Public comment at the Aug. 12 Moore County Board of Education meeting focused largely on the district’s redistricting and facilities plans, with parents and teachers urging action to relieve overcrowding and the Moore County NAACP raising civil-rights and staff-treatment concerns.

“I'm here to really talk about supporting the redistricting efforts,” said Alexa Roberts, closing the public-address period by urging the board to consider the “greater good” for students. Several speakers said redistricting and new construction were necessary to address overcrowded elementary schools and long-term growth.

Sarah Slusser, who said she served as West Pine Elementary’s parent representative on a redistricting advisory committee, argued that a 2015 master facilities plan had included a smaller, cheaper addition to West Pine that, in her view, could have avoided reassigning children from that school. “The 100 student increase in capacity to West Pine Elementary was only going to cost $1,200,000, about $12,000 per student,” Slusser said. “At 38,000,000, the new Pinehurst Elementary will cost 47,500 per student. Even if capacity was added to the cafeteria and gym, tacking on a few $1,000,000, it still would have been dramatically more cost efficient. The newest draft of the student assignment plan reassigns about 38% of the kids in my school.”

Slusser and other speakers questioned enrollment projections. The transcript includes a cited Carolina Journal column noting forecasting errors in Wake County; Slusser asked who would be held responsible if projections prove inaccurate and neighborhoods needed reassignment again within a few years. A board member responded later that the district’s ORED projection in Moore County had an approximate 1% error rate in recent data and that the district actually had 140 more students than projected for the past year.

Teachers and staff described classroom consequences of overcrowding. Tanya Kearns, a fourth-grade teacher at Sand Hills Farm Life Elementary, described teaching two classes of 29 and 28 fourth-graders in a portable classroom, saying she lost instructional time for restroom breaks and that whole-school activities and clubs were limited by space.

Other public-address items included: Anthony McCauley describing a mentoring program he runs called Males of Distinction; John Snipes asking how to resolve a land/right-of-way concern tied to a planned road turning lane near a school site; and residents expressing both support for and frustration with the redistricting process and the master facilities plan.

Olinda Watkins, president of the Moore County NAACP, used her three-minute comment to press the board on what she described as allegations of mistreatment of Black coaches and underrepresentation of minority educators. “Enough is enough,” Watkins said during public address. She also raised concern about a recent raffle of a Glock pistol tied to a district event and said the NAACP planned to pursue the matter; the transcript records Watkins saying the organization considered the matter serious enough to request legal redress and to seek an emergency meeting with the board attorney.

Chair Walling Miller and other board members responded from the dais, clarifying some items: a board member noted the ORED projection error in Moore County was about 1% (the district saw roughly 140 more students than projected this past year) and encouraged the public to consult posted facilities-plan documents and timelines available on the district’s website.

No formal action on redistricting was taken at the meeting; the board continued to receive public comment and will proceed with committee work and staff analysis as previously scheduled.