STANLY COUNTY, N.C. — Parents and community members have renewed hope Oakboro Elementary School won’t close when the school year ends in just three weeks.
“I think it’s just a blessing,” said Eve Willoughby, who used to be a teacher assistant at Oakboro Elementary.
Stanly County commissioners are pledging $550,000 to keep the school open one more year even though they don’t know exactly where the money is coming from yet.
County Manager Andy Lucas said the commissioners have to look at the proposed budget for the next fiscal year.
“They’ll work through (the budget) and make decisions whether they want to reallocate some of those funds to the Oakboro school or whether they decide to take completely the $550,000 from the fund balance.”
Last month, the school board voted to close the school because of decreased enrollment and funding. Now parents are reviving their fight.
“It’s where my kids go to school,” Carla Smith, the school’s PTO president, said. “It’s where I want my younger kids to go to school. I don’t want my kids to go to school in another town where we don’t live.”
The school board will have to vote to accept the one-time grant from the county.
"To me, it's common sense," retired teacher Anabel Speight told Channel 9.
Eyewitness News anchor Liz Foster reached out to all seven school board members. None responded within eight hours.
Some people are upset with the slated school closure because five out of the seven school board members will not be on the board in November because they're not running for re-election.
"Don't make the decision now and you're not going to be here to follow through with it or you're not going to be here to take the consequences of it," Speight said.
The Stanly County School Board had a special meeting Tuesday night to discuss redistricting but a school district representative didn't respond when Channel 9 asked if board members would discuss the county grant. The agenda for the board's next regular meeting on June 7 has not been discussed yet.
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