DeKalb mulls four school closures

“It is necessary to remove empty seats from our inventory in order to maximize state entitlement dollars,” Robert Moseley, the district’s deputy chief superintendent of operations, said.

Closing those four schools will remove 2,248 of the districts 11,000 empty seats and save $2.3 million, said Dan Drake, the district’s planner.

Under the plan, 1,631 students would be transferred to other schools and their travel distance would increase one-tenth of a mile, Drake said.

The board is also weighing a plan from the Citizens Planning Task Force, a 20-member group charged with considering schools for closure. The group recommended closing Gresham Park and Knollwood, but only after its decision to close no schools was criticized by board members.

For Jacqueline Sneed, neither decision is right.

Sneed and her 10-year-old daughter, Meadowview Elementary student Anna Sneed, said they were relieved that their school is no longer on the proposed closure list.

“We’re happy, but our hearts are with some of the parents who still have issues to be resolved with their schools,” Jacqueline said. “If schools have to be closed, they should close ones that are not performing good. But I’m for no schools closing and for raising taxes.”

Earlier this week, the board passed a $735-million tentative budget that included four school closures, estimated to save $2.35 million. The tentative budget does not include a tax increase.

Despite the tentative budget's adoption, several board members continued to argue against closing schools on Friday's meeting.

“I will not vote for this. I don’t know how we can be so apathetic to the needs of our children when we’re talking about how many dollars. Oh wow, that’s going to make a great, big difference in the budget,” board member Sarah Copelin-Wood said.

But school staff argued that students at under-capacity schools will not receive the same quality of education as students at schools that are fully enrolled. Schools with under 450 students do not receive full funding from the state, which affects the district’s ability to offer music, art and other programs, Moseley said.

“Operating schools is no longer the same. We don’t have the monies we used to have,” said Zepora Roberts, the board’s vice chair. “It is a fact: our children are not moving back into our communities and our seniors are not having babies. We no longer can keep these schools open with 269 or 239 students.”

The board will hear from parents at two school closing hearings on May 11 and 13.