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Escambia School Board Moves Forward On Closing Carver/Century K-8 School

The Escambia County School Board voted to move forward with a plan that will close Carver/Century K-8 School at the end of this school year at a Tuesday night meeting where a small number of Century residents quietly protested and spoke out of favor of the school.

“Have you done everything that you could have done to keep the school open?” Century Council member Henry Hawkins asked the board. “The answer is no, you have not…If you close the school, you kill a community.”

Superintendent Malcolm Thomas called for the closure due to declining enrollment and to save funds; the district has been loosing up to $1 million a year to keep the school open, Thomas said.

The board’s actual vote was to redistrict the students from Carver/Century to attend Bratt Elementary and Ernest Ward Middle School. That redistricting must be advertised for 28 days; the board will have their final vote on the new districts on March 17.

The vote was 3-2 to move forward with advertising the redistricting plan. Board members Bill Slayton, who represents District 5 where Carver/Century is located, and Linda Moultrie voted against the proposal. Jeff Bergosh,  Gerald Boone and Patty Hightower voted for the superintendent’s plan.

Century Mayor Freddie McCall pleaded with the district to keep the school open for at least three more years so that community leaders could work to improve the school without the “cloud of closure hanging over our heads”.

“I just want to plead with you to look at our situation,” McCall told the board. “We are unique.” The mayor said his town’s geographic distance from Bratt and Ernest Ward, coupled with the lack of adequate transportation of many Century residents, will present a problem for the district.

“Most of our parents don’t have a car at home,” McCall said. “If their child is sick, how are they going to come to school to get them?”

Century resident Annie Savage (pictured left) told the board that she was upset when she read on NorthEscambia.com that without the benefit of state averaging rule for small schools, Carver/Century’s school grade would have been a “D”, not a “B”.

“What side of your mouth are you going to talk out of?” Savage asked Thomas. “It is discrimination. They are taking from our community and giving to the other community. It is time for us to take action.”

The school board discussed the proposed redistricting for about 20 minutes Tuesday night, with each board member and the superintendent explaining their viewpoint.

“I am not going to speak about the impact on Century,” Slayton said, “I am very concerned about the students and what this will do to them educationally.”

Slayton said that the school’s letter grade was not important to him, rather he was impressed by the school showing great gains.

As for the students attending Bratt Elementary, Slayton said they would be “lost in the shuffle” when moved to a larger school. He said that while Ernest Ward Middle would offer a long list of electives and activities for the incoming Carver/Century students. “But will they have the transportation to be part of these vast opportunities?” he asked, echoing McCall’s comments about many Century parents who not have adequate transportation to get to Bratt or Walnut Hill.

“There are a lot of questions we have not been able to answer,” Slayton said. “I put the students first.”

“I have to know that we have given it our all and all,” said Moultrie. She said if Carver/Century closes “the community loses its life”.

“Nobody gets pleasure out of closing a school,” Thomas told his board. “We are all going to have to make some hard choices, not just in Century.” The district is facing mounting budget cuts, with the state legislature having just cut another $5.4 million in funding.

“The money that we are going to spend to keep it open will choke us on other facilities,” he said. “I am not going to be excited when we have to lay employees off. Unless a miracle occurs, this district is going to get a good dose of financial reality.”

Bergosh, the first board member to call for the closure of Carver/Century early last year, said that the board should be able to close the school easily based upon the excellent data provided by Thomas.

“This school is the most inefficient school in the district,” he said. “This is one we can’t afford not to do.”

Board member Hightower said that reaching the decision to support the closure had not been an easy one for her, but ultimately the closing would best serve the district.

“It is about what we can do for all the students of Escambia County,” Hightower said. “In order to keep our people employed, we are all going to have to make some tough decisions.”

Boone agreed that the closure was a tough decision, but one that would ultimately benefit the entire district.

Pictured above: Century Councilman Henry Hawkins addresses the Escambia County School Board Tuesday night in support of keeping Carver/Century K-8 open.  Pictured bottom: Century resident Leola Robinson speaks in support of keeping Carver/Century open while Gerald Boone (left) and Malcolm Thomas (right) look on. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.