When is a precedent not really a precedent?

How about when it bears almost no resemblance to the issue at hand?

This past Wednesday, the Daily Tar Heel ran an article under the headline, "Merger has statewide precedent."

With a title like that, one could easily assume that there were situations much like current discussion of merging Central Elementary and Hillsborough Elementary schools that could provide everyone involved with some guidance. Unfortunately, no such enlightenment was to come from the article.

After leading with, "Orange County Schools have to look no further than other N.C. school systems for advice on how to proceed with the possible merger of the district's Central and Hillsborough elementary schools," the article proceeded to describe situations where entire city and county school districts were merged together. I don't think anyone is ready to re-open that discussion so soon after the last debate.

The DTH says Orange County should be learning from the 1987 merger of Rowan County Schools with the Salisbury city system, and the 1992 merger of Durham county and city schools for a model to use. Are these really the examples we want to follow?

According to their 2005-2006 district school report card, the combined Rowan-Salisbury School District scored below the state average for student performance in all but one of the student demographic categories tracked by the state - American Indians. Additionally, the Rowan-Salisbury School District had no schools at any level to be named a School of Distinction, while 17% were designated a Priority School.

While the combined Durham Public Schools performed much better than Rowan-Salisbury, it is far from what Orange County should aspire toward. DPS failed to surpass the state average for student performance in all but three demographic categories - White, American Indian and Asian/Pacific Islander students. DPS was also successful in having 11% of its elementary schools named a School of Distinction, but 39% of its elementary schools were designated as a Priority School.

If we are going to dismantle a school attended by 377 young children and force the parents of 292 others to adopt a mandatory year-round school calendar, shouldn't we be looking for better examples of what to expect?