Bladen Co. School Board postpones public hearing on consolidation

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Monday night the Bladen County Board of Education decided to postpone the public hearings that would move forward the process of consolidation. Last month the school board voted to begin to take steps to close three of its schools, to save money.

At Monday night’s meeting parents spoke out against closing Booker T. Washington Primary, Plain View Primary and Clarkton School of Discovery.

Superintendent Robert Taylor told WWAY last month closing these schools and moving the students to other schools will save them $2 to $3 million.

But parents are pleading for another solution. Some big concerns parents have are kids having to travel farther to get school, bigger class sizes, and having to make that transition into a different place.

Sabrina Murchison has a child who goes to Booker T. Washington Primary and a child that attends Clarkton School of Discovery. Murchison says she is concerned about safety. She says the closest police station is 30 miles away from the school her child might attend.

“For local law enforcement it’ll take them 30 minutes to get to my child in case there’s a school shooting, in case there’s something that happens,” said Murchison. “We want to make sure that our kids are safe but we are putting them in an environment where they are not safe.”

Murchison said she suggests consolidating in the central office, making some cuts to salaries in the administration.

Also at Monday night’s meeting Clarkton School of Discovery and Booker T. Washington Primary School received this month’s Superintendent Attendance award.

The school board will look at the consolidation plan again next month.