Superintendent Malcolm Thomas and the Escambia County School Board want to replace A.K. Suter Elementary with a new $21-million facility–the most the district has ever spend on an elementary school. As of February 2012, the school had 381 students, but what the superintendent didn’t tell the public and the media is that 184 of those students don’t live in that attendance zone.
The district is spending $21 million for an attendance zone that only has 197 children willing to attend this “A” school. I think the only way Thomas can justify this is to close another predominately black school, like O.J. Semmes, and bus those kids to Suter.