Carter County BOE votes to close Little Milligan Elementary
ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (WJHL) – On Thursday, the Carter County Board of Education reconsidered their initial vote to close Little Milligan Elementary, but ultimately decided to still close the school due to budget reasons.
Director of Schools, Dr. Brandon Carpenter said because of the community’s concern, the board wanted to have the full picture before making a final decision.
During the meeting, supporters spoke up on behalf of not closing Little Milligan. However, the board discussed the budget shortfalls of keeping Little Milligan open.
“I think it had 69 students at its highest point this year,” Carpenter said. “So it is, was by far our most expensive per-student school to operate. I think it was operating at nearly three times the cost of our most efficient school.”
Sheriff: Carter Co. man charged with murder after missing man found dead in freezer
Carpenter said in addition to transportation and textbook budget cuts already made, even more would have to be made to keep Little Milligan open.
“We would have to make more cuts this time to safety,” Carpenter said. “And as a result of those prior cuts, our transportation, our bus fleet has depleted. And it’s very important if we wish to continue to transport students in an efficient, safe manner, that we have that money to update that fleet.”
Carpenter said they would need $716,000 to keep Little Milligan open for one more year.
“I think the board just felt that now was the time to make the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars.”
Juli “Blue” Lewis teaches clogging at Little Milligan and was among those speaking on behalf of not closing the school.
“I feel like they just didn’t give us enough time to try to get the funding to keep it open,” Lewis said. “And hopefully there’s a little silver lining there that they can try to find the money other ways and go and revisit the idea to keep it open like they mentioned.”
Little Milligan Principal JR Campbell also spoke during public comment about how useful the school is to the community.
Carpenter said all faculty, staff and paraprofessionals have been preliminarily placed in different Carter County schools.
As for the Little Milligan building, Carpenter said several organizations have contacted him about uses. He said hopefully a community center can be made.
“The emotions that the community has is evident of how much they care about their school and their students,” Carpenter said. “And it made it an extremely hard decision on everyone. But I do think that that community can rally and come together and make an efficient use for that facility and make it very beneficial for the community.”
Lewis said the Little Milligan building won’t have the same school atmosphere, but if it has to close then a community center is a good option.
“So that way the students can keep it alive, whether it’s through clogging or through basketball games, the birthday parties and everything like that,” Lewis said. “The chili cook-off and all that that they’ve had through the years, it’s been fun and I just want to see it to stay open and thriving.”
A letter filed from Horwitz Law firm states that the Carter County School Board did not give the public adequate notice of their intent to close Little Milligan during its April 25 meeting.
PREVIOUS: Public information advocate: Vote to close Little Milligan against the law
Letter-to-Carter-County-Board-of-Education-Ex.-1Download
News Channel 11 reached out to Carter County School’s attorney, Scott Bennett. He disagrees that there was anything wrong with the board’s decision on April 25. He sent us the following response:
“When a Board of Education is reviewing its budget, literally any expense item is on the table. The topic of high cost schools had been discussed earlier at the April 11th workshop, and Little Milligan was mentioned specifically. As you heard this evening, balancing a budget is a complex task, and the law does not require the board to list, in advance of a meeting, every important issue it might consider before doing its job. But even if you believe that the board should have provided clearer notice before it’s April 25 decision, there can be no debate that the board has addressed that concern now. Tonight, it adopted an agenda that specifically included the reconsideration of the Little Milligan closure. The board then heard from the director of schools regarding the cuts to safety, transportation and curriculum that would be necessary to keep Little Milligan open. Board members then asked the director questions about how keeping Little Milligan open to benefit 40 plus Carter County students would impact the remaining 4,300 Carter County students. While the board reconsidered it’s earlier decision in good faith, the facts remained the same, and so did the board’s decision.”
Carter County School Attorney Scott Bennett
Bennett went on to say that Mr. Horwitz asked the board to reconsider the closure and that’s what they did. He said they consider this issue resolved.
This will be the last semester of Little Milligan Elementary being open.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.
