MACON, Ga. — On Tuesday, Bibb County school leaders heard community input on plans to close schools next year.
The district's School Consolidation Steering Committee has begun Phase 3 of its review. The committee already met in September and October, but tonight was the first time they opened their doors to outside input.
Kishara Prince is a Bibb parent looking for her concerns to be heard ahead of these potential changes.
One of the major factors on her mind is school culture, especially for her son with special needs.
"Consolidation, just the word of it sounded scary to me," Prince said. "Knowing that my child requires smaller class sizing, I was concerned it wouldn't be so small anymore. He's thriving for the first time, he just made it to sixth grade and I was concerned about overcrowding."
Deputy Superintendent Dr. Katika Lovett encouraged Prince and nearly 90 other attendees to proceed with an open mind.
"We have a lot of work to do, a lot of work to do in terms of analyzing what they had to say," Lovett said. "But again, their voices are so critical to this process, we wouldn't dare do it alone."
Educators, parents, students, and leaders from other districts joined the conversation, each sharing mixed opinions.
Charles Goolsby is the STEM outreach coordinator at the Warner Robins Airforce Base and works with students K-12 across Central Georgia, including those in Bibb County.
"I'm gonna be out dealing with kids, dealing with the students, dealing with the teachers, dealing with the academic people, kind of understanding what those changes might be, what they might be frustrated with," Goolsby said. "So, when I do have those conversations, I can relate a little bit more and can understand where they're coming from."
Key factors being considered include building age and size, renovation year and costs, per-pupil spending, utilization rate (low rates indicating underuse, high rates indicating overcrowding), planning and zoning, development pipeline, resource allocation, post-COVID impact and enrollment trends.
The district has space for 24,600 students total, but current enrollment seats 21,337 students.
Every district zone can currently seat hundreds more students, ranging from 300 to 1,000 open seats.
Only three schools in the district currently exceed capacity: Howard Middle School, John R. Lewis Elementary and McKibben Lane Elementary.
"Change is hard. Anybody that's hit with change, there's always going to be some type of pushback and it's going to take a lot of conversations and a lot of work to make people at least a little bit comfortable with whatever will be happening," Goolsby said. "It's definitely going to have to be a continued conversation beyond just the initial, 'how you all feel about it?'"
Lovett says they plan to host more town halls as they continue Phase 3 through February of next year.
The district is currently accepting input about school consolidation from community members who were unable to attend Tuesday's meeting via an online survey.
The survey will close on Nov. 22, 2024 at 11:59 pm.