According to the Huntsville Times, the Huntsville government school board is forming a committee to suggest which schools should be closed.

The committee includes Mayor Loretta Spencer, business leaders and educators who will examine the school system’s books. Moore said she wants recommendations from the committee in May or June.

The superintendent, also a member of the committee, said the committee will consider the cost of running a small school, its standing with the community, and whether it could be merged well with a nearby school.

“This is not just a numbers game,” Moore said. “There are many factors to consider.”

Actually, there is only one factor that needs to be considered: enrollment numbers.  Huntsville’s schools operate at about 61% capacity.  Some schools are overflowing with students, others are below 50% full.  That is wanton mismanagement and if this were a business people - including the management who nurtured this dilemma - would be getting pink slips.

It is just that simple.  You study current and projected enrollment.  You redraw district lines so that each retained school operates around 75-90% capacity.  Make every effort to occupy only the newer buildings.  Then you close and sell off the properties you no longer use.  Now you don’t need as much staff.  Lay off the underperformers - I’m sure the union will whine about this - and keep the good ones.  Problem solved.

We all know that the school board, with the general exception of Jennie Robinson and occasionally Topper Birney, does not have the spine to implement this plan.  Lord knows Dr. Moore will bring up the remaining court desegregation order - that no one seems to be trying to get lifted - as an excuse for not redrawing district lines in a reasonable manner.  They’ll probably just shuffle things around and make the situation worse.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 6:14 am and is filed under Education, Huntsville. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.