Guest column by Sumter school board member Phil Leventis: Current Sumter School District realignment, rezoning, plan is deeply flawed, outrageous
Mr. (Carlton) Washington stated in his column last week in The Sumter Item that each postponement in Sumter School District realignment, or rezoning attendance lines, requires an explanation.
Here is a simple explanation. The plan to reassign students to attend different schools from the ones that they are currently attending is deeply flawed. The plan developed in 2022 is based on the ridiculous assumption that the best thing we can do for education in Sumter County is to require possibly 1,000 or more families to go to different schools from where they go now at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. All this to achieve the goal of equally low usage of the schools we presently operate!
Sumter School District has 26,000 seats available for students if we had them and the teachers it would require. With a present enrollment of approximately 12,500, this silly so-called realignment plan would ensure that all the schools have less than 50% of the students they could potentially serve. Would you agree with me that that's outrageous?
Nowhere I have been able to find in any education literature, studies or practice in schools is there anyone who says that equally low usage of buildings by students among whatever facilities a school district owns will improve educational outcomes! So why is this realignment plan so critical? Some small changes are necessary. Why is Mr. Washington pushing a plan that would require 30% of high school students to change schools?
So, Mr. Washington, there is your explanation. The basic premise under which this realignment plan was developed was misguided and wrong. And with the leadership since I have been on the board, there has never been a reckoning of why we wouldn't develop a master plan before realignment; a true realignment that recognizes individual issues is still needed.
Don't forget, school choice is in effect in Sumter School District. Those parents who can transport their children to a more convenient school can make that request to the district if there is space available.
I cannot and do not speak for the board. I can and feel compelled to relate what I know which is reflected in my comments.
Any member of the public can speak to public policy matters as vocally as they would like.
I have to point out, however, how inappropriate it is for a member of Sumter County Council who oversees the school district's budget to weigh in on a Sumter school board matter while publicly promoting individual candidates for the school board elections this November.
I would ask Mr. Washington to recuse himself from any further consideration when school district matters are the subject of Sumter County Council business.
Phil Leventis is a member of Sumter School District's Board of Trustees.