Jasper — A packed house of concerned citizens, parents and officials from White Springs joined together on Thursday, Feb. 2, at a special town council meeting to discuss the impact to the town if Hamilton County School Board (HCSB) proceeds with their decision to close South Hamilton Elementary (SHE) at the end of the 2011-12 school year if Central Hamilton Elementary (CHE) does not exit intervene status.

The meeting had one purpose; to figure out what options were available for the town to fight closure of their A-rated school, which was approved by the HCSB on Jan. 24.

To address the situation, White Springs Mayor Helen Miller said they will be moving forward with three identified plans. The first is to try to negotiate with HCSB to resolve the conflict and keep SHE open. Secondly, if an acceptable resolution cannot be accomplished, White Springs intends to withdraw from the existing inter-local agreement with the school board and enter into a new agreement with an adjacent district. The third option, Miller said, is to set up a new municipal school district for the existing District 4 area.

Miller said other options will be considered if they are consistent with their goal of quality education for the children of White Springs that are close to home.

Town Manager Robert Townsend, Miller, Vice-mayor Walter McKenzie, and council member Richard Marshall addressed the available options with input from City Attorney Fred Koberlein. Council members Tonja Brown and Dennis Price were unable to attend the meeting.

The saga began Oct. 24 when HCSB voted to close CHE and transfer all students to SHE if CHE fails to exit intervene status at the end of the 2011-12 school year. CHE is in their second year of intervene by the Florida Department of Education (DOE) for receiving a failing school grade of F two years in a row and must receive a C grade (at least 435 points) on FCAT this year in order to exit intervene.

Nearly three months later on Jan. 17, Superintendent of Schools Martha Butler held a town hall meeting in Jasper to discuss CHE's intervention plan again. She announced she was going to recommend transferring students from SHE to CHE instead.

After explaining it was physically impossible and financially unfounded to transfer CHE students to SHE, Butler scheduled a meeting for the following Tuesday so the board could vote on her recommendation.

When the board met Jan. 24 they voted 3-2 to accept Butler's recommendation, despite numerous objections from White Springs residents in the audience. Board members Johnny Bullard and Gary Godwin voted against the recommendation.

What has now come under scrutiny, however, is what Butler actually meant in her speech and in her recommendation. According to Miller, the one-page Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) Butler submitted to the DOE dated Jan. 31, 2012 proposes Option 1, which is to reassign students to another school and monitor progress. Miller said there was no stipulation in the SIP stating that it was dependent on CHE not exiting intervene.

Bullard was in the audience at the White Springs town council meeting and he echoed the council's feelings about the closure of the school, stating he was against it and will always be against closing SHE.

“Number one, it's not fair to the children of this community,” he said.

Bullard said he was provided with a copy of the intervention plan that Butler sent to the DOE on Feb. 1.

“It's very brief and extremely concise, but what stood out to me most were the first two items that were on that plan and the language was concise, but to me it was very clear,” said Bullard. “The first item stated, closure of the school of South Hamilton Elementary. The second one, item one, was to zone those children in with the Central district. It did not say contingent upon Central bringing their grade up to a C. There was none of that language that was attached there and I read it over and over several times.”

School Board members Jeanie Daniels and Sammy McCoy both made statements before the vote on Jan. 24 indicating they were under the impression Butler's recommendation to move SHE students to CHE was only if CHE did not successfully exit intervene, however, Butler's wording of her recommendation did not state so, which is where confusion set in.

Daniels said right before the vote, “I do believe with all my heart that they (CHE) will come up to a C and we won't have to do anything.”

Sammy McCoy, right behind Daniels, said, “When it comes down to it, I don't think anything's going to become of any of this. It's all what if's.”

Miller said the town of White Springs is awaiting a recording of the school board meeting, so they can hear for themselves what Butler's actual recommendation was, as well as the wording of the motion.

The Jasper News on Feb. 6, asked the superintendent’s office for clarification of the language of the SIP.

Denise Wofford, Butler’s administrative assistant stated by phone and e-mail, “The plan addresses what will happen only if Central does not exit intervene status.”

Wofford said that it was understood that the SIP one-sheeter is a document that defines an intervention plan and that the plan would only be put into place if CHE failed to exit intervene.

Since the Jan. 24 school board meeting, the citizens of White Springs have been vowing to do whatever possible to prevent their A rated school from closing, which is why the town hall meeting was called on Feb. 2.

“Our goal, as it has always been, is to ensure quality education for our children in close proximity to their residence, and this is consistent with state law,” said Miller. “It’s also backed up by research and experience showing that small, local schools are better places in which to educate children.”

Lower dropout rates, fewer discipline problems, less violence, a greater sense of belonging, better attendance and better academic performance, Miller said, are what her research has shown to be true with small, local schools. Her research was gathered from the Knowledge Works Foundation and Rural Schools Community Trust, which is supported by major institutions, such as MIT Media Lab, Harvard and NASA.

The town council and the mayor have been receiving numerous phone calls from parents and they've attended several community meetings to address the issue of the closure of SHE.

“We feel that the decision the school board made was made without our input and did not consider the well-being of our children,” Miller said.

Koberlein presented his analysis of the current public school inter-local agreement between White Springs and HCSB. The 14-page document, he said, details the agreement between the county commissioners, the city of Jasper, and the towns of Jennings and White Springs.

Koberlein said, according to the agreement, “There are several requirements prior to closure of a school that need to be met.”

Examples he noted were that an educational plan survey needs to be done, a public schools advisory committee has to be formed to review the decision, co-location and shared usage facilities to minimize cost needs to analyzed, and school concurrency matters needed to be addressed.

“There's a question as to whether or not those procedures prior to the decision being made last week were met,” said Koberlein. “Additionally, whether or not the meeting was properly noticed and publicized.”

Koberlein said it would be advisable for the town to hire an outside legal expert in school board administration, preferably someone who has dealt with similar issues, to handle the conflict resolution with the school board and the setting up of a new municipal school district, while he would be willing to handle the inter-local agreement issue.

Councilman Marshall stated that funding data and numerous other items that might impact the town charter needed to be reviewed before the town moves forward with plans for a charter school.

“I am in support of our community and the town and for standing for what is just,” Marshall said. “I believe it was unjust to make a decision to close the school down in the manner that they did. It seems as though we're being punished when we did such a good job.”

McKenzie said he didn't think it was the DOE's intent to close whatever school might be most financially convenient at the expense of other schools that were passing.

“It's not right, it's not just and it's not fair for an A school to have the most serious consequences in terms of suffering and having to pay the price for failure for an F school,” said McKenzie.

Shauna Adams Farries, a parent who has a child attending SHE wanted clarification on whether or not turning SHE into a charter school was still on the table and Miller said it was and that it was part of plan A, and that if they went that route it would be a K-12 public charter school. The audience loudly applauded that decision. Miller said it would help the community and federal support is available, although it is a multi-step process.

“White Springs is part of Hamilton County,” Miller stated. “We would like to continue to be an institution and a player and a responsible stakeholder in the overall health and well-being of the county, however, that takes trust on both parts. That takes both entities at the county level and the town both working together.”

Miller said the inter-local agreement was violated when HCSB made their decision to close SHE without consulting with the town of White Springs. She cited other instances when HCSB offered no cooperation when White Springs asked for help starting up a summer enrichment program and after school care.

Miller said every time they have reached out for assistance from HCSB they have been rebuffed.

“At this point, I feel we have to look out for the best interests of our children in our community,” said Miller.

One concerned parent suggested an “Occupy Tallahassee” movement and to take all the SHE students there to protest at the DOE office. Miller said that was a good idea, since DOE Commissioner Gerard Robinson visited SHE and saw firsthand what an A school looked like.

She said they could approach him and say, “You were here less than a year ago telling us what a great job we did, and now, are you going to sit by and let them close our school?”

Councilman Marshall stated that if the superintendent wanted to know how to improve CHE's school grade she should look more closely at the way SHE is being run and look at all the other school programs White Springs has instituted to help students achieve academically.

“This is what works,” said Marshall.

Former SHE principal Waylan Bush said he has never heard of moving children from a high performing school to a low performing school, and that dollars and cents should not dictate school board decisions to do so. Bullard interjected there are 31 students from Jasper who are currently attending SHE and they came because SHE is considered a school of choice, which is something federal law says is allowed.

After more parent input, a motion was made and approved by the council to move forward with assistance from Koberlein on all three options Miller presented at the beginning of the meeting.