Halifax County Commissioner Rives Manning, in an effort to quell criticism the board has never acted on school merger, took a calculated risk and put a motion on the table this morning to consolidate the three county school systems.
His motion ended in a deadlock — he, Rachel Hux and Vernon Bryant voting against the measure and Carolyn Johnson, board Chair James Pierce and Marcelle Smith voting for the measure.
Manning put the motion on the floor in a portion of the agenda designated for other business.
“I move that the Halifax County Commissioners, acting under North Carolina General Statute 115C-68.1, adopt a plan to consolidate and merge the three school units — Roanoke Rapids Graded School District, Weldon City Schools District and Halifax County Schools — into a single countywide unit,” his handwritten motion stated.
The motion was met with silence and Pierce asked Manning if he wanted that motion on the table, to which Manning confirmed he did.
Those for and against the measure raised their hands.
“It’s on the record the county commissioners have voted,” Manning said after the vote, which was the aim of the motion, to have it appear in the minutes the board did take action.
If there was any unknown in the way a vote on merger would go, it was how Smith would vote.
Asked if the motion surprised him, Smith said after the meeting, “Today I was. It was not planned.”
Smith said his affirmative vote for merger was based on several reasons. “I look at the budget and look at the resources we have and need. The problem is the sharing of resources.”
Hux said the motion now gives everyone knowledge of how each board member stands on the issue.
Smith said now that the lines are drawn, there would be no taking advantage of a board member’s absence should the matter come up again. “That’s not how we operate.”
Manning said he simply put the motion on the table because it has never been brought up before and because of criticism brought on him and Bryant at a rally Thursday marking the two-year anniversary of a report by the University of North Carolina Center for Rights promoting merger. “I’ve been condemned because we never brought it up.”
Manning said he has not been pleased recently with the performance of any of the three school systems. “I’m not pleased with the end results of any of three. Two (Roanoke Rapids and Weldon) are more superior than the other one and the other one gets more (tax dollars) per child than any of the other two.”
Pierce said the motion took him by surprise.
With the deadlock, Pierce said, “The voters can decide. I would have liked to have seen it go the other way.”