Parents rally to keep school from closing

Octavia Mitchell
Published: October 13, 2008

The Charleston County School District is getting closer to creating a plan to restructure schools, which means some schools may close.  Now a group of parents from Dunston Elementary school in North Charleston are taking action to prevent their school from closing.

A bus load of parents arrived at district headquarters by bus Monday evening.  Parents have combed the streets of North Charleston, passing out fliers in english and spanish, and holding up signs that read “save our school.” Although the school district has not said which schools will be restructured or consolidated, parent Marva Crawford says they want to present a united front to the school board to let them know how important dunston is to the community.  Crawford says, “We want to keep Dunston here, it’s the only primary school in North Charleston. We as parents we stepped out on our own, and we’re just trying to get ahead and make sure that if they move this decision in their heart, that they will change their mind, and let them know the parent here at Dunston Primary we do care about what takes place at our school, and maybe they will have an open mind to listen to what we have to say and not consolidate our school.”

Superintendent Dr. Nancy McGinley says no decisions have been made yet, but changes are ahead.  McGinley says, “We can not continue to operate in this economic environment without making our schools as efficient as possible.  There’s not a parent I’ve ever met in my thirty years as an educator who said close my school, and these are difficult decisions. Decisions that we take very seriously that we wish we did not have to make, but unfortunately as everyone else we must tighten our belts.  We must do what’s in the best interest of the entire community as well as the children, and we will look out for the children, we will make sure that the schools that we send them to are robust are high functioning and offer a high quality education.”

Monday night, district leaders presented a revised criteria list used to see which schools will be restructured, based on community meetings.  Some of the things they’re looking at are academic performance, per pupil expenditure, and the condition of the facility.

The school district will present to the board which schools that are in the pool for consolidation at the next school board meeting, October 27th.