Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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Based on weeks of analysis, William Whaley, director of development services and facilities management for Davie County, said the school’s “functional capacity” is between 1,500 and 1,600 students in the “bricks and mortar” structures. The mobile units can hold another 400 students.
There are 1,893 students enrolled at the school.
Superintendent Dr. Robert Landry and Whaley said now that the capacity has been determined, it’s time to move on.
“We need to move on to the most important task, which is to educate our kids. We need to move on from the number. The fact remains that we are still overcrowded,” said Landry.
For years, the number 1,320 has been used as the capacity number for the 51-year-old school. Many questioned where that number came from.
“The purpose of the analysis I just completed was to determine if the previously reported student capacity of 1,320 was, in fact, correct. In my analysis, it became apparent that the reported capacity of 1,320 students came from the utilization of a software package from the state (N.C. Department of Public Instruction) that boiler plates the student capacity at 20 students per classroom. Boiler plating means the data entered into certain fields [in the software] cannot be modified. The state uses 20 students per classroom because that is the state’s overall average. If you multiply the number of regular classrooms [66] by 20, the result is 1,320.”
Whaley said past criticism of the number and the inability to determine where it came from is no one’s fault; they were simply using the software package the state uses, and that is all they had to go on.
At Monday night’s school board meeting, Bill Foust called the number a fabrication, and said any board member who had used the number in the past, knowing it was fabricated, should resign. He referred to the overcrowding at the high school as congestion.
While it is the board’s policy to not respond after the public comment session, at the end of the meeting Rick Ellis said he had not fabricated the number and would not sit quietly and be accused of using a fabricated number.
Carol Livengood said she was appalled at the accusation and reminded Foust of the task force’s recommendation that when the capacity reached 1,600 two ... subscribe to the Davie County Enterprise Record, P.O. Box 99, Mocksville, N.C. 27028.