WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Discussions get heated about Hodge Elementary closure

Discussions get heated about Hodge Elementary closure

By Brooke Kelley - bio | email

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - Things got pretty heated at Thursday night's emergency parent meeting at Hodge Elementary School.

As WTOC first told several years ago, the Savannah Chatham School district made the decision to close Hodge Elementary School to expand another school, Beach High.

This decision is not going over well with Hodge parents.

"We need Beach we need Hodge and we need community schools, we don't need any more schools in the in black neighborhoods to be closed," said Lauan Sawyer

There wasn't a seat in the house as parents and people who live in the neighborhood asked school district operations officer Otis Brock one question after another, like why close Hodge and why now, especially just before the students start taking the state CRCT test.

"It seems to me this announcement could have waited a few more weeks after the kids have taken the test," said Betty Berksteiner.

Otis Brock told them why. "We wanted to allow Hodge parents opportunity to participate in specialty school process if Garrison wasn't the choice for parents at Hodge made."

But still the questions continued. "We appreciate Beach as a mega school we would like to see children to stay in our neighborhood." said Carla Bonds.

Instead of walking to school the students will be bused to Garrison Elementary School. "We will provide transportation to Garrison. Students don't need to be walking down MLK or any other road on the pathway to Garrison," said Brock.

Brock told parents Garrison has plenty of room and the teachers have the option to follow their students. "We want to make this a smooth transition as possible. We still want our children to be success, we still want our kids to be successful," said Brock.

But that's still not good enough for some parents.

"What about you guys promising if you were to close Hodge you would utilize the old Derenne building," said Tia Williams.

"There were some things that were done by previous administration and we aren't aware of the commitments made, but the commitment has been made here and it is necessary that we take this step," said Brock.

These parents are hoping the district will take a step back and rethink their decision to keep this school in their neighborhood for many years to come.

Brock told parents tonight he will continue to address their concerns in the coming weeks. If you have questions contact the school district office.