Letter to the Editor
It was a sad day for me when I read the Review’s December 11 headlines and article that read: “Two new elementary schools on way?” I was devastated to notice that in the plan my beloved DeKalb Middle School was to be eliminated. What a disaster!
I went to elementary school in Smithville in the 1950’s to a grade 1-8 school. There were several community schools in the county, all for grades 1-8. The school board was in the process of eliminating these community schools as inefficient and not educationally sound with one or two teachers handling all grades. It was twenty years later that all these schools changed or were eliminated with the building of DeKalb Middle School. It took that long for our county to get in line with the leading school systems in the state and agree that it was not the student’s advantage for early grade students to attend school with upper grade school students. Moreover, the middle school concept help transition students better to the high school level.
Why do we want to go backwards to an archaic education system? No leading school systems around are building pre-K through 8 schools. Even Smith County, who far the longest held on to community schools concept, recently built a new middle school to serve Carthage.
I realize DeKalb West School is a success story for K-8 schools. But that is a unique situation. West is a regional school for the western part of DeKalb county that has a family atmosphere. That would not be the case for three similar schools in Smithville. We would be dividing the loyalties of families in one small town and create divisions instead of cooperation. Besides the problems associated with zoning for three schools would present almost impossible challenges to meet and be fair.
As a former coach in our county, I think eliminating middle school sports teams would be devastating to DeKalb County High School athletics. Looking at this year’s DMS boys’ basketball team as an example, the Saints have a good team that is barely competitive with surrounding schools. Divide their team into three schools and no coach could produce a competitive team. And that doesn’t address the problem of competing in baseball, softball, soccer, and other team sports. It is my opinion that DCHS sports teams would suffer tremendously!
I realize that I am biased citizen of DeKalb County. I was on the original DeKalb Middle School faculty and was the original coach of the boys’ basketball and football teams. I think Middle School has been a huge success. I hate to see our school system travel back fifty years to an archaic division of schools.
The major reason I have been told for the proposed building plans is to save money. I’m not informed enough to argue that point, but adding an extra school system is going to add tremendously to the staffing and operation of an extra school. Such a building plan now would probably eliminate the building of a new high school for years to come. DeKalb County needs a new high school as the flagship school of our county! The facility we have now is inefficient and dated and the football complex is an embarrassment for a modern-day campus.
The Board of Education hired a Director of Schools that is trained to be a leader on the operation of schools. Why not use the plan proposed by our education professionals and leaders and support their plan based on education needs and solutions instead of always trying to find the cheapest way out. Put the children ahead of the money!
Coach Mike Braswell
Smithville, TN 37166
