Spartanburg junior high will close

By Anna Mitchell  

APRIL 7, 2010 3:50 p.m. (0)

Whitlock Junior High will be shutting down after classes wrap up May 28.

The announcement, the first concrete step in a larger proposed restructuring of the district, came Wednesday morning in a briefing to members of the media and the district’s principals. A general announcement to the public was embargoed until 4 p.m. today after school personnel could be notified.

The district also plans at the close of the school year to shut down the Z.L. Madden Center – home to the district’s alternative school program, Family Connections and adult education.

A video of the announcement is available at http://spartanburg7.org/video. In it, Superintendent Tom White and Superintendent-elect Russell Booker make the case that every step of the district’s restructuring is with student achievement and access to arts, activities and academics in mind.

White said board members came out of an executive session during Tuesday night’s regular board meeting and voted unanimously to support district leaders on a “contractual” and “personnel” issue. The closures of Whitlock and Madden were never mentioned in name and were not listed on the April 6 meeting agenda.

The contractual issue, White explained to media on Wednesday morning, referred to leasing the Madden Center to a community Head Start program. The personnel issue, he elaborated, related to Whitlock and the inevitable impact its closure will have on roughly 50 employees.

“We began this conversation in the fall of 2009,” White said.

White said no decision had been made on what will happen to individual teachers but their options include retiring, getting transferred or possibly getting laid off. He said he anticipates no more than 20 to 50 full-time positions being eliminated and predicted most of that could happen through natural attrition.

Whitlock’s fate, which White said is certain, is part of a larger proposal to shuffle students and staff at other schools in the district, where enrollment has declined from more than 9,000 students in 1999 to about 7,100 today.

“I’m excited,” Booker said. “I believe these are truly the best of times. We are in a position to truly make transformative changes.”

The district is applying in May for federal School Improvement Grants tied to the district’s four lowest performing schools, White said, and that money would help pay for their realignment in the most “humane” way. These schools – Whitlock, Carver Junior High, Park Hills Elementary and Cleveland Elementary – could receive anywhere from $150,000 to $6 million over three years to make drastic changes to their campuses.

Funding could cover changes and upgrades to school facilities and, possibly, severance packages to laid-off educators. Only those schools proposing drastic changes – such as closure, complete transformation and firing a principal and/or half the staff – will be considered for the grants.

“As we write the grant, we need input on models that you think will work,” Booker announced in the district’s roughly 40-minute video to the public.

Public meetings for community input on the closures and other proposed changes are set for 7 p.m. Thursday, April 8, at Spartanburg High School and 6 p.m. Monday, April 12, at Whitlock Junior High.

If approved, the district’s restructuring – which White said was possible with or without the grant funds – would go on to include:

* converting Whitlock into an alternative school campus for the entire county – and collecting financial support for the operation from the other six school districts;

* moving 9^th graders to Spartanburg High School in a new Freshman Academy setting (the enlarged Spartanburg High would have 2,100 students – close to the facility’s capacity);

* converting the district’s junior high schools into middle school for grades 6, 7 and 8;

* closing Park Hills Elementary and converting it into an early childhood education center for 3- and 4-year-olds;

* transforming Carver Middle into a school specializing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics; Carver’s feeder elementary school, Cleveland, would also be equipped for ramped up science and math instruction;

* adding grades 7 and 8 to the E.P. Todd School, which has a Montessori program that would be extended to the new grades (the school has a capacity of 900 students and the new grades would bring enrollment up to about 700).

The changes would mean 6^th graders will have a longer school day and more specialized instructors, and 9^th graders would have equal access to academic and extracurricular activities, White said. The soonest any of the proposed changes would take place is the 2011-2012 school year.

The state Department of Education ties funding to student enrollment, Booker said, but the district has not adjusted its spending on personnel on pace with the decline in student population over the years.

This, he said, was the primary reason for the district’s restructuring. Average class sizes in District 7 are well below the target of 18 students in first grade, 19 in second, 20 in third, 21 in fourth, 22 in fifth and 24 for all grades higher than that.

Whitlock Junior High, a school cited at the state and federal level for low student achievement in past years, had seen enrollment drop to 284 – at a facility built for more than 700.

Booker said despite gains at the school, which is in the middle of a three-year state program to turn around student test scores and poorly performing teachers, it couldn’t overcome low enrollment. The 90-student 9^th grade class, he said, does not have access to the variety of programs available to those at McCracken, where 757 students are enrolled.

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