Possibility of closing schools on Muscogee County School Board agenda

The possibility of closing a school or schools will be among the topics during the Muscogee County School Board’s called work session.

The board is scheduled to gather Nov. 3, starting at 5 p.m., in the Muscogee County Public Education Center, 2960 Macon Road.

According to the agenda, after a closed session for a legal matter, the board plans to discuss in open session:

▪  Enrollment and building cost-benefit analysis, meaning the possibility of closing a school or schools.

▪  A new partnership with Columbus State University.

▪  A new mission statement.

▪  The new arts academy for grades 6-12 being constructed off Macon Road and behind the Columbus Public Library.

The last time Muscogee County School District superintendent David Lewis publicly addressed the possibility of closing schools was during the Feb. 13, 2015, forum in the Columbus Museum, where he answered questions about the proposal to renew the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. The following month, Columbus voters approved the 1 percent sales tax for another five years to help fund 24 MCSD projects totaling an estimated $192,185,000.

Among the questions Lewis was asked during the forum was whether the SPLOST vote would affect the closing of any schools and, if so, how?

“The indirect question on that is, again, the more funding we have,” Lewis said then, “whether it’s through SPLOST or local dollars determines if – I’ll go back to an example that’s a real example. A few years back, you may recall, the budget from the state was extremely reduced. That led the administration at that time – that was B.D, Before David – but it forced the district to have to close two schools (Edgewood Elementary and Marshall Middle). … If we were to face a serious budgetary shortfall, obviously at some point, it would require closing of schools. Not that it’s directly related to SPLOST, other than the fact that, again, we’re talking about conditions. If we have the SPLOST, it makes sense that your conditions are more favorable than not.”

Wednesday, the Ledger-Enquirer emailed that quote to Lewis and MCSD communications director Valerie Fuller to determine whether his stance has changed on the subject. Fuller replied, “The purpose of this agenda item is to simply apprise board members of the cost/benefit analysis associated with our district's current number of schools and enrollments.”

Two years ago, the board approved Lewis’ request to form an ad-hoc committee of residents that would recommend how the district can “better utilize our facilities.” The committee’s mission would be to analyze which schools have enrollments under capacity, the age of the buildings and their location, Lewis said then.

“We are truly interested in how we can be more efficient and effective with our usage of tax dollars but also ensuring we receive the equal funding we should have for the schools in our district,” he said then.

After that Oct. 20, 2014 meeting, Lewis told the Ledger-Enquirer he hopes the committee would help prevent the controversy that erupted under the previous administration in May 2013, when district employees and residents complained they weren’t given enough warning that Edgewood Elementary and Marshall Middle schools were closing because their enrollments were too far under capacity and they were located near other schools that had room for their students.

“Basically, what I’m trying to do is avoid the need to close something at the last minute,” Lewis said then. “Even if we don’t do anything in the next year going forward, we would have an idea where it might happen.”

This story was originally published November 2, 2016 at 10:56 AM with the headline "Possibility of closing schools on Muscogee County School Board agenda."