With enrollment dropping and a $37 million debt hanging over its head, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth Schools Board of Education may close more schools.
On Monday, interim Superintendent Catty Moore told the local legislative delegation that she will ask the school board in November to consider closing a few more schools. She didn’t say how many or which schools could close.
But schools with chronic under-enrollment or old schools with significant renovation needs will be considered.
Cook Elementary likely up for vote
The school board is expected to soon vote on whether to close Cook Elementary School in the Boston-Thurmond neighborhood. Closing Cook would save the school district $300,000 annually in operating costs and $900,000 in non-teaching salaries.
Other savings are likely, as well. For instance, Cook is scheduled for a maintenance project that would cost about $800,000. That would be scrapped if the school closes.
A school with a capacity of 500 students, Cook had 189 students as of the 10th day of this school year.
A public hearing on the potential closing of Cook is set for Oct. 14. The school board would then make a decision.
Moore made two other recommendations in August that the school board will consider — moving the 45 9th and 10th grade students enrolled in Paisley’s International Baccalaureate program to the program at Parkland High School and sending students at Kennedy High School, a magnet school for kids in career and technical education, to the neighboring Career Center.
In those cases, Paisley would remain open, and Kennedy, which recently underwent a major renovation, would likely stay open and house some programs.
The cost savings from both of those program consolidations would come from personnel.
How will Black community be affected?
Rep. Amber Baker told Moore at Monday’s joint meeting that school leaders must be mindful of the impact closing schools will have on the Black community.
Moore said since coming to the school district in June, she has been struck by the deep ties that people have with individual schools.
“It’s an incredibly hard decision. Our schools are an economic engine in our community. They are what make a place a great place to live,” she said.
But when keeping schools open leads to inefficiencies or becomes a financial drain, the results can be damaging to a community.
The school’s unofficial 10-day enrollment was 49,244. The school district had an enrollment of 54,480 students in 2018-19.
Projected enrollments presented to the school board in 2024 showed a potential of 5,700 empty seats in elementary schools by 2031-32.
Public schools nationwide have seen a drop in enrollment since the COVID-19 pandemic. Charter schools, private schools and homeschools have pulled some students out of public schools. Declining birth rates are also a factor.
New school boundaries?
Sen. Dana Caudill Jones told Moore on Monday that talk of rezoning school boundaries also caused some parents to pull their children from the local school district.
Funded with a federal grant, the Fostering Diverse Schools initiative was launched to achieve greater socio-economic diversity in the school district by redrawing school boundary lines. A set of preliminary maps presented to the community in the winter generated negative feedback in some parts of the community.
The school board was expected to vote on whether to redraw residential zones over the summer. However, Moore told Jones that the rezoning effort now focuses more on improving transportation efficiency.
She said it doesn’t make sense to redraw boundaries now while the school board is considering closing and consolidating some schools.
“That work is not tabled, but it’s sitting there,” Moore said. “It needs to run alongside the conversation on consolidation. They have to work together. Initially, we thought we’d make changes for 26-27, but it’s more likely 27-28.”
lodonnell@wsjournal.com
336-727-7420
@lisaodonnellWSJ
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