School-closing criteria approved

Although no Charleston County schools have been told they must close, the prospect of that happening drove dozens of Dunston Elementary School parents and children to attend the school board meeting Monday night.

They begged the board to spare the school from any harm, with one woman saying a decision to close the school would "crush the community."

The emotional scene that played out before the board could be repeated by a handful of schools in the near future. The board on Monday unanimously adopted a revised set of criteria that will be used to rank county schools for restructuring or closure. The board directed the superintendent earlier this year to create a restructuring plan to maximize the district's efficiency and effectiveness.

The next step will be for the district to use the criteria to create a list of schools that likely could be restructured or closed. Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley expected to take a list of schools to the board at the second meeting in November. After that meeting, district staff would go back out into the community to gather feedback, and a final recommendation likely would not go to the board until January.

The criteria that will be used were presented to the board about a month ago. District staff spent the next few weeks out in the community to let the public have their say. They held seven public hearings, and more than 900 residents attended those meetings.

As a result of the feedback, officials narrowed the number of criteria from 16 to 12, partly to make it easier to understand and partly because a number of questions were raised about some areas. Criteria eliminated included: building use, which reflected the other uses of the building outside of typical school hours; minimal school size, which indicated whether schools met a district-determined minimum enrollment size requirement; and transfers out, which measured the number of students who transferred out of the school. One other area, fidelity of mission, applied only to magnet schools and was combined with another area.

Almost all of the 12 areas were considered important by 80 percent or more of those surveyed by officials. The only criterion that didn't have at least 80 percent approval was per-pupil cost, but that has been an issue of key interest to the board.

Each school will receive between one and four points on each criterion, so the maximum number of points a school could earn would be 48. McGinley said she likely would be interested in making changes to schools that score in the top third.

Board members had relatively little to say when presented with the district's recommendations. After the meeting, board Chairman Hillery Douglas said the board was satisfied that district staff had done a good job in putting together the rubric that would be used.

He said it's difficult to tell whether the future school board would go through with making such serious changes, but they ought to take a look at any information that shows schools aren't serving the community well.

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.

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