Members of the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Board of Education believe that by waiting until the latest round of test scores are released in July, they're taking the best approach to solving the problems that have caused Sheep-Harney Elementary School to lose more than 100 students since the 2004-05 school year.

Ordinarily, they'd be right; the cautious approach often is the right approach to problem-solving. But there is also such a thing as being overcautious, and when a school has been consistently hemorrhaging students like Sheep-Harney has over the past three years, one wonders if the school board's real approach to solving this problem is grounded more in hope — as in we hope that it will go away — than reality.

Hoping for better test scores in July doesn't sound like good crisis management to us. But then, you have to understand that you're in a crisis before you can manage one. EC-Pasquotank school officials certainly haven't acted like there's a crisis at Sheep-Harney. In fact, if not for a recent joint meeting between the school board and the Pasquotank Board of Commissioners, the public would know nothing of Sheep-Harney's problems keeping students.

The school board had asked commissioners to consider purchasing land for another elementary school, but commissioners pointed out that they weren't prepared to do that while Sheep-Harney continues to be under-utilized. The conversation forced school officials to acknowledge, for the first time publicly, that Sheep-Harney's continuing problems meeting state testing benchmarks is draining the school of students.

The exodus from Sheep-Harney is the result of parents exercising their withdrawal right under the state's Adequate Yearly Progress program. Parents are given that right if a school fails to meet its AYP goals in any subject for two consecutive years. Sheep-Harney has failed to meet those goals, so parents have reacted by withdrawing their children from the school and enrolling them at other elementary schools in the district.

Asked what solutions they've developed to stop the flight from Sheep-Harney, Superintendent Tony Stewart said school officials plan to study converting Sheep-Harney either into a magnet school or a year-round school.

Both are intriguing possibilities, but we're not sure they really focus on what should be the goal at Sheep-Harney: improving the academic performance of students already at the school. That's why Matt Wood, a member of the Business in Support of Education Consortium, a group of business leaders who've offered their help and expertise to the schools, believes bolder steps are needed.

One of Wood's suggestions is to have the school district concentrate more of its state funding for poor schools on Sheep-Harney. Currently those funds are sprinkled throughout the district, Wood says. That gives the impression that Sheep-Harney's situation is no worse than any other school's when in fact that's not the case.

Wood also believes that given the BISEC's help, the school district could attract private funding to help Sheep-Harney work to solve its real problem: under-performing students. Such funding could help pay some of the district's best teachers a large enough stipend to leave the schools where students are making AYP progress and transfer to Sheep-Harney where students aren't making that progress.

Both proposals have the potential to be controversial. No one complains louder sometimes than parents who believe another school is getting preferential treatment to the one their child attends. Some teachers not getting the stipend will no doubt grumble that they should be.

The test of leadership for school officials will be overcoming such complaints, listening to suggestions like those made by the BISEC, and making the tough decisions required to save Sheep-Harney. We don't know if school officials can pass that test. We do know they need to do more than sit back and wait for test scores in July.

The Issue: Sheep-Harney Elementary School is losing students because of test scores

Our Position: School board needs to act with more urgency to find solutions