Lincoln Elementary closing; community in uproar

ST. ANTHONY - A local school board votes to shut down an elementary school. The board claims it will help save money.

From the meeting today at Lincoln elementary:
"Woah... you didn't finish! You didn't finish!" exclaimed an angry teacher.

"Oh I don't know know where you're gonna, right now, you see I don't have any... You put your hands up like that, I put my hands up like that too... Let me just tell you this, I just work here. There are five people on the board I work for, five great people. I just do what they say. I don't have a lot of say..." retorted Super Intendint Gary Parker.

"But someone.... But somebody needs to answer for not telling the public the truth...." cried out another teacher.

"Give me one example of that," snuffed Parker.

"You didn't build... (UNISON) 'build what you said you were going to build,'" the teachers finished together.

Fremont district has a deficit of 1.8 million dollars. Closing Lincoln elementary in St. Anthony is expected to save about 200,000 dollars, and it's the first cut of many to come. The school will be closed, and the superintendent Gary Parker believes it won't re-open for at least 2 or more years.. Parker and DelRay Davenport, the Principal at Central Elementary claim no employees will be fired.

"The goal of the school board is to keep everybody employed if we can," said Central Principal Delray Davenport.

None of the teachers at this meeting are willing to share their actual frustrations with me on camera for fear of being fired, but the teachers, parents, and the community feel misled.

"There are some in the community that feel like Central was built the size it is to move Lincoln into it, and that's simply not true," Davenport explained.

Whether its true or not, its hard to swallow for a family that just moved in next door to Lincoln.

"Its kind of disturbing actually, my son and daughter just bought a home, their little children are going to be going to school in the next year or so," said Delinda Schwendiman, whose family just moved into a home in sight of Lincoln.

Fremont will keep open its four remaining elementary schools but is still struggling to deal with rest of the million dollar deficit.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Fremont school district
• lincoln elementary
• education cuts
• steven pope

[matasinaloa]

okay