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WAXHAW, NC – More frustration from parents battling a school redistricting plan in Union County.
More than 800 parents packed a public hearing at Marvin Ridge High School Tuesday night–only to find the school board decided not to discuss the controversial redistricting topic.
“It’s frustrating because a lot of us rearranged our schedules to be here tonight,” said Brandon Schaeffer, a Waxhaw resident.
“It’s hard to have to keep coming back week after week for these meetings,” said Jill Carilli.
But Carilli says she’s committed, so she’ll keep coming back and parents will keep packing auditoriums.
A big twist threw the crowd off Tuesday when the Union County Board of Education removed redistricting from the agenda and moved the discussion to a work session next week.
“What you have told us is you will take this to a closed meeting, to a work session, to bring us back something, answers, that again take us out of the discussion and the dialogue, and that’s not going to work!” said Angela Evans, a Marvin resident.
Board members told parents they didn’t have enough time to discuss the $3 million Union County Commissioners offered up Monday night.
“They’re trying to buy time for themselves to access what their next play is going to be in the chess game between the county commissioners and the board of education,” said Carilli.
Commissioners want the district to use the money to buy 49 mobile classrooms. That could delay redistricting for up to five years.
“If we get that time, we have to utilize it properly to come up with what the long term solution is. No one wants to go through redistricting every three to five years,” said Schaeffer.
Parents are fighting to keep close to six thousand students from being moved to new schools.
“I hope they work it out, because if they can’t work together, our children are going to pay the price for a really long time,” said Carilli.
