Concerned Citizens Meet to Discuss Taking Back MPS Schools
People who oppose the takeover of Montgomery Public Schools by the state are plotting strategy.
They want to prevent the State Board of Education from going any further after Interim Superintendent Ed Richardson’s demands.
“This meeting here is to here to galvanize and let the people of Montgomery, Alabama know that the state superintendent of education is not helping the Montgomery public schools,” says Joe Reed, Head of the Alabama Democratic Conference.
They say, Richardson does not have the right to the sell Georgia Washington Middle School. The deal calls for Pike Road buying the school for almost $10 million and repaying $1.5 million of MPS money the state gave to Pike Road by mistake.
“We don’t feel that Georgia Washington needs to be given to Pike Road. It appears that all they want -one of the things that they want is to annex the properties to Pike Road and to force the parents in the area to annex their properties to pike road in order for their kids to go to school,” says Alma Bowen.
The Alabama Education Association also opposes the sale of the school. It filed a lawsuit on Friday.
“You would have to live in the town of Pike Road in order to go to their school. That’s unfair. Where would our children go to school?” says Bowen.
The MPS Board Chairman Robert Porterfield attended the meeting agreeing with the opponents.
“It’s now time to organize for action to prevent that and it would be up to the community to make the an appeal to that. They are the stake holders that are certainly invested in the property so certainly I hope that he will listen to the people that live in those areas,” says Porterfield.
“The Montgomery County Board is an elected board. This is a deprivation of the denial of the voting rights act.
There is a hearing about the lawsuit on Monday February 26th.
