(ELBERTA, Ala.) - School leaders in Baldwin County will not be moving forward with a rezoning proposal.
They heard a resounding "no" from parents, teachers and even students about the idea at public meetings.
Hundreds of people showed up last night at Elberta Elementary School to hear the Baldwin County School Board's proposal.
The plan would reduce class sizes by turning intermediate schools into Elementary Schools.
Nearly every parent at the meeting opposed the plan.
“Why are we going to spend the money and the effort to rezone something instead of putting it to use to hiring teachers and special education teachers to help our students and the school,” says parent Scott Williamson.
“From everybody who was here tonight it was pretty clear that they do not favor any sort of re configuration of their schools,” says Dr. Alan Lee.
Thursday night school leaders said they would review online comments about the plan before making their decision.
Superintendent Dr. Alan Lee sent out an email early Friday morning saying, “After reading input online and listening to parents, teachers and other stakeholders at our community meetings, it is clear to me that there is no resounding interest to move this idea forward; it will be put to rest, no change will be made.”
You can read that full statement below:
Good morning,
Last night in Elberta, we completed the fifth and final community meeting to seek input about converting our Intermediate and K-3 schools to K-6 (kindergarten through 6th grade). After reading input online and listening to parents, teachers and other stakeholders at our community meetings, it is clear to me that there is no resounding interest to move this idea forward; it will be put to rest, no change will be made. I want to thank each of you who provided insight. Perhaps this was a new approach in that I brought to you an idea, not a plan, and asked for your advice on whether you thought it was worthy to pursue. If this is not the solution to reducing class sizes, we as a county-wide community need to develop a response to solve this problem, to add additional teachers in the core enrichment and arts classes and programs. I welcome you to join me in positioning our schools to be the best in the world. By working together on this goal, Baldwin County will become the model for the best education possible.
Please refer to www.bcbe.org/feedback for basic answers to the questions you asked; We'll be adding additional answers as soon as we can. Thank you for your participation.
Alan T. Lee
Superintendent
