Last night I attended a meeting at the J.T. Barber Elementary School. The Craven County Board of Education requested a special meeting at the school to discuss future plans for the school. The meeting illustrated the need for community schools. The meeting was well-attended and the people of the community made it clear that they wanted their school to remain open. The members of the Board also noted that the school needed an academic plan moving forward that would allow the school to progress. The Board voted unanimously to keep the school open.

I am glad the school will remain open–it is needed by the people in the community. However, the school enrollment in Craven County is dropping, and at some point, possibly in the near future, we are going to have to look at the demographics and the locations of our schools and consider school closings. The situation is difficult because of the geographical layout of the County–Craven County is a large county with two rivers separating various areas of the County. Both of these facts need to be considered. I don’t want to insult North Carolina drivers, but you occasionally have snow or sleet in New Bern, and I wouldn’t want my children driving across one of the bridges in inclement weather.

A friend who was also at the meeting mentioned to me that the community spirit at that meeting would also be present at any meeting regarding a school closing in Craven County. That is probably true.

The School Board will have some difficult decisions to make in the future. I hope the County will support them in their decisions, and I hope that the Board will listen to the parents of the children in the County as they make those decisions.