While the Metro School Board appeared before Metro Council’s education committee last night, the NAACP held a meeting at the 15th avenue Baptist church to urge caution on next year’s school budget.
Metro school’s director Pedro Garcia gave the board a budget with nearly 25-million dollars in cuts, which includes cutting schools.
Panelists at the community meeting criticized the proposal to close seven small schools saying it unfairly targets African American children. Bishop George Price says alternatives are needed.
“This is a crisis situation. And we’re going to have to come up with some action steps. The board is already moving in the area that they want to move into. So as a community, we’ve got to come up with some action steps to derail this train because it’s going down the track and it picks up speed as it goes along.”
The panel recommended delaying the budget negotiations for another 60 to 90 days so alternatives could be proposed and urged the school board to look to rezoning clusters rather than closing schools.