and the RSS administrators are often too busy to meet with the charter school board. This curiously close timing occurs following a years-long discussion to close Faith Elementary in spite of the community’s polite and repeated requests to keep the school open.

During this process, the public was encouraged to think that the Faith Elementary buildings are in very poor condition when in fact they are in need only of routine maintenance.  While RSS delayed, the N.C. Charter School Board was bearing down on the charter school board to secure the property prior to their granting final approval to open. Faith has been forced to take this giant leap of faith.

The public needs to know, if RSS appears inept at the process of selling a school, it may just be because they have never done it until it came to Faith. Additionally, there is no precedent in Rowan for a charter school to purchase a county property and start school seamlessly after the county school closed.

The most recent school closures were Woodleaf and Cleveland. RSS paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each to demolish these campuses before turning the land over to the county. The fate of the recently closed Enochville campus remains to be seen. By contrast, Faith Academy Charter paid $300,000 for the elementary school property and offered to buy the furnishings, but residents watched as books, furniture and equipment were hauled away and the PTA-funded playground equipment is jack-hammered out of the ground, leaving the site unrepaired, messy and dangerous.

One wonders what is behind this unneighborly behavior. The longstanding and obscure Salisbury/Faith divide is perceived by many, even while thousands come to enjoy the Fourth of July festivities and the generosity of private residents at Halloween. Those unfamiliar with Faith are warmly welcomed to visit and worship, dine, shop, get a haircut or join one of the several civic groups. 

Faith Academy Charter School will open in August, offering K-7 grades and add a grade each year through high school. A new elementary campus that serves young children more safely under one roof will be constructed nearby. Eventually, a high school will occupy the present facilities.

As with all N.C. charter schools, Faith Academy is a free public school that takes applications from any child of N.C. residents by lottery. Faith Academy has already hired an admirable and very qualified faculty. Note that the NC charter school per-student allotment is by law approximately $6,000 from the state, while district schools receive nearly $9,000 yearly per student. Faith residents will dutifully continue to pay their taxes to help fund RSS. Support a possible future bond referendum to expand RSS? Maybe not.

Watch out Liberty and Bostian. Your community school may be on the chopping block next.

Amy T. Wilhelm lives in Faith.