Perry Co. Schools to Close Elementary Schools
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From the West Alabama Newsroom– Officials at Perry County Schools plan to shut down both of the elementary schools in the district at the end of the school year because of budget cuts.
School officials say the district simply can’t afford the cost of operating four separate schools any longer.
They say Uniontown and Albert Turner elementary schools will be closed at the end of the school year and both RC Hatch and Francis Marion high schools will serve students from Pre-K through 12th grade next school year.
They say a steady decline in revenue and student enrollment over the last few years made the closures necessary.
Fransia Foster is the chairwoman of the Perry County Board of Education.
“Because of what’s going on in Montgomery with our new legislators they’re cutting funding even more for public schools.” said Foster.
“Here in perry County we don’t get enough money for transportation to transport our kids for the full year so we don’t have enough funding to transport our children. We don’t get enough funding for books. How can we survive? So, we had to come up with something.”
The consolidation is expected to save the school district about $425,000 dollars a year.
