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Halifax Town to Schools: Slow Down, Delay Vote
By SYLVIA O. McLAUGHLIN and
MARY EVA CASSADA
News & Record Staff
School trustees meet tonight at 7 to hash out the particulars of an
alternative Halifax/Sinai plan. As with any elected body’s, the work
session is open to the public.
Halifax had mixed reactions to School Superintendent Paul
Stapleton’s
new school-closing alternative: Take the proposed Halifax/Sinai
school
zone and fold it into the brand-new South Boston Elementary. This
would
fill the 950-student South Boston school to about 96 percent of its
capacity and make it one of the biggest elementaries in the state
(see
story). With not much space available for them, the pre-K students
for
the new amalgamated district would go to a pre-K hub housed at
Sinai.
Not discussed was the impact on class sizes or personnel – if any.
Halifax Town Council and some Town residents
are not placated by the new plan and faulted the School Board and
administration for being too speedy in making big decisions.
Town Council on Tuesday of this week passed a resolution, which will
be
presented to the School Board, for a third alternative: Leave the
Halifax/Sinai zone and the schools themselves untouched for a year
until the repercussions can be explored.
Council’s action followed a 90-minute session during which Council
discussed holding its own town hall meeting to get public response.
Councilman Dick Moore perhaps summed it up best when he said, "'I'm
not
sure what is right. I think you need more than three days to make
such
a decision. They [the School Board] has no projected savings of
money
and we need to stand fast to get a year's delay. Everyone will feel
better after we spend the next year studying this to see what
options
we have." The three days notice refers to Stapleton’s visit to
Halifax
Council March 8 with a vote on the matter expected the following
Monday
night, March 12, at the School Board's regular monthly meeting.
Moore's comments were echoed by Councilman Allen Stevens who
seconded
the motion to seek the year's delay – which passed on a unanimous
vote.
Council member Dr. Charles Parker addressed the district's
representative to the School Board, Joe Bailey, personally: "Halifax
is
like a school bus with you driving it," Parker said to Bailey, "and
you
fell asleep at the wheel."
If Stapleton took heat at last Thursday’s meeting, Bailey surely
felt
it this week.
Parker noted that Stapleton had said that his primary goal was to
preserve community schools and send children to the school closest
to
their homes. He also quoted the superintendent as saying that the
school system has no money to renovate Halifax Elementary for
offices
and that no teacher will lose his/her job. Stapleton, he stressed,
said
Halifax Elementary had been built for a high school, while Sinai was
built as an elementary school. "But these decisions are not all
[Stapleton’s] decisions," Parker contended. "These decisions are
yours
to make …."
Parker is a doctor and father of eight, five of whom have attended
Halifax Elementary. Three more are not yet of school age. He lives
in
sight of the school.
Parker added that Bailey had not sought out the concerns of Halifax
Town residents and that the School Board did not listen to the
criticism of teachers and parents. Later in the discussion Parker
said
he really does not believe the School Board has a definite plan for
the
use of Halifax Elementary.
The alternative put forth by Stapleton, Parker said, simply does not
address the economic impact that closing the school will have on the
town.
"If I were you, I'd take a long time to find out what the citizens
of
the Town want. The impression I got [from the March 12 meeting] is
what
Mr. Stapleton says goes. While that plan appears to be attractive,
there is no plan for pre-K at Halifax, South Boston or Sinai."
Concluding his 30-minute interrogation of Bailey, Parker asked, "My
question is, What is the hurry?"
At Town Council, Missy Slate Henderson, a parent and businesswoman,
wanted to know just what the Law and Leadership Academy would do at
the
school if it were moved there, and furthermore she wanted to know
what
residents of the Town had been contacted about the plans for the
facility if the elementary students were moved.
"We want some clear answers about what the school will be used for,"
she said.
A former member of the Halifax County Board of Supervisors who is
now
Town of Halifax Chief of Police, David Martin, said he understood
well
the financial restraints imposed by Halifax County Board of
Supervisors, but he urged residents to do research on what is best
for
the children. His research, he said, showed that children thrive and
their grades are better in community schools. While there is "always
a
mandate to cut expenses," Martin said, "A more important mandate is
to
provide good service."
Martin has one daughter, a teenager who now attends private school
outside the county.
Father David Booher, who said he has lived in many small
communities,
called a school "the heart and soul of a small town."
His wife, Leslie Booher, commented that townspeople have little
involvement with the Law Academy and the students are only there for
a
couple of hours each day.
Bill Confroy, who serves on the Town's Planning Commission, felt
differently from most of the other speakers. "The Town of Halifax
now
has the opportunity to send all its children to the new South Boston
School.”
Noting the expense the County is assuming to pay for the two new
elementary schools – Cluster Springs and South Boston – plus the
expansion and renovation of the Middle School, Confroy said, "You
are
not going to get this opportunity again in the next 40 years. I feel
it
is imperative that the Town of Halifax take this opportunity to send
its children to a first-class school, a new facility which will
attract
teachers with a progressive outlook."
Town resident and retired special education teacher Elizabeth
Overton
told Council that a new school has nothing to do with the
educational
impact. "It's the teacher and the class size that matter," she said.
Kimberly Parker, wife of the Councilman, asked that the school
remain
open, charging that Sinai is not equipped for kindergarten-age
children. Furthermore she is concerned about class sizes if the
children all go to South Boston, pushing the enrollment of the new
school to almost capacity when it opens. "Twenty-five five-year-olds
is
too many for any teacher to have," she said.
Councilman Phil Hollis agreed. "I can't believe we'd have 23-25 in a
kindergarten class." Hollis said he was sorry that the issue had
drawn
such emotion, but he would like to see the vote delayed until a
Halifax-specific public hearing could be held.
Councilman Jack Dunavant said Bailey had contacted him several
months
ago and "said this might come up. I bounced it around on several
people
and the big concern I heard was that people wanted to keep the
school
open for something." He admitted that he thought the issue had "been
gone about wrong" and perhaps the school system should take a step
backward to allow our people a chance to have some say in the
matter.
Mayor Leon Plaster said he had received four calls since the Monday
night meeting and all callers favored the alternate plan of sending
Halifax and Sinai students to the new South Boston School.
Councilman Cabell Daniel said he did not understand all the concern
because when they closed the Mary Bethune School in Halifax no one
on
council raised any opposition to the closure.
This new, alternative plan was presented Monday night after Halifax
Town Council verbally – without an official resolution in hand –
asked
the school board to delay its vote on new school zones and the
closing
of Halifax Elementary. That controversial initial plan would
consolidate Halifax into Sinai as a pre-K-5 school, redirect some
students to South Boston and turn Halifax Elementary into a Law and
Leadership Academy of the high school and, possibly, school
administration offices. Critics said the new Sinai would be
overwhelmingly poor and 73 percent African-American because some
middle-class neighborhoods would be sent to South Boston. Plaster,
the
mayor, asserted that the plan, with no traditional school in the
heart
of town, would be bad for Halifax’s business, real estate, property
values and image.
Some residents and Halifax Elementary teachers responded that the
newer
alternative would solve the demographics issue and that a greater
diversity of children would enjoy and benefit from the new South
Boston
school’s amenities. Others countered that the new alternative was
possibly worse and pointed to the speed with which the changes were
being made.
Indeed, neither Town Council – nor much of anyone else – knew about
the
school system’s plans until the day after the School Board’s first
work
session on Feb. 23: 18 days before Monday’s meeting, when the
changes
were slated to have been voted upon.
Before hearing Stapleton’s new alternative, trustee Arthur Reynolds
suggested going forward with a vote on the rezoning and
Halifax/Sinai
consolidation.
“We discussed this for a long period of time,” he said. “Personally,
I
don’t have any problem with the current plan.”
But Stapleton’s alternative and, apparently, the volume of
dissatisfaction in Halifax was enough for trustees to set tonight as
a
third work session on the matter.
Also pressing on the trustees is the placement of pre-Ks – which
can’t
be determined until schools are set – and the looming 2007-2008
budget
finalized.
Provided trustees come out with a rezoning and Halifax/Sinai
consensus
tonight, a public hearing might be held March 29, and a vote taken
April 5. Those dates are not definite.
Deputy Superintendent Larry Clark said a second public hearing is
probably not legally mandated but is advisable if the school board
substantially changes its plans.