Few attend first four meetings on school closings
The Columbus Dispatch
1/4/2007
Bill Bush
The Columbus Board of Education heard from only a handful of parents last night at the first of four public meetings to discuss a plan to close four schools at the end of this school year.
About 50 people attended the meeting at West High School, but about 30 of them were district employees. Eight parents spoke. None voiced concerns about a plan to alter the schedule for rebuilding and remodeling schools, which the meetings also are designed to cover.
Two of the parents pressed the board to keep open Douglas Alternative Elementary School on the Near East Side.
Lance Burgess, who has two daughters, ages 5 and 7, at Douglas, suggested the district combine the populations of Douglas and another school on the closing list, Linden Park I.G.E. Alternative in North Linden. Both are districtwide lottery schools.
“Because people go through a lottery to get into alternative schools, and if the schools close, they will be going to their home schools,” Burgess said. “So why not mix these two together? ”
Jackiethia Saunders-Morris has a daughter in preschool whom she planned to enroll at Douglas next year. It’s the same elementary school Saunders-Morris attended in the 1980s.
“A lot of the teachers that I had are still there,” she said. “It does say something about the school.”
Last month, a task force unanimously recommended that four buildings housing more than 800 students close because of falling district enrollment. Besides Douglas and Linden Park, Medary Elementary and Linmoor Middle School are on the list.
Board President Terry Boyd speculated that so few people attended yesterday’s meeting because none of the recommended school closings is on the West Side, where the meeting was held.
A meeting that starts at 6 tonight at Linden-McKinley High School, 1320 Duxberry Ave., is in an area more affected by the closings and the revamped rebuilding list.
“We’re hoping that there will be a big turnout tomorrow because we really want to hear ideas, questions, issues,” Boyd said last night.
Board members, who ultimately must decide which schools will close, are keeping an open mind, Boyd said.
bbush@dispatch.com
Copyright © 2007, The Columbus Dispatch
