More demographic, financial data needed, says Rock Hill school equity panel

Analysis of the demographics at Rock Hill’s three high schools and a full accounting of extra-curricular and athletic costs are needed to determine equity among the schools, said parents, students and principals studying the issue.

The school equity committee, which met from September to December, made the recommendations to Rock Hill school board during a work session Monday.

The equity committee’s three co-chairs – Butch Bailey of Northwestern, Stephen Cox of South Pointe and Todd Lumpkin of Rock Hill – agreed that more analysis was needed and that some of details sought were beyond the scope of the committee.

They recommended hiring a professional demographer to look at factors such as age, race, sex, economic status, level of education, income level and employment at each of the three high schools.

Cox urged the school board to get the data and see where it leads. Demographics became important to the committee as it worked to understand the differences between the three high schools.

In some areas, the committee found the three high schools “in general” offered the same courses or activities.

Demographics became a concern as the committee looked enrollment trends – falling numbers at South Pointe with Rock Hill and Northwestern near capacity.

The committee also tried to understand how demographics impact the ability to fund activities.

Data the committee studied from York County showed that of the five highest income population segments in the city two are assigned to Northwestern, three to Rock Hill and none to South Pointe.

The committee recommended the school district undertake “whatever actions may be required to correct imbalances in the population segments” regarding demographics and student population at each school.

The committee did not specifically recommend rezoning because “it’s a radioactive word,” Cox said. However, some committee members felt rezoning would be needed, Cox said.

The school board briefly discussed rezoning but did not take a position Monday. It asked the school district officials to respond to the committee’s recommendations before the board acts.

The financial issue was the reason the committee was formed. South Pointe parents asked the school board to look into the funding of extra curricular activities and athletics at the three schools.

Superintendent Kelly Pew hired the Greenville accounting firm of Greene, Finney & Horton to examine the issues. The accounting firm initially found that accounting procedures at the schools were inconsistent and that South Pointe had run deficits in its per-pupil activity accounts for several years.

A second report by the accounting firm said the school district needed to increase funds to the high school for “fixed” costs such as transportation and game officials. It recommended $20,000 each for Rock Hill and Northwestern and $35,000 for South Pointe. The additional funding for South Pointe was to cover transportation costs.

The equity committee said that the accountants looked at about 15 percent of athletic expenses and a more extensive analysis of spending was needed to determine how much was being spent for all extracurricular activities, athletics and music programs.

Once the total cost was known, the next step would be determining which costs were “essential” or fixed costs which should be paid by the school district and which costs were “non-essential” and could be paid through booster clubs or other fundraising.

This story was originally published January 11, 2016 at 9:16 PM with the headline "More demographic, financial data needed, says Rock Hill school equity panel."