NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. – An elementary school in New Smyrna Beach will remain open after the district considered closing it as part of attendance zone changes.
Parents and teachers fought to keep Read-Pattillo Elementary School, which has been around for decades, open.
The matter was discussed Tuesday night by the school board and, ultimately, the board decided against closing the school.
The school’s PTA president, Danielle Sandhagen, said in a Facebook post she’s thankful the school will remain open and continue to “serve our students and community for many years to come.”
Thank you all for your incredible support over the past 5 days! We are thrilled to announce that Read-Pattillo Elementary will stay open. This wouldn’t have been possible without all of your hard work and dedication to our students and our community.
I am cautiously optimistic that the district will step up and do the right thing and repair or rebuild Read-Pattillo Elementary! I truly believe this happened for a reason and that in the end we came out stronger. We showed the district that we will no longer be quiet!
I am humbled and grateful for each and every one of you who signed the petition (over 1,700 signatures), sent emails, made phone calls, and showed up to support us in person. Your voices were heard, and we are so grateful for your help in keeping our school open.
I know Read-Pattillo looks forward to continuing to serve our students and community for many years to come.
Thank you to all the teachers, staff and Read-Pattillo P.T.A. board members! You guys are all amazing and I’m so lucky to call you not only my friends, but my family!
Huge thank you to Jessie Thompson for the support and standing up for what’s right! Our journey has only just begun, but I’m confident we will be able to come up with a plan that is beneficial for all stakeholders.
And shout out to Erin J. Peterson for attending the school board meeting with me and staying out way past our bedtimes last night!
And huge thank you Kaytie Milliken for helping me with some great factual talking points for my speech!
Thank you again for your support, and let's keep the momentum going! #ReadPattilloStrong #ThankYou #CommunitySupport
Parents told News 6 before the meeting they felt blindsided because they weren’t given a heads up. They even created a petition that had over 1,400 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.
Other schools in the county had been in the school board’s discussions for rezoning for the past few months, but the potential closure of Read-Pattillo Elementary was something even board member Jessie Thompson called shocking.
“The interesting thing is that when the agenda went out last Tuesday, it did have that (rezoning) slide on it, but then you saw the closure to Read-Pattillo, which I believe was news to all of us,” Thompson said.
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Thompson said the proposed closure of the school coming via the board’s agenda just a week before the board was set to discuss it did not give parents or school staff a fighting chance.
The agenda item listed seven safety concerns as reasons to close.
“It’s one thing to jump from repairs, safety and security, which was the initial talk, to closure. That’s a big jump,” Thompson said.
Parents told News 6 they learned about it from social media and hadn’t heard anything from the district.
“Parents deserve the right, and our school district needs to be transparent. How it came out, I’ve lost sleep over it,” said Christi Franz, who attended Read-Pattillo herself and now has children at the school and family members teaching there.
She was among the parents who said the school, built in 1958, has been in need of repairs but they feel went ignored.
“The maintenance repair requests were little, but now because of the lack of maintenance, now they’re big,” Franz said.
Sandhagen, the school’s PTA president, pointed to a capital projects list approved by the school board in 2014 that listed eight schools in need of repair.
“Every single school listed on this list has either gone through a major renovation or a complete rebuild, except for Read-Pattillo Elementary,” she said.
The presentation that discusses the closure attached to the agenda item states the projected 357 students who would go to Read-Pattillo in the 2024-2025 school year would go to either Chisolm or Edgewater Elementary. Both of those schools already have over 500 students.
“We’re seeing massive growth in Edgewater and Oak Hill that’s going to shift a lot of families north. So, we’re going to need a school to absorb all of that growth, too, and I believe Read-Pattillo is going to prove to be the answer to that,” Thompson said.
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