Group to speak against school consolidation plan tonight

A group of residents who oppose the Lincoln Parish School Board’s plan to consolidate Ruston’s four public elementary schools into two will hold a town hall meeting tonight to discuss the problems they have with the project.

The Coalition Against School Closures (CASC) meeting is at 6 p.m. at New Rocky Valley Baptist Church in Grambling, with the tagline “ Join the Movement: Keep Our Schools Open.”

The CASC is a group of roughly 20 individuals who believe the school board’s plan to close Cypress Springs Elementary and Ruston Elementary School would be harmful to the Ruston community, especially the Black community, group co-Chair Liz White said Monday.

White said the group counts among its ranks some school board members who voted against the consolidation project. District 1 member Danielle Williams and District 2 member David Ferguson are two of the six panelists slated to speak at tonight’s town hall meeting.

The school board voted 7- 4 in February to approve a $65 million capital improvement plan that would expand Glen View Elementary School and Hillcrest Elementary School to house grades K-5 and shutter the other two campuses.

The plan is contingent on funding from a 17.75-mill property tax renewal slated for a public vote on April 29.

The board’s vote to advance the plan fell along racial lines. That’s part of what prompted White and other to organize the CASC.

“I wanted to support our Black board members who voted against the proposal,” White said. “The school board was divided racially.”

Opponents of the plan take issue with the fact that the two schools slated for expansion are on the north side of Ruston, while the schools that would close are on the south side, where many Black neighborhoods are.

“The Black community sees in this the perpetuation of systemic racism,” White said. “The schools that are being closed are closer to the Black community. Schools are the pillar of a community. When you take the schools out, you kill the community.”

School district officials have said the consolidation project is not demographics- based but instead aimed at cutting down on disruptive transitions for young students and allowing them and their families to settle into one school for a longer period of time.

Superintendent Ricky Durrett has said the original plan was to keep one of the north-side schools and one of the south-side schools open, but Ruston Elementary is not in good enough shape for expansion, and the back side of Cypress Springs’ property would cost too much to make ready for expansion — more than officials felt they could ask the public to support in taxes.

The plan would move all students and teachers from Cypress Springs to Glen View and from Ruston Elementary to Hillcrest in a process that would take a few years.

Officials say class sizes would stay the same, and no one would lose their job.

The CASC sees the school district’s capital improvement plan as getting “sidetracked” from what really matters for students.

“We need to be focusing on improving student achievement,” White said. “We don’t have dilapidated school facilities that we need to do $65 million worth of projects on. That’s not important, as I see it. We need to be trying to get these test scores up.”

Through tonight’s town hall and other efforts, the group hopes to rally enough support to convince the school board to reconsider the consolidation plan.

If not, White said the group will turn its attention to advocating for voters to reject the tax renewal at the polls in April.

“There are two sides to every story,” she said. “The first side that speaks, it appears to be true. Until you hear the second side, and they set the record straight. We’ve got to hear both sides.”

The town hall meeting is open to the public and will take place in the New Rocky Valley Baptist Church fellowship hall.

Panelists are White, Ferguson, Williams, Precious Wilkerson Carr, Jackie Sumler, and Bill Smith.