Spalding Drive Elementary School teachers, students and parents continued to plead their case for keeping their school open at a Feb. 11 Fulton County Board of Education public hearing.
The school board held the first of two scheduled public hearings on the school closure and redistricting of students at the Fulton County Schools North Learning Center in Sandy Springs. The second public hearing and a final closure vote will be Thursday, Feb. 20 at the South Learning Center in Union City.
Spalding Drive Elementary supporters were joined by a handful of Parklane Elementary parents who also want to keep their school open. Both schools would close after this school year if the school board follows staff recommendations. Many of the Spalding supporters cited findings in the Save Spalding Committee’s 106-page report to the school board.
“I have eight people that walk with me to school that are my friends. And at Spalding Drive, we learn so much, and I have so many friends at Spalding Drive. And every teacher knows my name, and please don’t close the school,” second-grade student Noah Rosenbaum said.
Abby Lee, another second-grader, said her school shouldn’t close because of its advanced age and low enrollment.
“The teachers teach you really fun things. My brother, Austin is in pre-K and is really hoping to go to Spalding next year. You still have time to change your minds about Spalding,” Abby said.
Caroline Huston’s two children attend Spalding Drive Elementary. In its community presentations during the redistricting process, FCS said Sandy Springs elementary schools have 45 more classrooms than are needed. None of those “surplus” classrooms are at Spalding Drive, though Ison Springs has 14 surplus classrooms and Woodland, 10 classrooms more than it needs.
Sandy Springs Council Members Andy Bauman, Jody Reichel, John Paulson, Melody Kelley and Melissa Mular spoke in support of the school remaining open. They offered to partner with the school district to find ways to keep it open.
Paulson said the school has been open for 60 years, but the closure is taking only six months. He asked for a three-year delay to review policies to find a way to keep the school open.
School board members Michelle Morancie, Katie Gregory and Francesca Warren voted against the closure process at the board’s Jan. 24 meeting, but the panel voted 4-3 to move forward with public hearings and a scheduled closure vote.
Kelley said Sandy Springs is not a withering community, but is in a state of growth. She described multi-family developments in the permitting stages or under construction that will add 2,148 residential units to the city. She said the board should wait until the city meets the need for middle income and affordable housing to make a decision about closing Spalding Drive. This would give teachers and more families affordable options to live in Sandy Springs and bring more families to the city.
Amy Lund, a pre-K teacher at Spalding Drive Elementary, said parents and teachers felt blindsided by the closure plans. Throughout the closure process, they have felt confused, misled, and undervalued.
“It is okay to admit that this proposal is not the right choice for Spalding Drive Elementary, not the school that I love or our students. It’s okay to say that maybe in three to five years, we will come back and look at this again, but right now, this is not what is right for our community,” Lund said.
School board member Lillie Pozatek described how history was repeating itself. In the 1980s and 1990s, the school district was in a similar situation with declining enrollment and aging schools. A school consolidation program cut the number of schools from 74 to 48.
“Keeping all of these schools open was becoming increasingly unsustainable financially,” Pozatek said.
