School Closures to be Decided at Cobb BOE Meeting Thursday

Cobb County School Board members will decide at their meeting Thursday night whether to close Sky View Elementary School and Brown Elementary School as part of the school district’s proposed redistricting plan.

If the redistricting plan is approved, Sky View Elementary would close at the end of the 2011-2012 school year and Austell Primary and Austell Intermediate would be converted into traditional kindergarten through fifth grade elementary schools in August 2012. In Smyrna, Brown Elementary School would close in August 2013 and Fitzhugh Lee H.A.V.E.N Academy would relocate to Brown’s campus at 3265 Brown Road in January 2014.

Parents, students and teachers will have an opportunity to voice their favor or opposition to the closings at a final public hearing scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Cobb district’s boardroom at 514 Glover Street in Marietta. Doug Goodwin, a communications specialist for the Cobb County School District, said school board members will take the comments into consideration before voting on the redistricting plan at the board meeting that follows the hearing.

Thursday’s public hearing will be the second the school district is required to conduct by law when proposing a school closure. Goodwin said that few people attended the first hearing, but no one chose to speak for or against the school closures.

CCSD is in the process of building three new schools to help alleviate overcrowding in south Cobb: Mableton and Clarkdale Elementary Schools, which will be completed in Aug. 2012, and a new Smyrna elementary school, which will be completed in Aug. 2013. School officials began the process of redistricting south Cobb's current schools to accomodate the new schools almost 10 months ago. When redrawing school district lines, CCSD considered student proximity to schools, school capacity and feeder pattern alignment. Thursday’s board meeting will complete a redistricting process that began almost a year ago:

-May 17, 2011: CCSD held a public forum at Campbell High School to outline the redistricting process and distribute neighborhood maps. Input was gathered from community members.

-Oct. 26, 2011: CCSD presented two redistricting options and held two public forums to collect community feedback. Both options proposed closing Sky View Elementary School and Brown Elementary School.

-Dec. 7, 2011: CCSD presented one draft plan based on community feedback from the first two options at a single, combined meeting at South Cobb High School.

-Jan. 26: CCSD holds first of two school closure hearings required by law.

-Feb. 23: CCSD will hold its final school closure hearing and school board members will vote on the proposed redistricting map at the board meeting following the hearing.

Throughout the redistricting process parents, students and community members have been invited to provide CCSD with feedback at the redistricting website’s public comment wall. Here's what some members of the community are saying about school closures in south Cobb:

M4 | Brown

In light of the reality that Brown is closing and there is nothing that can be said to change its fate, I think the community, parents and students need to rally together and support our Principal and Vice Principal by requesting...demanding...expecting that they will be moved to the new school (which currently is not a guarantee for those that do not know that). What Principal Ward and Vice Principal Basset have done for Brown Elementary is very telling and admirable and we need that type of leadership at the New Smyrna Elementary School. Please show our school board members and superintendent that we have a voice and expectation for quality leadership. They have taken our school.....please don't take our principals....the very principals that know our children, our families and the community we live in. Thank you.

Concerned Parent | Sky View

I still for the life of me don't understand why you are closing Sky View when it is the BEST elementary school around. My son started Pre-K at Sky View. When the Charter School opened, I moved him there thinking that would be geat! Boy, was I wrong!!! I couldn't wait to get back to Sky View. It was the best move ever made. Please reconsider closing Sky View. It may be an older building but it isn't beyondd any updates or repairs. The staff is excellent. You can't beat this school. Please, please reconsider.

My car leans. | Brown

I understand buildings can get old, and plumbing and heating systems can get old....But New and Bigger is not always the answer. Children in a school, in their neighborhood, the old fashion way, learning in smaller school would allow for more one on one, through out the elementary experience, those are the formative years of development. As we all get older we tend to remember with great fondness our elementary school because of the closeness with our teachers and friends from that time of our life. I can see how there may need to be expansion at the Brown school to accommodate new computer labs or other teaching resources may be necessary, but a new school?? redistricting??? Please make common sense decisions !!!! Do what is right!! do only what is necessary to provide a quality education in a warm and loving environment.

Mary | Sky View

There seems to many dissapointed parents with valid points to be made. Does the school board actually read and give any kind of consideration to these comments or is this just a way to appease parents into "thinking" that what they say matter? Just a thought!