GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro community members are pushing to keep Kiser Middle School open after a report earlier this year recommended closing the school down. A Guilford County Schools board member emphasized that a decision about the school's future will not made until around January 2020.
Calling it a "Neighborhood Nine Rally," the Kiser Middle School PTA is organizing students, parents, and community members to attend the October 10 Guilford County Schools board meeting to advocate for keeping Kiser Middle School open. Twenty-six people have RSVP'd on Facebook as of Sunday.
Community concern stems from a January 2019 report by MGT Consulting Group presented to Guilford County Schools. In the 127-page report, consultants recommended "repurposing," or closing down, 10 schools in Guilford County, including Kiser Middle School.
Should Kiser be closed down, the district would re-draw school zoning boundaries and students would be assigned to other middle schools in Guilford County.
It is ultimately up to the Guilford County Schools Board of Education, however, to decide what to do with the report's information.
Among Guilford County's 23 public middle schools graded on building and site conditions, Kiser Middle School ranked last last with an average score of 42 out of 100.
'Renovate and upgrade'
"I just think it makes so much sense to upgrade Kiser and keep it going. Because Kiser is doing extremely well," said Ned McMillan, Co-president of the Kiser Alumni Association who attended in 1957.
McMillan is helping spearhead the Oct. 10 rally to push for Kiser to remain open.
"Not just keeping Kiser open and saving Kiser, but to renovate it, upgrade it, for the students that deserve that," said McMillan. "The academic renaissance that's going on at Kiser is just extraordinary. This past school, 2018-2019, Kiser's students and staff exceeded expected growth on the EOGs."
WFMY spoke with a Guilford County Schools spokesperson this week, who said the Guilford County Schools Board of Education has not made any decision about Kiser Middle School, and the board still needs to discuss the report further and plans to do what's best for the students.
One family's success story at Kiser
Henry Cook is now a student at Grimsley High School, but he attended Kiser Middle School last academic year.
"Keep the school open," said Cook. "Open and renovations. I don't see any reason why you'd want to close the school. If you already have something good going on there, I don't think you should close it."
Henry's father, Sam, also agrees that the school should be kept open and renovated.
"The tremendous academic progress and growth that Kiser has made in the last five years, it just didn't seem to make much sense to me as a parent with children in the system at these schools (to recommend closing Kiser down)," said Sam Cook.
Besides Henry, Sam has two other children, one who currently attends Kiser, and another who plans to attend in the coming years.
"I'm well aware of many of the families moving into the neighborhood because of the good schools like Kiser," said Sam Cook, whose family lives less than a mile from Kiser Middle School.
Closing Kiser down "would hurt property values, I think it would hurt businesses in the area, we have a number of restaurants, pubs, and a little grocery store," said Sam Cook.
He also said that Kiser Middle School's proximity to Grimsley High School allows for the schools to share a relationship that helps ease students' transition.
"There is a much more effective transition going from middle school to high school and I've seen that with my son this year and starting at Grimsley, and it's pretty much been as easy as you could expect or want," said Sam Cook.
School Board Member: 'We have not made any decision'
WFMY spoke with Pat Tillman, Guilford County Schools Board of Education District 3 Rep., on Sunday about the board's current status regarding the future of schools after January's report.
Tillman stressed that no decisions have been made about Kiser, or any other schools, after January's report was released. Tillman said he expects the board to make a decision about Kiser and other schools in Guilford County by around January 2020.
"We may end up in a situation where we may or may not have to close a school, but none of that's been determined, whether its Kiser, or any of those for that matter," said Tillman.
Tillman emphasized that while the consultant's report recommends closing 10 schools including Kiser Middle, the school board ultimately makes those decisions in partnership with county commissioners and with community input.
"Certainly advocacy is something that we need, that input from the community," said Tillman. "But I would caution folks that we have not made any decision to close Kiser or another other school, those decisions have not been made, and we really don't want to close the school if we can help it."
Tillman said the costs to renovate Kiser Middle School would be steep.
"The technology part of it, and the labs that we have, those are all great. Obviously it's a wonderful community, it's a great school. But it's just that building, to go in and fix what needs to be done, would cost almost as much or more to build a new school," said Tillman.