Announcement from The Office of the Superintendent
Thursday, June 9, 2016
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The Shelby County School Board voted to close Carver High School during a special meeting Thursday.
Carver High School supporters packed the School Board meeting on Thursday, hoping for their school to remain open.
During the public comment period, the Alumni Association asked the board to consider a one year reprieve, similar to Northside.
The board voted several weeks ago, to close Northside in 2017, after the end of next school year.
Shante Avant, who represents Carver in her district, put forward a motion to delay the closing for a year, but that motion failed.
Superintendent Dorsey Hopson thanked everyone for their support, but said the board can't be guided by emotions. He said Carver is faced with declining enrollment and poor performance.
He said they have to think about what's best for the students.
Five board members voted in favor of closing Carver.
Pastor Ralph White has led the effort to keep Carver open. He has advocated for adjusting district lines and promoting the school. He has also told WREG about the possibility of adding optional programs.
He told WREG he is talking with lawyers about possible next steps to stop the closure. He is holding a meeting at Bloomfield Full Gospel Baptist Church Monday at 6 p.m.
Before the meeting concluded, Board Member Scott McCormick brought forward a motion to reconsider the delayed Northside closure. McCormick explained that many teachers are choosing to leave the school, given the impending closure. He believes it might make more sense to close the school this summer.
"There were some unforeseen consequences of delaying it a year, and then closing it, and you know, it's inevitable that the school's going to close," McCormick told WREG.
That decision will be reviewed at another board meeting.
After 59-year run in South Memphis, Carver High School is officially closed
Thursday, June 9, 2016
George Washington Carver High School, an anchor of the Riverview neighborhood of South Memphis since the late 1950s, is the latest casualty of closings aimed at shuttering low-performing and under-enrolled schools within Shelby County Schools.
The school board on Thursday voted 5-3 with one abstention to shut down the 198-student school that has almost 1,000 empty seats. The vote came almost two weeks after Carver’s last bell rang with the end of the school year.
Students will be rezoned to nearby Hamilton High, which is under the district’s Innovation Zone turnaround model.
“This is obviously one of the most emotional decisions the school board has to make,” Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said before the vote. “But I ask the board not be guided by emotion but what is best for kids.”
While Carver supporters had asked for another year to make improvements, Hopson urged the board to stick with his recommendation. “Under these conditions, I cannot in good conscience delay closure even for a year,” he said.
Carver was one of 15 remaining schools without a turnaround plan on Tennessee’s original list of 69 Memphis priority schools, issued in 2012 to identify the state’s 5 percent of lowest-performing schools. Most have since been shuttered or moved to one of two turnaround models, the state-run Achievement School District and the iZone operated by Shelby County Schools.
But supporters have argued that the school’s decline was caused by a lack of investment by the district. After the vote, one community leader said that supporters are exploring legal action.
“We’re going to take it to court. We’ll take this as far as we can,” said Ralph White, an alumnus and pastor who has led the charge. “It’s all by their design and we want to expose that.”
Carver becomes the only district-run K-12 school among six Memphis schools shuttered this year. The school board voted earlier this spring to revoke the charters of four charter schools, as well to close Messick Adult Center. The closure of Northside High School, also approved this spring, is to take effect after next school year, but school board members indicated Thursday they will revisit that issue.
Carver had been on the chopping block two other times since 2012, but the school had consistently managed to rally. Even this year, a community plan crafted in an attempt to resuscitate the school prompted board members to delay the vote twice as officials reviewed the suggestions. But Hopson told the school board at a May 24 work session that the plan was not adequate.
“I think that the proposal, while well thought out, is flawed for several reasons,” Hopson said. “At the end of the day, I don’t see any viable path to change my recommendation.”
Last year, 400 students zoned for Carver found other school options, which Hopson said suggests that expanding the zone will not increase enrollment. And because of low enrollment, the school has one of the highest per-student spending in the district.
“Carver is one of our most expensive schools to run,” Hopson said. “Carver simply is not serving kids well because there are not enough kids at Carver.”
With the closure of Carver, 21 Memphis schools operated by the local district have been shuttered since 2012. South Memphis has been particularly hard hit, sustaining nearly half of the closures.
As a low-performing and under-utilized school, Carver was ripe for closure as the cash-strapped district struggled to deal with an $86 million budget shortfall for 2016-17. According to the most recent state data, the school ranked fourth from the bottom in test scores from across Tennessee. Its capacity was more than than triple its student population, and the building was listed with $3.5 million in deferred maintenance needs.
Board members Shante Avant, Teresa Jones and Miska Clay Bibbs voted against the closure, with Stephanie Love abstaining. Avant, whose district includes Carver, acknowledged the reasoning behind Hopson’s recommendation, but said “I also understand the emotional connection people have in this community.”
District administrators estimated that closing Northside and Carver would save the district $1.7 million, but the delay of Northside’s closure has negated part of that savings.
Even so, 18 out of Northside’s 20 teachers have left the school already, leaving the district scrambling to recruit teachers for the short-term assignment. Half of Carver’s teachers also had requested a transfer pending the school’s closure, Hopson said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include that the school board plans to revisit the planned 2017 closure of Northside High School.
MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) -
Shelby County Schools voted to close Carver High School during a meeting held Thursday. District administrators opted to close the school based on its academic standing and severe under-enrollment.
There have been numerous efforts to stop the closure, but Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said he doesn’t see a viable path to keep the campus open.
People who fought to keep Carver High School open are not giving up.
"We don't feel that they're fair in what they're doing," said Rev. Ralph White, New Bloomfield Baptist Church & Carver Alumni Association.
More than 100 Carver High School supporters were at the meeting wearing shirts and carrying signs. They presented a petition with 2,500 signatures asking to keep the school open.
"We've got a lot of things on the table. We made a proposal to them. And I guess they looked at it and said, 'No, we've got our minds made,'" Rev. White said.
Rev. White, who has been leading the charge against the closure, asked the board to change district lines and allow them one more year to recruit kids from charter schools in order to get the enrollment numbers up.
After the board voted, Carver High School supporters flooded the hallway and began planning their next move.
"But, we're going to talk to an attorney, get legal advice as to where do we proceed from here," Rev. White said.
Shelby County Schools board member Scott McCormick said he knows how much the closure hurts the community.
"But, we do have to look at the bigger picture and the statistics of the school, the declining enrollment, the performance of the school, and in the interest of the students, it was better to move them to a higher performing school," he said.
Rev. White doesn't think that is what will actually happen.
"They're going to send them into gang-infested schools like Hamilton. Look at the distance. All those things are to be taken into consideration," he said.
Rev. White is not ready to give up hope. And neither are the Carver High School supporters behind him.
"No, I'm not. And I'm going down with this ship," said Linda Bachus. "I'm here until the end."
Rev. White announced a community meeting for Carver High School supporters will be held Monday night at Bloomfield Baptist Church at 6 p.m.
In a surprising twist, SCS board member McCormick announced his plan at the next meeting to ask the board to change its mind on delaying the closure of Northside High School for one year and instead, to close it immediately.
Despite supporters holding signs at the SCS meeting, it was decided that Carver HS will close.
MEMPHIS, TN - Supporters of Carver High School may file a lawsuit to try and keep the high school open.
Last week, the Shelby County School Board voted to close Carver to save the district money.
The SCS school district still has a $25 million shortfall in the budget.
Pastor Ralph White, who graduated from Carver High School, said Carver supporters discussed what they could do.
Taking it to the courts is something they are looking at as a way to save their beloved high school.
"I said to people last night 'have you heard a fat lady singing?" If you haven't heard the fat lady singing it's not over," White said.
Pastor Ralph White said even though the Shelby County School Board voted to close Carver High School, the fight is not over.
"We are looking at legal representation to take us to the next level," White said.
White said the decision to close Carver High was not a fair one.
"You have other schools who meet the same criteria other schools that are funded they decided not to close those schools we feel it's discriminating and we are going to contest it,” White said.
"I couldn't vote to close it but I couldn't vote to keep it open," school board member Stephanie Love said.
Shelby County school board member Stephanie Love abstained from voting on whether or not to close Carver High School.
She said it was a difficult decision for board members to make.
“I understand what closing a school down in a community…what it does to a community and I saw the passion. But as a board member I also understood exactly what the superintendent was saying with the low enrollment with the low academic gain,” Love said.
Love said as a board member she could not comment about supporters looking into legal action.
A statement from the Shelby County Schools said the focus will remain on students impacted by this closure and ensuring they are supported during their transition to other SCS schools.
Supporters of Carver High School walk out of the school board meeting after hearing the announcement that Carver will be closed.
Supporters rally at the SCS board meeting in favor of keeping Carver H.S. open. The board passed the superintendent's recommendation to close the school.
Supporters in favor of keeping Carver H.S. open exit Thursday's board meeting after passage of the superintendent's recommendation to close the school.
Rev. Ralph White addresses supporters of Carver H.S. after the SCS board voted to close the school.
Rev. Ralph White
Supporters rally at the SCS board meeting in favor of keeping Carver H.S. open. The board passed the superintendent's recommendation to close the school.
This year's graduates of George Washington Carver High School in South Memphis will be its last after the Shelby County School Board of Education voted Thursday afternoon to close the severely under-enrolled school.
The board voted 5-3 to close the school, putting an end to a years long battle between the district and the community regarding the future of the school. Board members Shante Avant, Miska Clay-Bibbs and Teresa Jones voted against the closure. Board member Stephanie Love declined to vote.
But school closure discussions may not be done for the year. After the Carver vote, board member Scott McCormick said he will ask colleagues to revisit the decision to close Northside High at the end of the 2016-17 school year. A discussion and possible vote would likely require a special meeting, but could result in the board deciding to close Northside immediately rather than waiting a year.
Superintendent Dorsey Hopson implored the board to approve Carver's closing.
'I ask the board not to be guided by emotion but to be guided by what's best for kids,' he said.
A crowd of about 50 people walked out of the meeting just after the vote, some of them with tears in their eyes, many sporting shirts reflecting the year they graduated Carver.
'I think it's really going to do more damage, taking away our high school,' 1968 Carver graduate Lillie Wilborn said.
She was hopeful something could be done to reverse the decision.
'It's a foundation, and that's something you need to keep no matter what,' she said.
Rev. Ralph White, a leader of the community at the forefront of keeping Carver open, said he believes the fight is not over.
White said he is exploring legal options, but declined to say on what grounds.
'We don't want to say that and put it out because we want to talk to an attorney,' White said.
The school district threatened to close Carver — a South Memphis landmark that opened in 1957 — several times, particularly in the last five years. White said the uncertainty has pushed students away from the school, contributing to the low enrollment.
Hopson planned to wait until next year to close schools as part of a long-term facilities plan. But a severe budget shortfall pushed up the timeline. The board already voted to close the Memphis Health Careers Academy this year. Four charters were also revoked, decisions the Tennessee State Board of Education upheld last month.
The SCS board delayed a vote on Carver several times this spring, including last week, when Hopson expressed desire to hold one more meeting with the community and to review a revised plan alumni had proposed for keeping the school open.
Hopson has maintained that with fewer than 200 students, the school is not serving them well and is one of the most expensive schools in the district to operate. After reviewing the community's first plan, Hopson said he didn't see a viable path to keeping the school open.
On last year's state tests, just one in five students tested proficient or advanced in algebra 1. In English 1, just one in four students met that same bar. Across the state, 99.7 percent of schools are performing better than Carver, according to state data.
'It's not about our memories, it's about their future,' board member Mike Kernell said.
Closing the school is estimated to save the district $900,000. Students will be rezoned to Hamilton High.
Carver High School Closes Permanently
Friday, June 10, 2016
Shelby County Schools board members voted Thursday, June 9, to close Carver High School effective the school year that ended last month.
Meeting in special session Thursday, the board acted on the final item on a list of closings and changes that included closing three charter schools as well as creating a Whitehaven Empowerment Zone linking five elementary and middle schools to Whitehaven High School in a more coordinated curriculum and structure for running all of the schools together.
The charter schools closed appealed the school board decision to state officials who upheld the decision.
The vote on Carver was delayed to give school system officials time to review a plan by residents in the community around the school to keep the school open.
After reviewing the options, SCS superintendent Dorsey Hopson said with around 200 students, there just aren’t enough students to warrant keeping the school open.
Hopson pointed to achievement test scores as well as the low enrollment that makes it more difficult to offer the variety of courses needed for a high school.
The Carver students who did not graduate in May will be zoned to attend Hamilton High School in the new school year that begins in August.
Over the last 30 years, Carver’s closing has been proposed under both the Memphis City Schools system and the Shelby County Schools system.
School board members voted last month to close Northside High School for similar reasons. But that closing is effective with the 2017-2018 school year, giving the north Memphis school another school year.
However, SCS board member Scott McCormick said Thursday he may move to reconsider that decision and instead close Northside effective with the last school year.
Hopson told Shelby County Commissioners last month that in the fall he will take another slate of 15-20 proposed school closings for the next three to four school years to the school board.
That is also likely to include some reconfigurations of other schools as well as Hopson’s long-held plans for a special curriculum at East High School.
Carver High ends as it began, in a segregated city
Monday, June 13, 2016
George Washington Carver High School was opened in 1957, a product of a racially segregated society.
Last week, Carver High was closed, a casualty of a racially and economically resegregated society.
It's nobody's fault. Nobody in particular. It's just the way things were and the way things are.
"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom," the scientist George Washington Carver once said, We're still looking for the right set of keys.
It shouldn't be this hard to find them. Numerous studies have shown that integration works.
That minority adults who attended desegregated schools were more likely to go to college, less likely to be poor or go to jail.
That schools with disproportionate numbers of poor minority children are less likely to have experienced teachers, advanced courses and adequate resources.
We don't need studies to prove it. We can just look around.
The city's best performing high school, White Station, is also its most integrated.
Carver ended its life as the city's worst performing high school, and its most racially and economically segregated. Did it ever really have a chance?
The Memphis Board of Education opened Carver High as a segregated school for black students in 1957.
That was three years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared separate schools for black children were inherently unequal, even if they had equal resources.
"In the years after Brown, absolutely nothing was done here to integrate our schools," the late Maxine Smith told my friend and fellow journalist John Branston in a 2011 Memphis magazine article.
"They started building all-black schools like Carver and Lester near white neighborhoods just to keep (black kids) out of schools like South Side and East. It was shameful."
Carver opened without a cafeteria. Parents brought hot meals and brown-bag lunches. Teachers took turns running a snack bar. The students and the school got bigger and stronger.
Frances Hooks, the wife of Rev. Dr. Benjamin Hooks, became the school's first guidance counselor in 1959. By the time the first senior class of Carver Cobras graduated in 1961, the school had 2,200 students.
After decades of forced racial segregation, court-ordered desegregation of schools finally came to Memphis in the early 1970s.
That was followed by decades of human-ordered re-segregation.
Carver worked hard to adjust. Additions were added in 1958, 1960, 1962, 1971 and 1976.
Finally, after 40 years of life, the old school was sagging and struggling to move into the high-speed new century.
"This building was never built for the 21st Century. It doesn't have the technology we need for education," Carver principal Jerry L. Marlin told the newspaper in 1997.
That year, the school board approved a $10 million renovation/replacement project for the school. It included a new, state-of-the-art academic building with fiber optics and a research library.
"We picked the best designs from all over the country," Marlin said. "We're going to have a safe and efficient plant in which to educate children."
As Carver's hopes soared, the Riverside neighborhood around it began to nose-dive. Middle-class people moved out. Gangs moved in.
In the past two decades, Riverside's population has dropped from 6,500 to 3,900. There are 300 fewer housing units and twice as many vacant ones. Nearly half of all families in Riverside now live below the federal poverty line.
Court-ordered desegregation didn't work. Now we're trying a court-ordered "safety zone".
That's a court injunction that prohibits gang members from "standing, sitting, walking, driving, gathering, or appearing anywhere in public view or anyplace accessible to the public" with each other.
There are two exceptions: Inside a place of worship or inside a school.
This past school year, Carver's enrollment dropped below 200. Its student body was 99 percent black and 92 percent poor.
Last week, the Shelby County Board of Education approved the superintendent's recommendation to close Carver High, citing the school's low enrollment and poor academic performance.
Starting in August, Carver's students will be sent to Hamilton High — which is 98 percent black and 92 percent poor.
Today, in Memphis and across the country, as The New York Times noted last week, black children are more segregated than they have been at any point in the past half century.
It's nobody's fault. Nobody in particular. It's just the way things are.
And it's still a shame.
