Town hall participants tepid on closing 3 county schools

Hundreds of Albemarle County residents took part in a telephone town hall Monday night that weighed the fate of three small elementary schools, with the vast majority of callers opposed to the possibility of the schools’ closure.

“The small schools are very important to our community,” said a caller identifying himself as Michael. “They’re important to our fabric and I think we should keep them.”

The county’s school system has been looking into a variety of options to improve efficiency, including the possibility of closing Red Hill, Yancey and Scottsville elementary schools. Under this scenario, the three schools would be consolidated into a single larger elementary school that would likely be built on property near Walton Middle School. As part of the consolidation, some students could be shipped off to other county schools.

By shuttering the county’s three smallest elementaries, the system would save roughly $1 million in annual operating expenses. A new school would cost more upfront, school officials said, but would save money in the long run.

Several callers expressed concern that their children would not receive the same level of personal attention in a larger school. Others worried that bus rides would be longer or that class size might be affected. One caller wondered if discipline problems might grow worse.

A poll of the teleconference’s listeners found that 81 percent believed the size of a school is an important factor in a child’s feeling of belonging and community.

Nearly 70 percent said they do not believe that a small school feeling could be created in a larger school environment.

Some 340 parents, students, school staff and county residents took part in the telephone town hall. The school system called 28,000 homes to participate in the teleconference.

School officials said they expect to present a recommendation to the School Board sometime in August.

Nothing has yet been decided, board Vice Chairman Ron Price said.

“This is a tough decision for the board and the community because each of these three schools have a deep and rich history in the communities they serve,” he said.

If the school system does not close the three elementary schools, an alternative might be to renovate them. Such a scenario, however, would be costly and not produce the savings the county would see from a consolidation, school officials said.

Some advantages of consolidation, officials said, are that the larger school would have the student population to support full-time specialists for gifted education, as well arts and music instruction. A single school would have a more expansive library and technology upgrades. And a single school would ultimately save the county taxpayers’ money, they said.

The county has been investigating the issue of the three elementary schools since October. Any renovations or new construction would not occur until 2014.