ACLU of Alabama expresses support for parents opposing decision by Pickens County Board of Education to close Carrollton Unit School
April 18, 2006
The Pickens County Board of Education’s recent decision to overturn the prior votes of a majority of its members and forge ahead with plans to close the Carrollton Unit School follows years of neglect of the school and its facilities. Closing the K-12 school in Carrollton will not remedy the continuing racial segregation in the Pickens County School System. Instead, the board’s decision highlights the serious ongoing racial disparities between schools within the system. Having suffered from these disparities for years, Carrollton’s students are now being told that the only solution is to close their school.
Pickens Board members cited a drop in enrollment at Carrollton, a predominantly African-American school, and the cost of repair to dilapidated buildings as bases for closing the school and using funds allocated for Carrollton to expand the school campus in Gordo, whose students are overwhelmingly white. The Board’s plan calls for Carrollton students to be assigned to schools in one of three other towns in the system. Students at Carrollton, the most centrally located school in the county, will now be required to travel up to two hours a day to attend school.
The needs of Carrollton students have long been overlooked. The two main buildings on its campus - one constructed in 1930, the other in 1935 – have had little repair. The board, put on notice several years ago about the deplorable conditions of these structures, took no action. The high school is now infested with beetles. Construction and repair of other buildings on campus have been of low quality compared to schools in the system with higher white enrollment. Other high schools in the county have received new biology labs while Carrollton students have not. The Pickens Board has received Katrina funds specifically for roof damage at Carrollton, although the roof remains covered in blue tarp. Students at Carrollton do not have access to classes available elsewhere in the system as the highly qualified teachers have been transferred to other schools.
The Pickens County Board of Education considered proposals to close some or all grades of Carrollton Unit School at a board meeting on Feb. 20 and voted to keep the school open. But then a specially-called meeting was held on April 3, where the board rescinded its prior action and voted to close the school.
Students at Carrollton Unit School, like all students in Pickens County, have a right to equal educational opportunity and a quality education. The Pickens County Board is obligated to treat all students in the county fairly. The board’s decision to close Carrollton Unit School threatens to impede rather than further any progress toward meeting its constitutional duty of eliminating all vestiges of racial discrimination from its school system.
###