‘Where are our children going to go?'

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Like fans rallying for their football team, parents wore school colors, carried signs and shouted while waving pom-poms.

But instead of cheering for their home team, parents spent Tuesday night at a citizens’ meeting rallying for survival of their home schools across DeKalb County.

Each parent brought their own argument why their local elementary school stands out and should not be closed.

“I treat the school like it’s my house,” said Tiffany Holloway, president of the Sky Haven Elementary School PTA. “I’m not going to let a mortgage company come in and take my house.”

The 20-member Citizens’ Planning Task Force is charged with reviewing data and recommending at least four elementary schools to close at the end of the school year. School officials have proposed two scenarios for the closings, involving seven schools – all in south DeKalb.

Meadowview first grade teacher Teresa Favors said she was disappointed that the schools are being chosen for closure based on location, enrollment and money – and not student achievement.

“The south is learning just like the north end of the county,” she said. “If you close this many schools in the south end of the county, where are our children going to go?”

School officials say the closures are necessary to help with an anticipated $88-million deficit. The four school closures are expected to save about $2.3 million.

School board members say they want to increase that savings and are looking at closing as many as 12 schools over the next two years.

On Tuesday night, the task force voted to take 63 of the district’s 83 elementary schools off the closure list because they are at capacity. Two of the proposed schools were removed from the list: Midway and Toney. But no decision was made on closures. That won’t come until next month.

Holloway doesn’t wait to wait that long. She placed bright yellow Sky Haven stickers on about 30 parents’ and three students’ shirts.

“I’m a Sky Haven alum. My brother went there,” said Holloway, who has a daughter and two nieces at Sky Haven. “My kids have had two of my teachers. One of my teachers is their nurse.”

She wasn’t alone. Other schools came with “Save Our School” posters hanging from their mini-vans and had their mascot T-shirt-clad children speak publicly.

“I do not want Midway to close,” Nicholas Johnson, 10, told the committee. “I have been there since first grade and I’m in fourth grade and I love it.”

The task force agreed to meet again next Tuesday at 6 p.m. The school board will vote later on the final closures.