The Stanly school board approved a motion to move forward with the plan of adding the national motto to its 87 county-owned vehicles. Photo courtesy Stanly County Schools

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ALBEMARLE — The Stanly County Board of Education plans to place the national motto, “In God we trust,” on the school district’s activity buses and its maintenance and service vehicles.

At a recent special-called meeting, the school board unanimously passed a motion to move forward with figuring out the distribution process for the motto, targeting the use of magnets and decals rather than paint.

“We basically had a local pastor that talked with each board member individually,” Board Chair Robin Whittaker said June 26, explaining the origin of this plan. “In the discussions that I had with the pastor, he really felt that he would be able to get other churches to make donations in order to cover the cost. But we would definitely have to come back to the board with the cost.”

Stanly County’s public school district owns 87 vehicles — 24 activity buses and 63 service vehicles — to which this would be applied.

Whittaker noted that the vehicles owned by the county sheriff’s office currently have the national motto placed on them.

“This would not apply to yellow school buses, since those are not owned locally but are owned by the state,” Whittaker added. “There is a strict thing there that the [North Carolina Department of Public Instruction] has instructions that strictly prohibit any unauthorized alterations to school buses, including any kind of decals or slogans.”

Any school bus in violation of this rule would potentially be removed from service, per state law.

Board Member Carla Poplin said that in her talks with the local pastor, he told her “he could at least help with the cost,” if not cover it completely.

“I would propose to make a motion to move forward with this, as long as they come up with the funding to do that,” Board Member Meghan Almond said of her motion to make it an expense-free endeavor for the county. “We have other things that are very important in the system.”

Board Member Glenda Gibson rounded out discussion by expressing the idea to draft a school board resolution for the county’s representatives in Raleigh to further explore the ability of adding the motto to the yellow school buses currently restricted from decals and slogans.

The Stanly County Board of Education will hold its next regular meeting on Aug. 5 at 6:15 p.m. in the Gene McIntyre Meeting Room at Stanly County Commons.