2009.02.05
Pulaski plans to close Newbern Elementary
A redistricting plan in Pulaski County's school system would mean closing Newbern Elementary.
Superintendent Don Stowers told board members today they could meet new "seating capacity targets" at each of the county's six elementaries by closing the one.
"When we began building Riverlawn Elementary School, we knew that we would have to adjust our attendance boundaries among the various elementary schools," Stowers told board members.
Newbern has 112 students, according to figures compiled on Jan. 30. Under the plans for redistricting, the schools would have the following targets:
- Critzer Elementary - 425
- Dublin Elementary - 475
- Pulaski Elementary - 550
- Riverlawn Elementary - 500
- Snowville Elementary - 200
That's 43 fewer students than the current county enrollment of 2,107.
To reach the capacities, Stowers suggested shifting 387 students to different schools by:
- Moving 43 students from Critzer to Pulaski
- Moving 27 studeets from Newbern to Critzer
- Moving 75 students from Pulaski to Critzer
- Moving 161 students from Dublin to Riverlawn
- Moving 81 students from Newbern to Dublin
Those changes would mean each school falls short of the total seating capacity, but would still likely change class sizes at some schools.
A public hearing on the boundary changes is slated for March 5.vThe new Riverlawn Elementary is scheduled for an opening date of March 23.
You can read more about the proposal in Saturday's New River Valley Current.
This is another sad thing to read! Is there something else we can cut funding on instead of removing children out of their schools that they have come to know and love? There has to be some other choice instead! Education and being comfortable go hand in hand and when one is taken out of their comfort zone then they tend to not do as well as when they did when in their already known surroundings! It is hard on children to adjust starting school to begin with and now all the moving around will make it worse for the children being moved! Find a better choice and make it happen before all of our schools are over-populated and children will not learn as well and to were all the teachers will not be over-worked and stressed to were their students suffer as well as them when it comes to teaching and learning!
Comment by Bev Bishop — February 6, 2009 @ 9:23 am
Great move !! Save money, but eliminating staff positions and having older teachers and administration retire. Then sell the building and land and use that money to get new computers, textbooks and supplies. I would say this move could say the school board several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Comment by Ray — February 7, 2009 @ 10:57 am
Should we sell the cows too and use that land for all of those that will need jobs and we can house them in tents??? We can call the village 'Teacher Lots' and when we need to be educated we can run to the village much like traveling 40 miles for cheaper gas!
Comment by Bev Bishop — February 12, 2009 @ 5:49 am