ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. – The Rowan-Salisbury School District is promising to include community input on a plan to consolidate and close dozens of schools.

• The plan will save the district thousands of dollars
• Parents got clarity on the district's effort to address $5.3 million in annual costs
• Another session is set for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at East Rowan High School

Officials say this plan will save the district $500,000 annually per school and will provide better maintained facilities for students to learn in. Additionally, they say it will free up more money to make repairs to schools that remain after the consolidation and closures.

Tuesday night at Salisbury High School, administrators held the first in a series of six community meetings.

“I think bold steps need to be taken, I'm in agreement with that. I just have questions that need to be answered, and i want to support the public schools,” a parent said.

Parents got clarity Tuesday night on the district's effort to address $5.3 million in annual costs.

“We get about $2.4, $2.6 million in capital and when you break that out it's about $70,000 per school per year,” Rowan-Salisbury School Board chairman Josh Wagner said.

Multiply that by 35 schools across the system, some of their facilities considered inadequate for modern education. The district has about $200 million in total capital needs. Administrators proposed closing or consolidating six elementary, three middle and two high schools over the next five years.

The session started with a small introduction in the school’s auditorium.

“We just want to make sure you're looking at every angle, how does it affect every student in every community,” he said.

They then took their children's seats to get one-on-one answers about the sweeping closure/consolidation plan from administrators.

“If it’s going to do something that they feel like is going to help the students, then I'm all for it,” parent Shawnte Heilig said.

Some, like Mary Allen Conforti, an elementary PTA president, a little skeptical.

“About moving the location of the new facility away from where they currently are,” she said.

Just like district leaders, she hasn't made up her mind about anything.

“I'm here to also learn more because there may be perfectly good reasons behind some of the decisions here,” she said.

“If there's other options that we can find that we haven't thought of yet, then that gives us a good starting point,” a parent said.

The next community input session is Wednesday evening at 5:30 p.m. at East Rowan High School.