Tuesday, January 29, 2008
School board needs to act now
Shanna Flowers
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I can't sit by quietly as the Roanoke School Board fiddles while Rome burns.
The board's inertia in closing schools and revisiting school boundaries is stalling the system's effort to move forward.
The longer the board sits on its hands because it fears angry parents at raucous meetings, the longer scarce school dollars will continue to prop up underused buildings -- and the longer before that money will be available for programs to help students graduate.
And that, after all, should be the system's mission and priority.
At its retreat over the weekend, school officials received yet another report urging them to get off the dime. The red flag to stop squandering money on outdated or underused buildings isn't news to the board.
A year ago, board members themselves broached the subject when they learned about leaky roofs at some schools. A few months later in May, a state study recommended closing at least one elementary school. Mayor Nelson Harris joined the chorus, urging new school attendance zones.
If the school board is waiting for "the right time," there never is one. With contentious issues such as closing a building or redrawing school attendance zones, inevitably some feathers will get ruffled.
But presumably that's why board members were appointed: To take the difficult votes and do what's best for the school system at large.
The point should not be lost that taking students from smaller schools into other schools may give them exposure to specialties such as foreign languages.
Apparently, school board members largely agree that schools need to close. The disagreement is in the redrawing of boundary lines.
Members Mae Huff and Mignon Chubb-Hale worry that sending children to schools in their own neighborhoods likely would result in segregated schools.
I appreciate that sentiment. At this point, however, the issue of cosmetics is secondary. Our schools are in crisis. Only 56 percent graduate. Right now, improving that trend is more critical than adhering to an inefficient status quo.
Wherever the school is located, the overriding factor is making sure Little Johnny can read and write. The way the board ensures that is to give all schools, principals and teachers the support they need and equal access to resources.
School board members should not shy away from the issue because of the upcoming municipal election.
There's always going to be an excuse to stand down.
But the Roanoke School Board has plenty of reasons -- 12,428 of them -- to summon the courage and stand up for the children.
Shanna Flowers' column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
