By Sarah Nagem
Salisbury Post
The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education will meet Monday to discuss, among other topics, the future of North Rowan High School.
The board’s annual retreat meeting will be at 4 p.m. Monday at 314 N. Ellis St. in Salisbury. Since it is not a regular meeting, there will be no public-comment period.
The board is scheduled to talk about ways to boost the enrollment at North, where the number of students has declined.
The drop in enrollment makes it hard to offer as many academic opportunities, the school’s principal, Rodney Bass, has said.
Karen Carpenter, a school board member who represents the northern district of the county, is on a committee to come up with ways to assist North Rowan High. School board members Bryce Beard and Jean Kennedy are also on the committee.
The committee has met with North’s school improvement team, Carpenter said.
Options to boost enrollment include shifting attendance lines or putting academies at North that could attract students from other schools.
Carpenter said she hopes on Monday the board will “come to some consensus about what we’re going to do.”
As for academies, or academic tracks, Carpenter said the school improvement team made it clear that it wants biotechnology.
But other schools will likely be interested in getting a biotechnology academy, too, Carpenter said.
She said she wants the board to talk about ways to make an academy system fair to each high school.
The board is also scheduled to discuss the possibility of changing their public-comment procedures.
For the complete meeting agenda, go to http://www.rss.k12.nc.us.