Sparkman Elementary closure recommended after 85 years of classes; board votes next week

Oct. 7—Sparkman Elementary would close after the current school year and end about 85 years of classes at its site if the Morgan County school board votes next week to shut it.

Morgan County Superintendent Robert Elliott Jr. will recommend the board close the school, according to the agenda for the board meeting released Thursday. The board work session begins at 4:30 p.m. next Thursday and the meeting follows at 5 at the central office next to Priceville Junior High.

Discussion on closing the school intensified in August, and Elliott told parents and community members last month the primary reasons for closing the school would be its high per-student operating cost and declining enrollment.

School board Vice Chairman John Holley said on Thursday the school board has been discussing redistricting to increase enrollment at Sparkman, which stands at 103 students this year, but there has been pushback from parents who oppose altering school zones.

"We just couldn't decide on a viable option," Holley said. "For every comment from parents and community members of wanting to add students to a district or to a zone, we had other comments about how they didn't want their zone changed."

Holley said the board wanted to reach a decision on the matter as soon as they could because they did not want to leave the Sparkman community with doubts about their school's future.

"Honestly, I think we owe them a decision instead of dragging it out any longer," Holley said. "I completely understand people's emotions when they don't know what their future looks like, so I think it's just better we go ahead and make a decision."

Elliott told the public last month the district will spend about $2.1 million in total operating costs for the school.

"That's $20,000 per student (at Sparkman)," Elliott said. "As a county, we're averaging $12,000 per student."

According to Morgan schools Chief Financial Officer Brian Bishop, the district would save $448,641 in local funds per year if Sparkman were to close.

Sparkman's 103 students are down from 133 last year and 205 during the 2019-2020 school year.

Sparkman Principal Layne Dillard said she and her staff weren't notified of their school's closure being on the agenda for next week's monthly board meeting and said the timing of the meeting was not appropriate considering the district is on fall break this week.

"I'll send an email out but as far as having the opportunity to say anything to my school or anything, we won't be back until Wednesday," Dillard said. "I would have loved to have known about this before today ... so that everyone knows and they don't have to find out through (the media). I want them to hear it from me."

Dillard said she has not been given ample time to speak with the board about Sparkman for them to reach a conclusion on Thursday.

"The only time I got to speak with the board about this was the four minutes I got at the public hearing (on Sept. 1)," Dillard said.

No public hearing on the school is planned at the school board meeting next week. However, Holley said the public can ask in advance for the opportunity to address the board.

Sparkman Elementary was started as Plainview School in about 1937. Plainview continued to grow, and by the 1940s the school housed first- through ninth-graders.

By the mid-1970s, the school was in disrepair. United States Sen. John Sparkman secured federal funding to construct what is now Sparkman Elementary. The school board razed the old school.

— wesley.tomlinson@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.