The Virginian-Pilot
©
SUFFOLK
Library media specialist Florence Michener held a tangled chain made from construction paper. She pointed out messages on the links - "FUND Florence Bowser" and "SAVE OUR SCHOOLS," slogans written by students who fear that their school might close.
Michener plans to bring the links to today's School Board meeting, at which the members will hear public input on the proposed 2010-11 spending plan.
"We just kind of want to put a face to this," Michener said. "... Our children are not numbers that you can cut from the budget."
Closing Florence Bowser Elementary is not a new idea - the suggestion has come up year after year for more than a decade. The current budget crunch has staff, students and parents worried that it might actually happen this time.
The Suffolk school division is facing an estimated $10.4 million in cuts from the state. City Manager Selena Cuffee-Glenn has also asked the system to consider how it would deal with a 5 or 10 percent loss in local funding.
School Board members have pondered closing as many as three elementary schools with fewer than 300 students. The division's 10-year building plan already proposes closing those schools - Florence Bow-ser, Mount Zion and Robertson - and one other, Southwestern Elementary, in 2012. That's when a new elementary school is tentatively scheduled to open in southern Suffolk.
Florence Bowser is unusual in that it only serves preschool, kindergarten and first grade. The building opened in the early 1960s.
The facade looks outdated and the parking lot is prone to flooding, but "it's what's inside that counts," first-grade teacher Angie Hagen said.
The school has roots dating to 1920, when the Florence Graded School was built. Its namesake organized fundraisers to match money from the state and the Julius Rosenwald Fund, established to help black students in the south. The original structure is now used for storage.
Cheryl Landy, Bowser's great-granddaughter, was reading to students Tuesday in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday. She plans to attend tonight's meeting as well.
"I think what we really have to impress is the value of this school and its lineage," she said.
Jeff Meade credits attentive teachers and staff at Florence Bowser for his 5-year-old daughter's progress. Kelsey Meade was born prematurely and, as a result, has some vision problems and developmental delays.
She's learned to read and understand arith metic, and her writing improves weekly. He worries about what will happen to Kelsey if she's placed in a crowded classroom.
"She's just doing far more than we ever imagined," Meade said. "Honestly, I attribute it to Florence Bowser."
Hattie Brown Garrow, (757) 222-5562, hattie.brown@pilotonline.com
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Stop scaring the students!
" ... slogans written by students who fear that their school might close."
This is an issue with which adults have to deal. These are very young children, not high school students. They aren't able to comprehend the complex budget issues involved.
Stop instilling fear in them and using it to make your point.
There's a number of reasons to close Florence Bowser.
When Bowser was built, Nansmond Pky handled very light traffic and the school served a small population. Now, the area has a huge population and Nansmond Pky handles a large volume of fast moving traffic. The parking lot flooding problems has been a drain on city resources for years. It seems the great road engineers haven't discovered that water flows down hill not up hill to the little creek next to the nearby church. The buildinig itself is outdated and costly to repair and operate. It is also located near the stump burning operations of JC Holland which affects students with allergies and asthma. If Suffolk were to look at eliminating un-needed school administration positions and cutting the number of assistant principles, school lawyers and use the saved funding on increasing teacher pay and hiring more teachers, they'd find we don't have a revenue problem.