Photos by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Sadie Powell holds her 5-year-old daughter, Destiny, as they listen to comments regarding a proposal to close Forest Park Elementary. Powell said her children's grades have improved at the school.

LeVita Washington, president of Forest Park Elementary's PTA, applauds the Rev. Thomas Woods after he spoke against closure.

At a public hearing held by the Roanoke School Board on Wednesday, Michael Harrington speaks against moving students from Oakland Intermediate School.

Sadie Powell holds her 5-year-old daughter, Destiny, as they listen to comments regarding a proposal to close Forest Park Elementary. Powell said her children's grades have improved at the school.

Angry Forest Park parents denounced school officials Wednesday evening for a proposal to close the Northwest Roanoke elementary school next year and open an alternative academy in its place.

Many in the crowd of slightly more than 100 people at the hearing at Lucy Addison Middle School waged a last-minute campaign to persuade the board to keep the school open and to locate a planned overage academy somewhere else.

The board is set to vote on the matter this morning. Four of the seven board members have indicated their support for the administration's plan.

But that didn't stop LeVita Washington, president of the Forest Park PTA, who has been organizing parents in the neighborhood to save the school.

"This is not in the best interest of the students at Forest Park," she said. "Are you promoting segregation at an early age? Is it because we're lower income and you may think we do not understand what you are doing? But we do."

Speaker after speaker Wednesday noted that Forest Park is unique among city schools because its students live in the neighborhood and walk to school. That, they said, makes it possible for working parents to visit their children's school, something that would be more difficult if their children were dispersed to other schools across the city.

"We're a close-knit community," said Sherman Deane, who attended Forest Park as have his relatives and children. "Don't shut down what we've got."

School officials say the overage academy will serve middle and high school students who are older than their grade level or who have already dropped out. The idea is to offer these at-risk students an environment in which they can earn the necessary school credits to graduate.

With the city's graduation rate stuck at 57 percent, officials say the academy is necessary. Under the plan, Forest Park's kindergarten, first- and second-grade students would go to Highland Park Elementary. Third- and fourth-grade students would go to Hurt Park Elementary and fifth-graders would go to Roanoke Academy for Mathematics and Science Elementary.

"It does provide the opportunity to keep friendships together, and that's very important," said Superintendent Rita Bishop.

But Washington said both Hurt Park and Roanoke Academy have struggled in the past. She suggested the academy should move into the Orange Avenue building that now serves as the school system's headquarters.

"Do not set our children up to fail," she said.

The board is also considering closing Oakland Intermediate School, transferring its students to Preston Park Primary and moving the Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy into the empty building. Taylor, a school for students with discipline problems, is currently in space the school system leases for $25,000 a month.

A couple of Oakland parents expressed concern about moving into Preston Park, saying the school was not big enough to absorb the new students. Others who live in the Oakland neighborhood said they did not want high school students with discipline problems in their neighborhood.

"I'm sure there's an empty building somewhere in South Roanoke," said Ruth Ann Hannah, drawing loud cheers.

But the night belonged primarily to Forest Park parents. Although the school has not met state standards for the past four years, its performance on state tests has improved over the past few years, which parents said was an argument to keep it open.

Sadie Powell said her children were getting D's and F's at another city school but have improved to A's and B's since transferring into Forest Park.

"You really need to think about what you are doing to my children," she said.

But the night's final speaker, Daniel Hale, turned the question around and addressed the audience directly.

"I have a question for you all," said Hale, president of the Roanoke branch of the NAACP. "When we were trying to get more money for the school system, where were all you all?"

"Where were you four years ago when we had all these schools failing?" he asked, to modest applause. "I say to you that it's all our responsibilities."

Earlier on Wednesday, three school board members reiterated their opposition to closing Forest Park, preferring to see the academy at Oakland.

Board member Courtney Penn said he would like to see the school system invest in Forest Park to help that school succeed "after many, many years of neglect at Forest Park, and that is something we have to take responsibility for."

Board member Mae Huff said she did not like closing "an anchor in that community" but vowed that the dissenting board members would work to make the new academy a success once today's vote is taken.

"We can make a commitment to do that," she said.