By Malcolm Butler & Kyle Roberts
Tonight the Lincoln Parish School Board will take a vote on a capital outlay plan regarding combining Hillcrest and Glenview back into K-5 schools. The Lincoln Parish Journal sat down with Ricky Durrett ahead of the meeting for the chance for clarification.
The following transcript has been lightly edited and condensed.
Lincoln Parish Journal (LPJ): “Mr. Durrett, can you walk us through the inception of the idea to get to where we are at this point? What was the rationale?”
LPSB Superintendent Ricky Durrett (RD): “So, in 2011-12, it was the last year we had four K-5 schools. Due to the desegregation order, it was required to do something with the schools. That’s when they made the two K-2 schools and the two 3-5 schools. What we’re proposing is to put those schools together on one campus, continuing to use the current districts as the dividing line. So wherever we build, all those same kids would still go. The demographics of those two schools coming together would not change. We would still be within what we are supposed to do.
“When I was a teacher and even as a principal, I have listened to people tell me that their kids in Ruston have to go to six different schools to graduate. If they start in pre-kindergarten and go through high schools, it’s six schools. I have been asked at ballgames, at track meets, at open houses; is there anything we can ever do so that we don’t have so many transitions and changes in the schools? So we just started talking around the office. We talked about two Pre-K through 5 schools, one junior high for 6, 7, and 8, and Ruston High 9-12. Some of the ideas we came up with originally had some opposition, particularly to not close I.A. Lewis. That was the old Lincoln High School junior high. They did not want it closed or used for something else. They wanted it to stay there. We had some discussions and we offered a couple of other things, but we took I.A. Lewis off the table.
“The next thing is trying to build Cypress Springs with the terrain behind it. The road frontage we have currently would require trying to make a longer bus line or car line; the price of doing that would go way up. And honestly, it can’t be done unless we can purchase some more land over there, which also drives the price of it up. But the traffic flow would be a challenge to say the least. So we decided to go with Glenview because we have a lot more land there. There’s dirt there we can work with. We can make another car line there, and we can get traffic off of Bittersweet, and we could extend the bus line much longer. It’s the same thing we would be doing at Hillcrest.
“But then we would also keep Cypress Springs open, but it would now become the central office. So it’s not going to shut down. It’s not going to be a building that’s falling down in the neighborhood or anything like that.”
LPJ: “Given the current set up of parents having to drop off multiple kids at two different schools, while this is inconvenient, is it worth the price that is being voted on?”
RD: “This is a renewal, first of all. It’s what people have already been paying, and it would extend another 20 years. Secondly, we have kindergarten, first, and second grade where there’s no testing; in 3-5, that’s where testing starts. To ask kids to switch schools from second to third and then also add state testing on all of them, that is pressure on some kids that I think affects their comfort level; their ability to be in school and do a good job. I think we can eliminate some of the anxiety that kids might have, especially being in the younger grades.
“But let’s also say that a child is in the fourth grade and the teacher can’t get him to do anything and he’s not doing well at all. If we’re all on the same campus, the teacher has the ability to talk with maybe the first grade teacher who had a similar experience. And that teacher knows that all you have to do is call his dad; he will get him lined out and moving. There’s a lot more of that kind of collaboration that can go on as well as more services.
“You have the chance to build more of a community and cohesiveness for the kids and a lot more of a comfort level for them. These are things that together help educate a child and make them feel safe and comfortable before they ever start learning.”
LPJ: “One of the things that was exciting about making the new hubs properly integrated was the idea of rising tides where test numbers and performances would improve. Did we see that?”
RD: “I think we saw a dip at first, but I think we have flattened out or we are coming back up. If we get the kids on one K-5 campus, that allows us to provide more services. Right now, we have two curriculum coaches at each school; one does math and science and the other does English and social studies. If we put them together, we will have four curriculum coaches that would allow each one to specialize. It is going to be more grades for them, but they’ll be able to track what kids are doing all the way from kindergarten to fifth grade.”
LPJ: “Have you considered putting together a community task force of people from diverse backgrounds to champion this plan in the community?”
RD: “Even if this passes, we still will want input from schools, teachers, community members. We went around to every school and met with every principal and the faculties before we ever put it to the board and got some input back. Some of it was like, ‘Well, are you going to move our furniture if we’ve got to move?’ Or a custodian would ask, ‘Do I get an extra closet?’ We were asked if we could have a full-sized gym for elementary basketball and actually play games there? I had not really even thought about that, but I’ve written it down.
“The new building will also be built to be much safer. We’ll have access doors to get in and out; we would make car lines that would get off the road as much as possible. It’s something to keep our school system moving forward. It may even save us some money on maintenance costs, because, in theory, a new building would not have as much maintenance needed to be updated.”
LPJ: “What would the timeline be from the vote (currently set for Saturday, April 29)?”
RD: “If the vote passes in April, then we would begin plans for one of the two schools to start construction. And we haven’t decided which one, but it would start in January of next year. Construction of the second school would start nine months to a year later. I think we’re talking three to five years to get everything done.”
