Notes: School Board 5.20

School board members got an earful from unhappy residents at their recent meeting, as over two dozen came forward to express concerns about possible budget cuts that may include closing Carver Century School and reducing transportation for the PATS Center.

The May 20 school board meeting opened after a lengthy public forum.
Escambia County Commissioner Grover Robinson IV spoke to board members and described the Program for Academically Talented Students (PATS) as the “jewel of the education system” and warned the board members not to waste the talent of students their by cutting transportation routes to the PATS center.
“I ask that you continue to do what you can to support the PATS Center,” he said.
However, most comments that night were about the possibility of closing Carver Century.
“Comments were made at the workshop that low enrollment at the Carver school was due to the school’s low performance. My question is this, is it really due to the school’s grade? Let me point out that 84 percent of the 279 students that [are zoned to attend Carver Century] do not attend here are white,” said Dee Hendrix. “Did they leave Carver Century due to low performance or because they did not want to go to school with black children? Do you really want to force children to attend schools where they aren’t wanted?”
“Our school has been described as inefficient. Do we have a working definition of inefficient? Was it inefficient that the school board planned, built and occupied three buildings for Carver Century? Would it be inefficient to close relatively new buildings and bus students to schools in much older buildings?”
Nichole Childress addressed the leadership question that was raised about Carver Century, saying, “It should be noted that during Mr. Paul’s administration there have been four different principals at Carver Century, three of which were first year principals and one was an administrator of two different campuses during that time. You must ask yourself how effective you were during the first year in a new position. Did you turn everything around that first year, or did you build from your success and your failures of your first year? You cannot expect significant changes to occur when you put principals in leadership and then move them every two years. We finally have an experienced principal that has made positive changes this year at our school. We ask that you give us more time under his leadership to make continues improvements.”
Most but not all public comments were about the Century school. Approximately a dozen residents were there to show their support for PATS. Wendi Summers-Sampson said, “I’m here to talk about the PATS transportation because I received a message through one of those automated systems… that stated that you would be voting on this tonight so I wanted to let you know that is why I’m here… Teachers at the PATS Center recognize, reward and raise our children to academic excellence every time they go. They actively involve parents, school teachers, home school teachers and other community members… Escambia County faces many struggles with attracting new businesses and industry. The decision makers of those businesses are well educated, motivated leaders and guess what else they are, they’re parents. They’re parents of children who possess those same qualities. Don’t we want that quality of life component for these new businesses?”
Summers-Sampson presented a petition she said had been signed by more than 100 parents, students and teachers opposing the elimination of transportation to the PATS Center.
The potential Carver Century closing even drew comparison to life support for the small community.
“As you see, you have strong representation here tonight in favor of keeping Carver Century open,” Gary Riley said. “We may be on a respirator now, but it seems like now you want to pull the plug on the respirator. Century is trying to live, Century is trying to grow. Anytime you pull the plug on the respirator it means that you have given up. Century has not given up on century… If you close that school, not only the community, but an entire city will be in danger. All of the surrounding communities will be affected by the closing of that school.”

One resident, Myra Simmons, commenced her own research to help board members alleviate budget strains. “I received, through a public records request, some information today that I would like to speak to,” she said. “That is a contract for $1 a year for school buildings that are unoccupied. The school district continues to pay the insurance premiums on those schools. In one example I would like to cite, the school district pays $211,232 a year, times five, that is over $1 million [for the five year contract]. Why could that funding not be put in to the school system and alleviate the budget crunch? I suggest that the board members go back and look at the unintended consequences that led to such contracts.”
After the public forum drew to a close, board members passed all agenda items unanimously, except for the Personnel Planning Document, developed by the superintendent’s staff.
I wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of the fact that yes we did add a position back to the Personnel Planning Document (PPD) but we also left a position vacant in our internal auditing department,” Board Member Patty Hightower said. “We left that secretary position vacant at this time our secretary Ms. West has taken over the position.”
Board Member Claudia Brown-Curry said the reason that she didn’t approve of the PPD was because, “I had requested, and several other board members had requested, that we cut from the top. I went and met with all the superintendents of the departments and it appears that there was no where to cut… We still didn’t do anything from the administrative staff… Then we were asked to go out and poll different schools and principals and I received documentation from principals about areas of concern that they felt that should have been cut and it was like on Friday when you spoke superintendent it was like it was a minute to you and it was just ignored. I don’t understand why we would solicit input from principals and we don’t consider that information.”
Board Member Jeff Bergosh added, “I think I made it pretty darn crystal clear that I felt there were still cuts to be made from the personal planning document … I said am I the lone ranger here, and no one said anything, so I asked them one by one and not a person had any other cuts to take out of it.”
The board passed the PPD by a slim margin of 3-2 with Brown-Curry and Bergosh voting against.