Closing schools would be painful, might be essential
The boardroom at Shelby County Schools will be no place for the faint of heart in coming months as board members listen to emotional arguments against carrying out Supt. Dorsey Hopson’s plan for right-sizing the school system.
Dwindling enrollment figures and a growing list of deferred maintenance projects have created a need for rightsizing -- and righting -- a school system that has weathered massive shifts in recent years.
That will not deter students, parents and alumni of schools marked for closure from delivering heartfelt testimonies about key roles these schools have played in the lives of their students and the vitality of their neighborhoods.
It won’t be easy for the board, but members must choose a path best for students in the long-term and stay on it, evaluating each element of the plan objectively and emerging from the process with learning environments that will most effectively achieve the district’s educational mission.
The long-overdue plan, a priority request by the Shelby County Commission, one of the district’s funding bodies, would spark $700 million in investments and put 15,000 students into new buildings in areas such as Raleigh, Whitehaven, Orange Mound, and Parkway Village.
Two of those new schools already have been approved, and will take in four of the schools on the “preliminary” closure list. The full plan would require closing 28 schools, the construction of 10 new schools and additions to five others. The plan would eliminate about $102 million in deferred maintenance, about 20 percent of the system’s overall bill.
Hopson won’t be in the hot seat as the plan is considered. His resignation is effective Jan. 8. But his blueprint is sound. Only two schools on the new closing list were not named about two years ago when Hopson issued a critical focus list, giving those on the list time to raise test scores and enrollment. The system has about 17,000 empty seats.
It’s understandable and admirable for students, parents and alumni to remain loyal to the schools, the bands and the athletic programs that have provided and are still providing some positive results for their students and their neighborhoods. But given the major realignment in public education here in recent years, Hopson’s consolidation plan makes sense for students and taxpayers.
A more sensibly-sized system would improve student-teacher ratios, provide more funds for a wider variety of academic, social and emotional programs ,and bring new, upgraded facilities that enhance the educational environment and attract talented teachers. Hopson said the plan would save the district between $15 million and $25 million in operational costs each year by having more efficient buildings with fewer maintenance issues.
Closing schools will be an agonizing process. And the blueprint deals only with the 139 schools SCS runs directly, leaving questions unanswered regarding the future of about 80 charter schools and 30 schools in the state-run Achievement School District, most of which are in old buildings still owned by SCS.
It’s a shame the even-keeled Hopson won’t be here to steer the plan through the coming storm. But he has done us a favor by initiating a difficult discussion the community has needed to have in the wake of the battering the old Memphis City Schools system has undergone since its merger with Shelby County Schools.
The departure of suburban municipal school systems. The growth of the charter school movement in Memphis. The birth of the ASD. The creation of the Innovation Zone, which has poured extra resources into struggling schools to improve student performance.
All of those changes were made, according to those who promoted them, for the good of the students. A thoughtful, conscientious right-sizing of the district would further enhance their prospects for academic success.