The Coalition for Education and Economic Security made sterling points in its presentation to Halifax County commissioners on a proposed $58 million bond referendum to fund school improvements.

The points in Chair Rebecca Copeland's talk during a public comment section at Monday's meeting are some the board should heed and study further.

It was a meeting in which three of the commissioners decided there just wasn't enough information to move forward with a public hearing on the matter and after Copeland's well-thought, persuasive talk, we would agree.

Commissioner Rives Manning said he felt as if the board was blindsided by the proposal. We felt the same way. There were more questions than answers when the matter was initially discussed and the coalition provided some solutions that need looking into by commissioners as well as county staff.

The questions raised by Copeland and the coalition come right out of the Evergreen Solutions study, a document Commissioner Vernon Bryant has been lobbying the board to sit down and study in an open forum.

The coalition's plea that the board do just that tells us perhaps the organization isn't just in this fight for school merger, but rather in seeking all solutions that could possibly save taxpayers money, whether it be looking for non-traditional ideas for school construction or better utilizing excess space at schools with extra capacity.

Obviously, there are school construction needs — the situation at Manning Elementary School comes immediately to mind. There are schools in the county that haven't been upgraded since their construction in the late 50s and early 60s, and Weldon High School sorely needs renovations and remodeling.

Diving headfirst into a bond referendum for $58 million that, in the unlikely scenario if all bonds were issued at the same time would generate a 12.9-cent tax increase, is just not the way to go right now.

The coalition Monday gave commissioners a good starting point to begin talking about solutions to school funding problems and we would like to see the board begin discussing them — Editor