Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Tough Decisions on Flint School Closings

It appears the only thing tougher than actually closing schools in Flint is deciding which schools to close.

Blake Thorne of The Flint Journal reports on a meeting between parents and school board members last week to discuss various options:
One of those proposals included moving all high school students to two buildings.

The other included a system of all three high school buildings operating as grade 7-12 schools.

Both plans initially included closing Bunche, Carpenter Road and Summerfield elementary schools along with McKinley Middle School and Zimmerman Center, which houses Mott Adult High School.

Under one of the plans, all middle school students would move to the building that houses Southwestern Academy and Classical Academy, with those students moving to Northern High School.

That means Southwestern and Classical would still exist as the programs they currently are, but would operate as programs within Northern High School rather than having their own building.

The other plan calls for moving all secondary schools to the 7-12 grade configuration for all three high school buildings.

Plans, especially at the elementary level, have been changing and evolving, board and administration members told the crowd.

For example, closing Carpenter Road was abandoned after an outcry of community members complained there would be no elementary in a large area of the city. The plan became to close Pierce Elementary instead, but the board seems to have abandoned that idea as well.


2 comments:

  1. Why do I have the feeling the Flint school board isn't up to the task?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was part of the staff that opened Ralph Bunche back in the day. The building was overcrowded the very first day of classes.

    Richard

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.