A Community Design Team is currently working on options to decide the name and mascot. The colors will remain royal blue and yellow. The selection committee will be made up varied staff, parents, students, and community members. This process will continue through February 2025.

This project is scheduled to take two and a half years. We will update the community on the process when we get closer to reopening.

We will look at school capacities across the district once the project is complete. As we explore different possibilities for this school, the Community Design Team, working with Transcend, will look at programming options that would enhance the educational experience of students. 

We are dreaming and brainstorming what this school will be when it reopens. The Community Design Team, working with Transcend, is crafting programming options that would enhance the educational experience of students. They are currently assessing needs and will incorporate programs that address those needs when the school reopens. We anticipate transitioning Overton Elementary into a Pre-K facility when the 3-8 school opens. 

We are in the process of determining what programs will be available as we move forward

We are currently assessing needs, as well as dreaming and brainstorming about what this school will be when it opens. DLI is an important topic of conversation in this area. 

We are currently focusing on a Kindergarten readiness for our community and plan to make Overton Elementary into a Pre-K to 2nd grade school.

This has not yet been determined. We are still working on solidifying our transportation plan and working with existing K-8 schools to assess their processes and outcomes.

We will use state allotment formulas to assign staff to the new school. Class sizes will be similar to our current practices within our schools.

Overton Elementary students would likely move to Knox, but that will depend on a couple of items: programs offered at Knox, such as adding the Dual Language Immersion program there and community growth. We want to serve the current neighborhood, but as the county grows over the next two years, some of the district lines may change in response. 

We plan to demo the current campus at the end of January 2024, breaking ground to build in June 2024, and open the doors to the new school in August 2026.

Our current budget was set at $55 million by the Rowan County Commissioners, and we are within that budget.

It is our goal to give our students the facilities that they deserve. The new building will follow industry standards from the architects and construction bids, and our students will have nicer facilities than before.

We will regularly update the community through our website, social media and the local media. We will also host celebrations when work begins and when it is completed.

Yes!

Students will be reassigned based on the location of their home.

Families will receive assignment letters via mail and email. We will send notification as soon as possible after Board approval. Our goal is to complete this before students go home for the summer.

The recommendation is to reassign 6th grade students to North Rowan Middle School. Seventh and eighth graders will be sent to Southeast Middle School, Erwin Middle School, and West Rowan Middle School All rising sixth graders will be assigned to North Rowan Middle School based on the boundaries created by our partnership with Numerix.

Once initial student reassignments are shared, we will open an additional transfer window for students impacted by the closure of Knox Middle School. This transfer window will follow the same policy as our traditional transfer window. Transfers can be approved for academic programs, childcare, work proximity, etc. (full list here). We don’t honor transfers for students who would rather play sports at a specific school. We will announce dates for this transfer window once the Board of Education makes a final decision on a project plan.

Yes. Every summer we redesign our bus routes to make sure all students have transportation to their assigned schools. We will make sure that all reassigned students have a route to get them to their new school. 

Per usual, we do not provide transportation to students who transfer to a different school than their assigned school.

The closure and construction of these schools will not impact Salisbury High School. All high school students remain at their districted high schools.

We’ll take this feedback and look at the feasibility, but it is unlikely that this is a possibility.

Yes, students will be able to participate in all that is offered at the school they are assigned to.

Our students are why we are here, and their safety is our highest priority. We are continually thinking about what the transition looks like for students and how populations merge as we plan reassignments. We have learned valuable lessons from some of our past school closures, and we plan to train our staff about how to handle these transitions. We will also meet with community and law enforcement officials to plan how to best leverage our resources, such as School Resource Officers. We work in partnership with our SROs to proactively prevent issues. As we develop a clearer picture of where students will be and what specific needs we will have, we will host community sessions to talk about community needs.

Our staff members will follow our reassigned students to their new schools according to the number of students moved to each school. We look at equity in many areas and will ensure that all students have a layered support structure. We have met with the principals to let them know how their schools will potentially be impacted, and we will be training staff about how to handle increases in student populations. We will also offer opportunities for families to visit the buildings to know where their students will attend.

We are reassigning students based on capacity at the receiving schools. We will not go over capacity in any building.  

We work to combat staff turnover no matter what. There are pipeline issues to get staff, but we are working on a recruitment and retention plans. Teacher supplement increase. we try to think differently about recruitment and think differently about recruiting and compensation. We are asking the staff where they would like to work so we can get their input

Students will be able to attend their new school's open house at the end of the summer. We will plan open house events specifically for families impacted by reassignment before the end of the 2022-2023 school year.