Watson Study recommended closing Suter to save money

My Outtakes for March 1 points out the unfairness in how Superintendent Malcolm Thomas and his school board treat the black community – “Black & White Decisions.”

Eight years ago, NFCN of Tallahassee, Florida was employed by Escambia County School District to review its schools and make recommendations for renovations, improvements and closures.

Through a public information request, the IN got a copy of NFCN’s report titled: “Improving Student Performance Through Better Educational Facilities: An Analysis Of The Facilities Of Escambia County Florida.” It is commonly known as the “Watson Study” and was used by Superintendent Jim Paul and his team to justify the renewal of the Half-Cent Sales Tax for the schools. The conversion of Woodham High to a middle school was one of its recommendations.

NFCN found that as of the 2004-2005 school year Escambia County Schools, when compared to other school districts in Florida with approximately the same number of students, had a larger total number of facilities.

When the same five counties with similar enrollments were compared with relationship to age of facilities and total gross square feet (GSF), Escambia had the highest GSF and largest number of older schools. Also 69 percent of the schools in Escambia were in excess of twenty years old, with 12 percent older than 50 years.

At the time of the study, the three elementary schools with the smallest enrollments were:

Suter 311
Hallmark 318
Yniestra 348

Spencer Bibbs was at 439 students.

NFCN recommended the closure of all four schools: “Due to shifting student populations, school enrollments have dropped below a cost effective level. High administrative and operating costs make it impractical to continue to operate these facilities.” Estimated Cost Savings $1,882,056

Superintendent Thomas followed through with this recommendation for the predominately black schools – Hallmark, Yniestra, Bibb – replacing them with one new school – Global Learning Academy- for $17 million. Not so when it came to the predominately white Suter, Thomas has kept it open and will replace the school, in the same spot, for $21 million. Maximum capacity of Suter will be less than half of the Global Learning Academy.

Forty years after Judge Winston Arnow ordered the desegregation of Escambia County Schools and ended the decades of supposedly separate by equal schools, Thomas and the school board have revived the practice….and the News Journal praised them.