Reminder: Comments Regarding Proposed Elementary School Restructure Due Today

A reminder that  citizens wishing to speak during the public participation portion of the Oct. 15 Stephens Board of Education meeting which will include a presentation on “the current elementary school structure and a proposal to accommodate growth in student enrollment” must submit their comments in writing no later than 5:30 p.m. today, Oct. 14. 

According to a School District press release issued last week, “Those wishing to make public comments must do so in writing at least 24 hours before the meeting, and there is a three-minute presentation time limit. The public participation portion of the meeting also cannot last more than 30 minutes, limiting the number of participants to a first-come, first-serve selection.” To submit comments and be placed on the agenda, email  [email protected]. 

The meeting, which will begin at 5:30 p.m., will be held at the Stephens County High School Tugaloo Center as opposed to the normal location of Board meetings at the school system Administration offices in order to accommodate a potentially large number of attendees. 

In 2015, the Stephens County Board of Education unanimously approved the plan to close Eastanollee Elementary and restructure the remaining elementary schools, moving all Pre-K and Kindergarten students to Big A Elementary, 1st and 2nd grade to Liberty Elementary, and 3rd and 4th grades to Toccoa Elementary.The plan also included moving fifth grade to the middle school in a separate Fifth Grade Academy.

Then- school  superintendent Bryan Dorsey told meeting attendees the cuts were necessary in order to help get the school system back to a position where it is not borrowing money through Tax Anticipation Notes to fund school system operations before the start of a fiscal year. He told WNEG News that the total plan would save the school system an estimated $1.9 million a year and could allow the school system to potentially eliminate all calendar reduction days by the 2018-2019 school year, adding that if no cost saving steps were taken, the system would “remain in a state of  financial despair.”

WNEG News has been advised by multiple school system employees over the past eight months that school administrators were considering a realignment of the county’s elementary schools to return to a more traditional alignment where each school contains all elementary school grades, and early in September, parents of students currently in the school system were sent a single-question survey, asking if they preferred the current alignment or would prefer to return the the traditional alignment. 

WNEG News, in mid-September, requested data regarding the proposal currently under consideration by school administration, such as cost estimates and a schedule for implementation as well as staffing impacts, and was told the information was not available.