Opinion: Catawba County should have one school system
By Gabriel Bell
There has been significant opposition to a proposal laid out by the Board of Commissioners to merge the three school systems in Catawba County. Citizens have mobilized with picket signs at county meetings. Hickory City Schools (HCS) and to a lesser extent Newton-Conover City Schools (NCCS) have been vocally against the proposal.
I did not understand why so many seemed to be firmly against the plan, so I researched arguments on both sides of the issue. I have never attended a school in Catawba County and have no friends or family on either side of the issue. Having weighed both sides of the argument, I feel I am uniquely qualified to make an objective case in favor of merging.
These are the facts: Hickory City Schools and Newton-Conover City Schools have been losing students for years. With the decrease in students comes a decrease in funding. Studies conducted by McKissick Associates, a Pennsylvania-based research and architecture firm, indicate that this trend will continue into the foreseeable future. Conversely, the county school system has more students than it can handle.
The Commissioners believe that millions of dollars can be saved in the short run by merging the systems, and that issues relating to capacity can be addressed by the same merger. In the long run, they believe that the city systems will collapse if something is not done to stop their decline.
Hickory City Schools’ official statement in opposition to this proposal lists several points against the merger.
The first argument Hickory makes is that the merger plan would actually cost more than maintaining the status quo, citing the cost of “legal fees, rebranding, and consolidation of financial systems.” It pegs the largest cost, “technology integration,” at roughly $8-12 million.
This projection is unsourced, but let us take it at face value. The study commissioned by the Board of Commissioners projects that the merger will save $145 million. Even if Hickory’s estimates are correct, the cost of “technology integration” would not negate the entirety of the $145 million savings.
Let us move on to the second point.
The statement points out that Hickory receives more needs-based school funding due to its relatively high poverty rate. If the systems merged, and too many non-impoverished students from greater Catawba County started going to Hickory schools, it could “dilute those percentages and reduce the overall funding for [Hickory] students.”
While it is possible that the school could lose some poverty-based grants, funding would still increase overall. Schools in North Carolina are legally required to receive funding on a per-pupil basis. Each student enrolled means more money for the school. Thus, the easiest way to provide a school with more money is to have more students.
The Hickory and Newton-Conover systems have had a decreasing student population for years. This is exactly the issue that worries the County Commissioners.
If students from overcrowded Catawba County schools are moved to Hickory’s schools, Hickory is legally required to receive more money.
The third point made in Hickory’s statement is that the merger could result in school lines being redrawn, reassigning students to different schools and disrupting their learning.
This is true, but it is going to happen with or without the merger. In fact, many opponents of the merger suggest redrawing district lines as a solution instead of merging the systems.
While this process could temporarily solve the problem, the solution would not have lasting effects. The lines would eventually require more adjustment, and every time they are adjusted it would require time-consuming approval from the North Carolina General Assembly. A merger would remove the districts entirely, making this process unnecessary.
Essentially, Hickory is advocating for a continued lack of local control over the school district lines. This is ironic, because the fourth and final point made in Hickory’s statement is that the merger would cause a “loss of local voice.”
In the statement, Dr. Jennifer Griffin, superintendent of HCS, said, “Smaller, community-centered districts are more responsive, more personal, and better able to serve the unique needs of their students. A merger would take that away.”
Hickory would still have a voice in the Catawba County school district. What makes the residents of Hickory so special and distinct from the residents of Newton-Conover or of the unincorporated areas of the county that exist a few miles from Hickory’s city center?
Catawba County is not a large area. A combined district would still be a small, local school district. The commissioners are not advocating for the termination of the teachers and staff. These individuals would remain and could continue to serve the students on a personal, responsive basis. Only redundant jobs in management would disappear.
Though Hickory’s statement did not mention it, opponents of the merger sometimes say the quality of education in the city schools would go down if the systems were merged.
If anything, the Catawba County system would take a hit from incorporating Hickory’s schools. Each year, the NC Department of Public Instruction releases “school report cards,” grading schools on their quality of education and growth.
Over half of Hickory’s schools are graded “D” and half are rated “low performing.” Only about 15% of county schools are graded “D,” with the same percent “low performing.”
“This is not just a financial issue—it’s about what is best for kids,” Griffin said in the statement.
I think the kids would benefit from better quality of education, don’t you?