LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Just minutes after procession of yellow buses full of boisterous children left Watson Lane Elementary School on Tuesday, a group of parents, teachers and children stayed behind for a brainstorming session in the southwest Louisville school's cafeteria.
Using sticky notes, easel pads and dry erase markers, they helped JCPS on a big endeavor by writing out the pros and cons of an ambitious plan to modernize schools across the district.
The district wants to modernize schools like Watson Lane, and to do so, it's considering a plan that would relocate some schools, construct a new middle school and combine six elementary schools into three: two near West Broadway would combine; two in Newburg; and most important to the parents and teachers who gathered Tuesday night — two in South Dixie.
As part of the plan, Watson Lane would close and move about five miles north to Wilkerson Elementary, where a brand new school would be built.
"It will affect us pretty dramatically, because we're going to at least have an additional 30 minutes in the morning and probably 45 minutes to an hour in the afternoon," said Stacy White, a Watson Lane parent.
White said she needs more questions answered. As a result, both she and another parent, Sonya Barnes, aren't yet on board.
"My kids will have to get on the bus," said Barnes, who lives just blocks from the current school. "If the kids get sick, or say something happens, and we need to walk home or we need to walk up here. It's nice to have us close to home."
Both Barnes and White are already displeased with the fate of another nearby school that was closed by the district and sold to LG&E: Frost Middle School. That school, shrouded by fences topped by barbed wire, is still standing near a neighborhood full of homes.
"They've already closed Frost, and that became a home for the homeless [and] the drug users," White said. "It's a vandalized area."
JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio, whose team has now visited nine of the schools affected by these possible changes, expects the questions and some uneasiness.
"It's a big change, and so people obviously are concerned about big change," he said.
However, he said renovating the old schools isn't cost-effective, and every penny is precious in a district that has a big need.
"It's well-documented," he said. "We have $1 billion in facility needs."
Still, White and Barnes said their kids are thriving, even though their school was built in 1956.
"My favorite thing is the teachers, because my teacher is super nice," said Barnes' son, Cruz, a second grader at Watson Lane.
Louisville Metro Councilwoman Cindi Fowler, who attended both public input sessions Tuesday night, said she would like to see JCPS keep a playground and community space on the Watson Lane site, instead of abandoning that neighborhood entirely.
"We just don't want to see it end up just an open field or a derelict building," she said. "Not everybody's going to be happy, and not everybody's going to come out on top. We just have to work to get the best solution for both campuses."
Of course, nothing has been approved at this point, and Pollio said the new schools likely wouldn't be in operation until the 2021-22 school year.
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