PURCELL | Repeal efforts for school floor should not be taken lightly

It seems to me that as the Scotland County Commissioners once again consider doing away with the Scotland County School Floor it is a good time to review the history of this unique law that affects only one of North Carolinas 100 counties. I also believe that it is important to remind all citizens interested in the public education of our children as well as newcomers to the community of the importance of the School Floor and how it came about and the challenges that it has faced over the years.

In 1963 Scotland County requested that the City of Laurinburg School System be merged with the County School System (Wagram, Laurel Hill, and Gibson). The City of Laurinburg’s local per pupil expenditure at that time was significantly higher than the per pupil expenditure by the county.

In 1963, by a 3-2 margin, citizens voted to consolidate the Scotland County school system and the City of Laurinburg school system with the following stipulations:

— County to appropriate annually no less than the statewide average local current expense expenditures per student (commonly called the “school floor”).

— Authorized the construction of a new high school and bonds to support construction.

— Authorized establishment of a county wide school tax up to 50 cents per $100 valuation.

The bill also included guidelines for the merger of the two school boards.

To make sure that the next group of County Commissioners couldn’t just do away with this agreement, the agreement was enacted into law by the General Assembly (1963 HB 1017) at the request of the Laurinburg School Board chaired then by Halbert Jones, an outstanding leader and philanthropist in this community over many years. The bill was introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly by our local representative, Roger Kiser.

In 1963 a “Test Case” regarding the “School Floor” was heard in local court (Judge J. B. McKinnon presiding) and was appealed to the NC Supreme Court. The North Carolina Supreme Court in this “Test Case” ruled that the school floor was constitutional.

In 1981 the Scotland County Commissioners with John William Calhoun as Chairman asked the local legislative delegation to authorize a referendum on the School Floor. The local legislative delegation decided that before taking any action on this request they would like to have a public hearing on the matter in Laurinburg.

The public hearing was held in the Scotland County Court House on Feb. 4, 1981 and it was estimated that approximately 400 citizens attended. Local attorney, Ken Etheridge, was chairman of the School Board at that time.

Legislators were Senators Jim Garrison and Bob Jordan (later Lt. Governor Bob Jordan) and Representatives William Gay, Horace Locklear and David Parnell. All attended except maybe one House member who was not present.

After the hearing, the legislators decided that this was obviously a very controversial local issue and concluded that it should be decided locally and that they would not take any action.

Once again, in 2002 the Scotland County Commissioners asked for a referendum on the school funding law. The local legislative delegation at that time responded that if the School Board & County Commissioners would get together and make a request regarding the school floor that both bodies agreed to that it would be considered. In 2002 at the urging of the County Commissioners the School Board negotiated with the Commissioners and both boards agreed to a legislative amendment to the Funding Law.

The bill, SB 1371, SL 2002-66 (Purcell-Plyler) (HB 1691 Yongue), Scotland County School Funding, amended chapter 707 of the 1963 Session Laws and established a base of local support at $8,700,000 with future amounts based on the percentage of average changes (up or down) in per pupil expenditures for low wealth counties in NC. based on the most recent available figures (often 2-year-old data). The bill also provided that in extraordinary economic times the level of local funding may be reduced if approved by a resolution of both boards.

The Board of Education gave up $1.2M in the first year and over $3M in the first 3 years.

Again in 2003, less than a year after the passage of this legislation and before the legislation even had time to be effective the Scotland County Commissioners requested that the local legislative delegation introduce a “Resolution Requesting a Binding Resolution to Consider the Repeal of the Mandatory Level of Funding Current Expense Expenditures from Local Funds for Scotland County Schools”. (NC is not a referendum state like California and some other states so it was not totally clear what a “binding resolution” would actually do).

Almost immediately the local legislative delegation had a resolution from the Scotland County Board of Education requesting that it not introduce this legislation stating that they had “negotiated in good faith”, that the two boards had agreed on the 2002 amendment and that “before the law has even been fully implemented it is premature and contrary to all parties’ good faith efforts related to the law enacted less than a year ago.”

The legislative response once again was that if the two elected boards got together and made a request it would be considered. Of note, Scotland County does not share in the Leandro Decision funds like Hoke and Robeson Counties, but it has received extra per-pupil funds from the low-wealth county fund because of high local maintenance of effort because of the school floor.

Certainly, the Scotland County Board of Education must remain prudent and accountable for how it appropriates its funding but at the same time efforts to do away with the school floor must not be taken lightly in a community that is very unique in its longtime history of dedicated support of public education.

Finally, I guess I am the North Carolina Senator referred to by County Commissioner Jeff Shelley when he said, “It would have been done away with in the 90s if we had a Senator to take it to the state floor.”