“We are Eagles, not Razorbacks”

Salem mustered a strong front at the school board meeting.  The small school community created a setting unprecedented for board meetings.  Salem school supporters filled two meeting rooms; one, in which the trustees met and the other an adjoining room set up to handle the overflow crowd.  Several Tamassee-Salem alumni wore the school colors of gold and black.  And, once the meeting ended after two and a half hours, trustees said they will take into consideration the sentiments to keeping the school open.  At the same time, they made clear they’ll weigh the arguments that the administration makes to close the school at the end of this year and re-assign the Tamassee-Salem students to Walhalla schools.  Melissa Wilkie, a Tamassee-Salem graduate and Walhalla resident, was typical of the 18 speakers in favor of keeping their school.  She and others made a case for the value of small schools where teachers can give students the attention they don’t get at larger ones.  Wilkie scored with the audience when she turned to them and said, “We are Eagles, not Razorbacks.”  Later Dr. Michael Thorsland, county superintendent, put in a good word for the first-year Walhalla High School and said its teachers, like those in Salem, are also caring educators.  A rub with some in the Salem community is their belief that some of its students won’t fare well in a high school whose enrollment hit the 1,000 mark this year.  And worse, said some, there have been instances of Walhalla students showing disrespect to the Tamassee-Salem students who come from a rural part of the county.  Trustees Chairman Andy Inabinet said the consideration to close the county’s smallest high school does not reflect on either the quality of what’s taught there, nor does it reflect on how well students there are.  There are other issues, he said, including what’s best for the entire district.  Inabinet outlined what’s ahead.  The recommendation to close the school will be back on the agenda at the board’s action-taking meeting Monday night, October 19.