School District Meeting Doesn’t Pacify Oak Hill Parents
By Rachel Kyler, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach
Feb. 2–Parents and faculty of Eglin Air Force Base-affected schools feel their concerns are not being heard.
More than 100 parents and faculty from those schools met with Okaloosa County School District and base officials Thursday night.
“This meeting, I believe, was to appease the parents, nothing else,” said Oak Hill Elementary School parent Mary Stevens. “I think they think if they can just quiet the parents down and pretend they’re listening, it will go away.”
Parents feel the district did not keep them apprised of the Okaloosa County School Board’s recent decision to realign Oak Hill, Cherokee Elementary School and Lewis Middle School.
School district officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The district has said it made the effort to keep parents informed about the schools’ future.
Expecting more answers, mother Kimberly Pearman was disappointed with the meeting.
“There wasn’t anything answered. It was basically a waste of time,” said the mother of two Oak Hill students. “We can put our little comment in a box and hopefully, it will be heard.”
Even though base numbers have been declining, some parents feel the district is not taking into account future projections.
With an impending base realignment and closure, “They would just have to move (the students) back,” said Oak Hill mother Cynthia West.
Other concerns included merging fifth-graders into Lewis.
“The thought of fifth-grade girls with eighth-grade boys is scary,” said one mother.
The school district will hold meetings concerning the base schools’ realignment next week.
There will be a meeting Monday at 5:30 p.m. in the Cherokee Elementary School cafeteria for parents of K-3 students who currently attend Cherokee.
More meetings will be held 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Cherokee Elementary School cafeteria for parents of Oak Hill K-3 students and 6 p.m. Wednesday at Lewis Middle School for parents who have fourth-graders at Cherokee and Oak Hill.
West plans to attend the meetings but thinks it may be moot.
“Frankly, they told us that the board had made the vote and basically it was a done deal,” she said. “They really should have had this meeting before the board voted.”
Daily News Staff Writer Rachel Kyler
can be reached at 863-1111, Ext. 440.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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