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Committee to recommend school closures in April
- 2/17/10
- Categorized in: DeKalb News, Education
A citizen committee will recommend the closure of possibly four schools this summer as the DeKalb County School System works to cut costs by closing severely under-enrolled schools across the county, a district official said this month.
The committee of 20 residents picked by school board members and Superintendent Crawford Lewis will recommend the closure of four schools – possibly fewer or more – by August, said Dan Drake, the district’s director of planning and forecasting.
“I think we could easily close four schools,” Drake said.
Lewis provided a list of 23 schools considered as candidates for closure. A number of school closure scenarios will be created and debated, and the committee will present a final recommendation for the 2010-11 school year to the board on April 14 – the end of phase one of possible closings.
To determine which schools it will recommend for closure, the committee will look at projected school enrollment, proximity of schools to students’ residences, the impact of closure on the neighborhood, district long-range capital plans and the condition of the school, according to a district presentation to the committee on Feb. 9.
The district will hold public hearings on the first phase of recommended closures on May 6 and 11, and the school board will approve the closings on May 14.
Once the committee is finished with the first phase, it will move to the second, which will end in August with a second recommendation of school closures for the 2011-12 school year.
The closures will be part of a broad effort to consolidate space, save money and correct heavily lopsided enrollments throughout the district, particularly in areas where some schools have more than 500 empty seats. Otherwise, the district anticipates nearly 16,000 empty seats over the next seven years.
The enrollment imbalance is widespread in elementary, middle and high schools. Projected enrollments for next school year show schools across southern, central and southwestern DeKalb County with dramatically low enrollments, and the situation is projected to worsen by 2016-17, the last year of the school district’s capital improvements plan, which Lewis began in 2006.
Reasons for the districtwide imbalance are varied. Shifts in the housing market have pushed people outside central DeKalb. More students have enrolled in private, charter and home school programs. The district is also analyzing how serious No Child Left Behind’s school of choice policies contributed to the imbalance. The federal legislation allows parents to transfer their children out of an under-performing school to a better-performing one if they choose.
The committee plans to meet again March 4.
DeKalb County School System Superintendent Crawford Lewis selected 23 schools to be considered by a citizens committee for possible closure this summer. The committee will make a recommendation to close possibly four by April.
1. Allgood Elementary School
2. Atherton Elementary School
3. Avondale Elementary School
4. Bob Mathis Elementary School
5. Clifton Elementary School
6. Columbia Elementary School
7. Dunaire Elementary School
8. Flat Shoals Elementary School
9. Gresham Park Elementary School
10. Hambrick Elementary School
11. Jolly Elementary School
12. Kelley Lake Elementary School
13. Knollwood Elementary School
14. Meadowview Elementary School
15. Midway Elementary School
16. Peachcrest Elementary School
17. Rainbow Elementary School
18. Sky Haven Elementary School
19. Snapfinger Elementary School
20. Toney Elementary School
21. Brockett Elementary School
22. Midvale Elementary School
23. Smoke Rise Elementary School
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These people claim they do what they do for the children. Well, it's no longer obvious. It appears that they are, for the most part, in it for themselves. Any time you have people, who are already doing very well for themselves, making decisions that are not for the greater good there is a problem.
My children attend a school that received students from another school when that school was closed. A lot of students in a school meant for just so many. Okay, like everyone has stated these students had to go to school somewhere. And that was fine. But now my children's school is on the list too. As well as all of the schools in the surrounding area. My question, "why would you send students to a school, only to place that school on a list to be closed?" I'm not understanding. And if you closed what appears to be all of the schools in our area, where will my kids attend school? Will they be bused another school, along with the students already bused to the present school because their school was closed? Help me understand what is going on?
And my last question is, "How much do these board members make, that they are willing to close school, just so they can make more money?
Anybody else need an increase? I do, but at what expense?
I agree that there are high performing schools on the list that have housed schools due to overcrowding during the housing boom. There are many vacant lots that homes still need to be built on and when these lots are filled, where are these children going to attend school?
As a parent, I constantly volunteer my time, talents and funding (when available) and have noticed that we bus kids from all over the place to a predominately empty stadium versus holding these events at the home schools where money could be saved on busing and ultimately returned back to the budget. This is just one suggestion that could be used to help prune the budget.
The morale of many teachers are already low to due trying to meet the demands of completing paperwork versus teaching to accommodate a system (Esis) that is not providing parents or teachers with the necessary tools to correct a child's learning deficiency because they're focused on ensuring the student's can pass the CRCT.
However, how many children really learn and/or retain the information that is crammed down their throats the entire school year. Please note that I am not saying that teachers are not teaching, but a balance needs to be put place to teach children about the past and what they can possibly expect of the future. For example, I shared a 1964 magazine with several Middle/High School students and they had no knowledge of who Jackie Onassis Kennedy was. This was not only embarrassing but very sad:-(
I am just stating that as parents, teachers and administrators we really need to find out what can be done to improve the educational efforts versus busing children all over town or having their parents to drive all over town to receive what is suppose to be quality education.
My apologies to all if there are misspelled words, grammatical errors, fragments, etc. I am venting and had plenty of thoughts that I wanted to share.
I hope that before closing any of these schools that all efforts have been taken into account, and that the students, teachers, parents and administrators can benefit from the final recommendation from the board.
I think the school closings are short sighted. Wheen enrollment increases again where will they put the kids if they schools are sold? Will they put the children in the back of the building in
trailers like Mary Lin elementary? Those building are not safe in tornado weather.
In N. DeKalb (by the way the Tucker elementary schools are on the list) while there are some underutilized schools, there is no where to send those students if the schools are closed, because the surrounding schools are overcrowded.
By this time next year (December actually) as I understand it, the committee will announce a county wide redistricting plan that will touch most schools across the system. You can bet that those schools with smaller enrollments and capacity will be redistricted into.
For Example South Dekalb schools
North Dekalb Schools are not on the closure list on closure list
Henderson Mill 460 Rainbow - 560
Briar Vista 391 Flat shoals 457
Livsey 354 Allgood - 600