Task force says no to closing schools

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A DeKalb County citizens group charged with naming schools to close decided to do nothing.

After four hours of arguing, accusations of racism and one member storming out, the Citizens Planning Task Force voted Thursday night that no school should close.

The DeKalb school board appointed the task force to review data and recommend the closure of four elementary schools at the end of the school year. The closings, which had to be approved by the board, were needed to help offset an anticipated $115 million deficit, board members said.

Instead, the task force took several votes Thursday night and decided to give the job to the  school board.

“We’re considering closing schools in areas that involve very high-risk students, students from high-risk situations, single parents, some living with grandparents and a lot on free lunch programs,” task force member Charles Hill said. “I don’t feel right. I’m not comfortable with that. It just don’t feel right in my heart.”

While the majority of the 20 task force members said they wanted no schools closed, they also decided to send the board the list of 10 schools that were under consideration.

“If any board member has forced any citizen to do their work in hurting our children and to hide behind our task force, that person is unfit to serve on our school board,” task force member Bruce McMillian said. “Here board, you decide which four schools should close.”

The list includes Atherton, Clifton, Flat Shoals, Gresham Park, Kelley Lake, Knollwood, Meadowview, Peachcrest, Rowland and Sky Haven. The task force created the list over the past several weeks after looking at location, enrollment, capacity, cost and other data on the district’s 83 elementary schools.

“We were looking at the impact and the effects of all the communities,” said task force member Darrell Jennings, who recommended no schools be closed.

The task force’s lack of action likely won’t carry much weight. The four school closings were slated to save $2.35 million.

The board is scheduled to vote on a budget April 12 that includes $115 million in cuts, including teacher furloughs, program cuts and the four school closings.

Last month, board member H. Paul Womack said as many as a dozen schools need to be closed over the next two years to save money and get rid of empty seats. State funding formulas favor schools with at least 450 students.

“If you all can’t do it, this committee will make the recommendation,” Womack said to the task force last month. “We’ve tried to be transparent by involving citizens of DeKalb County.”

Task force member Don Broussard agreed. He and one or two other members spent Thursday night encouraging the task force to close the four schools. At one point, he stormed off.

“I want to thank the task force for making the last two months a colossal waste of time,” he said after the vote.

Task force chairman Thad Mayfield said the process wasn’t a waste because residents had the chance to let their voices be heard.

To some parents, however, the task force was just postponing the inevitable.

“Now we don’t know anything,” Sky Haven PTA president Tiffany Holloway said. “We’re back where we started.”

Holloway and hundreds of parents have the spent the past month rallying parents, making signs and advocating for their schools.

On Thursday, the crowd – which earlier this week had topped 350 – was a bit smaller with only about 100 people. But it was still as lively, including the majority of them chanting “Save our school!” at the task force members took their seats.

There were accusations of racism, complaints about mandatory busing and even one woman who called the school closures a hate crime. The 10 proposed schools on the list are all in south DeKalb and in primarily African-American neighborhoods.

There were cheerleaders in their Sky Haven Elementary uniforms, a first-grader talking about his autistic brother and dozens of hand-drawn posters.

Fourth-grader Taliyah Henderson told the task force that Clifton Elementary has made her fall in love with math.

“Clifton’s magnet program is preparing us for college,” the 9-year-old said.

But students like Henderson may not excel as well if all of DeKalb 83 schools remain open next year. Without closing schools, the district forced to cut music, art and other programs from small elementary schools, task force member Lynn Deutsch said.

Other task force members said they worry that school closings will affect not just students, but residents who rely on neighborhood schools for other resources. Closing schools will also lower property values and could increase crime, they said.

“When you start moving people around in the communities like the ones we’re affecting, you can cause more problems than the cost we will recoup from moving these students from one school to another,” task force member Frank Jackson said. “If we’re going to save a couple million dollars that will destroy a community, we have not adequately had an effect as it relates to the budget shortfall.”