The joint meeting of the Halifax County commissioners and Weldon City Schools Board of Education last week brought up a word that seemingly only the county chapter of the NAACP wants to talk about — consolidation of the county’s three school systems.

While county administration says it is not pushing merger, David Harvey, president of the county chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, says it is something that must be considered.

“We talk about it all the time to bring attention about the school boundary lines in Roanoke Rapids and Weldon and merger,” Harvey said Monday in an interview with himself and Dock Brown, chair of the chapter’s political action committee.

Setting the economics of merger aside, Harvey says look at the racial boundaries created years ago. “That line separated the city of Roanoke Rapids. That’s why the school system goes by the graded school district. From a racial standpoint, it comes up a couple of times but no one wants to address it.”

The Weldon school district is 2 miles from Southeast High School, goes to Carolina Rest Home Road to Highway 903 and then Highway 48.

Harvey questions Weldon’s desire to build a new high school for 288 students, which is why it is fighting the county for $1.3 million to hire an architect to design a new school. “There’s no way we can afford to build a $20 to $30 million school to accommodate 288 kids. The biggest part I see other than race is Roanoke Rapids and Weldon want their own.”

Many people, Harvey said, don’t realize the racial barriers because politicians don’t talk about it.

Harvey is talking about it. “I’ve talked with the state leaders several times and the state attorneys about Halifax County and the racial barriers and the civil rights barriers. We’d like to see the county commissioners step in and say, ‘enough is enough.’”

The last big school merger talks that state legislators were involved in was with the Nash and Edgecombe county school systems, Brown said. Legislators said all the “power is within county commissioners.”

While Harvey said there is justice department intervention, he says the matter can handled locally. “I would love to see them deal with it at the county level and have county leaders see the importance of it. A lot of the resistance is comfortability.”

Brown believes, however, many politicians may be afraid to address the issue. “Once you advocate merger you’re going to make some enemies. Some of my closest friends serve on the Weldon school board. They want that school to be theirs.”

There are also economic factors, Harvey said, the county commissioners being stewards of public money, and the issue of the Halifax County school board voting to reopen Brawley and Eastman is a perfect example. “When you look at the dollars, we can’t even fill the schools we’ve got. People in those communities have never been happier.”

Harvey says, however, “You have to look at the big picture. I think reopening those schools may be a bad decision.”

Brown believes one school system would bring continuity. “Number one, you get a core curriculum where everyone is learning the same thing. It emphasizes discipline. The school board would decide what courses are important. Everybody in the 11th grade would be taught the same course.”

With one school system, Harvey said, “The racial barriers would be torn down once and for all. We could have one or two state of the art high schools where students get more options.”

While people would lose jobs, Harvey said, “You eliminate assistant superintendent positions.”

Harvey believes the three school systems in the county and the county commissioners need to make a decision. “They have to make a decision that’s in the best interest of the county. It’s been a stumbling block in this county for years.”

The county chapter wants to see what happens when Vernon Bryant, a longtime member of the Roanoke Rapids school board, is sworn is as a county commissioner in December.

Brown believes people may be more open to discussing merger now. “You couldn’t even talk about it 30 years ago. I believe there are some people who want to talk about it now.”