Following Tuesday's State of the Schools Address, Scotland County Schools Superintendent Dr. Shirley Prince said that she received "far fewer complaints than expected."

That comment was a testament to recent community angst over Scotland High School's transition to the smaller learning communities model, as well as to the poor turnout for the event, which had been moved from the high school's media center to its auditorium to accommodate what was expected to be a large crowd.

In reality, the 60 or so people that turned up would have easily fit into the media center, leaving Prince and others to question why so few attended.

"I would have liked to have seen more people come out ... as much as we publicized this," said Prince.

Of those who did attend, there were even fewer who took advantage of the opportunity to ask questions of the superintendent.

The questions which were asked were mostly critical in tone, and an adversarial dynamic developed between Prince and several of those in attendance.

Attendees asked about classroom overcrowding, unqualified teachers, and difficulty switching from one academy to another.

One parent complained that it was difficult for him to get in touch with administrators when he had questions and concerns.

Prince vowed to investigate all of the issues, which she said were being raised to her for the first time.

Prince discounted the claim that administrators are difficult to reach.

"What I would say to that is, you have only one parent bringing up the issue. In my experience, our principals are very attuned to calling the parents back."

Other, less specific problems were raised, including one parent who said that her children, students at the high school, were unhappy with the current state of affairs at the school.

At one point Prince was accused of having pushed the smaller learning communities model because she had "something to gain."

"I can assure you that that was not the case," Prince said.

Scotland County School Board member Terence Williams expressed concern with the sometimes negative nature of the meeting.

"I think it comes down to a lack of knowledge" on the part of parents, he said after the meeting. "In the past (the school system) may not have done an effective job of communicating its goal and objectives."

Williams added that he was pleased with Prince's efforts to reach out to the community.

"I do not think there are enough meetings like this," he said.

The evening began with an information-packed presentation by Prince, which included a defense of the current local school funding formula, more commonly known as the "school floor."

Laurinburg Mayor Matthew Block took time after the presentation to question the school floor, stating that in years when local funding has gone down, achievement has increased.

Prince responded, saying that Block's example was the result of "learning to do more with less."

During the presentation Prince made it clear that local per pupil funding is lower than the North Carolina average, and that the county only exceeds the state average in state and federal funding because of its status as a "low-wealth county."

Were the county to decide to decrease the money spent on schools, she said, then state and federal funding would decrease as well, amplifying the effect of such a decision. This would be due to a policy in place aimed at keeping counties and school systems from using state and federal money to supplant, or replace, local funding.

Prince credited the comparatively high state and federal funding the county receives to quality grant writing as well.

A number Prince considered most telling was the statistic that revealed the percentage of the county's general fund which goes to the schools. The state average for counties was 31 percent, while Scotland County actually spends less than the state average, at 29.4 percent.

Contrary to the complaints brought up by parents in attendance, Prince pointed out during her presentation that the school system is "below the state average for class size," across most grade levels according to official statistics.

Reading proficiency scores were not where Prince said they should be, and she claimed that a dip in reading scores after the smaller learning communities switch was to be expected.

Prince took time to indicate that she was particularly concerned with how children from poor families and minorities were performing at the school. According to Prince, the smaller learning communities model will better support students from those groups.

The statistic that Prince considers evidence of early success of the smaller learning communities switch is the graduation rate. The dropout rate has improved nearly 10 percentage points since 2005, while the state rate improved only two points over the same period.

Internships at the high school have better than tripled since 2005 as well, going from 30 to 104, Prince said.