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Board members spoke in favor of several alternatives to the plan, including a suggestion by vice chairman Bob Arundell that the district consider closing St. Helena Elementary School. Third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students could be moved to Beaufort Elementary School, which has empty seats, he suggested.
"Such a move provides St. Helena kids at early age with the opportunity to go to a more successful elementary school, and to feed into one of our better middle schools," Arundell said. "It answers (parents') concern about isolationism ... I think that is a viable alternative to ask the superintendent to investigate."
Over the past several weeks, St. Helena residents have vocally opposed the district's plan that would allow students from Lady's Island and Coosa elementary schools to start at Lady's Island Middle School in fifth grade while keeping St. Helena students at their elementary school until seventh grade.
Some residents say the plan isolates St. Helena fifth- and sixth-graders from their peers, and others say it amounts to segregation. St. Helena Elementary School is 90 percent black.
The district's proposal, which would create intermediate centers for fifth- and sixth-graders at Lady's Island Middle School and St. Helena Elementary, is intended to alleviate overcrowding at Coosa Elementary School and fill empty seats at the middle school and St. Helena. Both centers would use a "STEM" curriculum, which focuses on science, technology, engineering and math.
Board member Laura Bush said residents' arguments that St. Helena students must interact with other cultures to learn should logically extend to all grade levels.
"It can't just be the fifth-graders, it's the whole school," she said. "You're telling me you don't need a neighborhood school ... you want them moved."
Bush, who is black, said she is offended by those who have argued St. Helena students will not learn as well at their elementary school as they would at Lady's Island Middle School.
"I will not sit and accept the fact that black children cannot learn because they are together," she said. "No. You put the right people with caring and the right expectation in the schools, and those children will excel."
The St. Helena Early Learning Center would remain open to serve students in pre-kindergarten though second-grade under the plan Arundell proposed. He also suggested the district offer the empty elementary school building to Beaufort County for use as a library or community center.
