Dear Editor,
I am a longtime Ruston resident, an alumnus of Lincoln Parish public schools (Hillcrest, I. A. Lewis, RJHS, RHS), and a parent of students currently at Glenview and LPECC. I am deeply supportive of our public schools. I believe that we are blessed with a phenomenal public school system with excellent administrators and incredible teachers. It is out of my support for our public schools that I want to offer a public critique of the proposed plan to reconfigure our elementary schools.
First, I strongly support the initiative to re-consolidate the four elementary schools. I agree with the school board that this will provide tremendous benefits by reducing the number of transitions for students, increasing operating efficiency, and maintaining stronger relationships between parents and schools. I am fully in support of this objective.
I do, however, have a few significant concerns with the proposed plan as it currently stands.
My primary concern is with the proposed district lines for elementary schools. The lines are nearly, if not exactly, identical to the lines that were changed in response to a federal lawsuit that was introduced in 1966 and dismissed in 2012. According to public documents from the lawsuit, this led to significant racial segregation, with Ruston Elementary being 92.3% black, Cypress Springs 85% black, while Hillcrest was just 25.5% black. By contrast, the latest data shows Ruston Elementary as 50.6% black, Cypress Springs as 65.6%, Hillcrest as 44.4%, and Glenview as 61.4%, a considerably more representative distribution of our city as a whole. I do not have the latest residential demographic data for these areas, but there has certainly not been enough change in the past decade to warrant returning to the previous district divisions. While the proposed lines presumably maximize transportation efficiency, I do not believe that we should prioritize this at the expense of our current level of racial integration among the four schools.
I also do not support the plan to close LPECC and fold pre-K into the four elementary schools. I have one child at LPECC and another at Glenview, so I admit that it would be much more convenient for me personally to have them at a single school. I understand this motivation. However, Lincoln Parish kindergarten teachers have repeatedly expressed their observations about how well-prepared their students from LPECC are each year. Having seen twice now how well LPECC equips its students, this does not surprise me. LPECC is an incredible public pre-K facility. I believe that folding pre-K into the other elementary schools will undercut the advantage that LPECC currently capitalizes on as a single-site pre-K school.
The motivation from LPSB’s message seems to be (1) reducing the number of transitions for students, (2) increasing operating efficiency, and (3) using the current LPECC building as the home for the new LPSB central offices. These are all valuable goals, but I do not believe that they are ultimately in the best interest of our central concern, which is to provide an excellent education for Lincoln Parish students. LPECC is a tremendous asset toward this goal.
I also have concerns regarding the proposed timeline. The announcement effectively proposes an eight-month timeframe to put these massive changes into effect. I worry that such a short timeframe would cause noticeable disruptions for students, teachers, and administrators. The changes will be somewhat disruptive regardless, but such a compact timeframe is only likely to exaggerate this. I believe the school board should do everything in its power to reduce the level of disruption in this process and would suggest pushing the targeted deadline back by at least one academic year.
I want to reiterate my deep support for our public school system and even of the specific aim to re-consolidate our elementary schools. I believe that the proposed plan needs tweaking, not trashing. I hope that other parents and residents will express their concerns to the school board so that we can continue to make the Lincoln Parish public school system the best it can be.
Matt Robertson
Parent of Lincoln Parish school children
