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Wednesday, January 21, 2009
District's Slimmer Closing Plan is a Warning
Posted by Greg Hambrick on Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 12:20 PM
Big news today is that the Charleston County School District's massive closure list has been reduced to five campuses. We broke the news in this morning's issue, along with some analysis.
If approved, McClellanville, Brentwood and Schroder middle schools, Fraser Elementary, and Charlestowne Academy will close. Many of the other schools that saw strong parent outcry have been spared. Downtown, Charleston Progressive Academy won't close, Buist Academy won't splinter, and the Charter School for Math and Science won't move (for now).
What we suggest in the story, but don't really go deep on, is that this is just the beginning. Parents shouldn't rest with a sense that their school is safe. There are a number of reasons that schools were spared, including logistical nightmares and the lack of political will to cut deeper.
The district will revisit this list of schools (possibly as early as later this year) and schools that were spared need to be prepared to defend themselves. For many of these schools, progress is not optional. And support from the community (or a purported lack of support from the district) needs to be well-documented.
Through the first half of this process, the district was almost entirely objective. But I think the largest weight on which schools stayed and which schools closed was community support. Things may have looked different if the people from Edisto hadn't bussed up to the school board meetiong. Or if the folks from Charleston Progressive hadn't drummed up a swell of community support.
But, again, this community aid bought these schools time, not permenance.
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