CALLING THE ROLL
SCS considers STEM boost for underused East; hopes dim to save Carver
At the center of two unrelated items on the Shelby County Board of Education’s work session agenda Tuesday night was a common theme: what to do about chronically underenrolled schools.
For East High School, the district has a plan to apply for federal grant money to create a magnet school focused on science, technology, engineering and math. Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said the district would spend the next year planning and engaging the community about how to structure a STEM school at East.
“It definitely needs a fresh approach,” Hopson said.
But the road may soon end for Carver High, where enrollment has dropped to 31 percent of capacity, as Hopson stood by his previous recommendation to close the school at the end of this year.
After the first of two required votes to close Carver, the school’s alumni community banded together to create a plan, including options like expanding the attendance zone and merging Riverview school, which serves grades K-8, into the high school.
Hopson agreed to review the plan, push-
ing the second vote to this month.
“At the end of the day, I don’t see any viable path to change my recommendation,” Hopson said.
Hopson also encouraged the board not to vote to wait a year to close the school, as the board did last month with Northside High. Hopson said the board wanted to be cautious, and to have time to come up with a plan for the building that would be left vacant in North Memphis. But an unintended consequence of that delay, he said, was that 18 of the 20 teachers at Carver have all accepted other jobs for next year because they believed their school was closing.
“We’ll be aggressive about recruiting,” Hopson said about filling those positions for the one remaining year the school is open. “As long as students are with us, we want to make sure they’re getting great teachers in front of them. It just poses some challenges from a recruiting standpoint because the teacher’s going to be thinking their school’s closing in a year.”
Hopson is also recommending the board approve a rezoning that would send all rising ninth-graders at Northside to Manassas High when Northside closes after next year.
Hopson said the bottom line with Carver is that the school is “simply not serving kids well” and the community has had several chances to recruit the two-thirds of students who live in the neighborhood but don’t attend Carver to come back to the school.
The Rev. Ralph White, who has led the community charge to keep the school open, said the low enrollment is “because for the last four years, there was uncertainty as to whether Carver would be there.”
“We’re saying, give us a fair chance,” White said.
For East High, whose facility is 41 percent utilized, Hopson said the conversations are just starting about how to address low enrollment.
“If we don’t do something, I expect in three to five years you start getting to the discussion of closure-level low,” Hopson said. “It’s low, but it’s not so low we’re talking about that.”
Board Chairwoman Teresa Jones, whose district includes East, said she supports seeking the funding for the district’s plan at the school.
“It’s a really good opportunity for East,” she said.