Dr. Frederic Washington: Policy Proposal to Convert Shuttered School to Police Station Exposes Community Disconnect of the Elected

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The narrative, stereotypes, and labels about communities and the schools serving them have largely gone unchanged over the past 40 years, despite the amount of money spent on all but what is advised by experienced, professional educators. There is grave concern regarding the potential repurpose of the recently shuttered Sunset Acres Elementary School for a substation of the Shreveport Police Department, in a similar manner that was done by the same school district years ago when the school board shuttered rural Oil City Elementary/Middle School in 2016.

The newly elected first-black mayor of that town, which has long been a mere shadow of its former boomtown days of glory – along with residents of Oil City – strongly opposed the move and highlighted how the existence of that school positively impacted economic development. It is also notable to mention that the Oil City School defied (odds against) the Louisiana Department of Education’s fickle educational accountability system. The former Oil City campus is used by the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office. The mayor in place during the 2016 closure of Oil City by the Caddo Parish School Board, was not reelected in the 2024 elections.

School closure was due to save taxpayers how much?

Is it truly justifiable to relinquish this educational institution to accommodate a police station, particularly when alternative vacant spaces along Hearne, 70th, Jewella, and Hollywood avenues could equally serve this purpose for those very fine folks over at SPD?

If shuttering an elementary campus and disconnecting its utilities supposedly saves $500,000.00 for the school district annually, where are the cost savings for the taxpayers if the school building will in fact be utilized, for $36,000.00 annually that will be paid in rent by the same taxpayers? Surely the light bill and other utilities at 6514 West Canal totals more than $36,000.00 a year! Come on, now! This isn’t difficult math.  

Investing millions in all BUT smaller elementary schools and class sizes

About a decade ago while having lunch with the current chief of strategic initiatives for Caddo Public Schools, she was advised (by me), that current superintendent of schools, Mr. Keith Burton would be the direct successor to now former superintendent Dr. Lamar Goree.

The fix as some would call it was already in the works as observed by those who early on, understood the Shreveport power dynamics of the superintendent search at that time. That same power dynamic led to the compromise for Goree’s selection, the dethroning of at least three Caddo Parish School Board members by a political action committee and their associates who pumped money into the Caddo Parish School Board elections with obscene contribution amounts compared to spending in usually quiet and minimally contested school board elections. 

The political action committee, which has been a lot quieter since 2014 was headed by an official, romantically connected to one of the conceding applicants for superintendent, who continues her position of influence, now working for a locally owned television news station. The result, a number of school closures and mergers that far outpaced population trends. In effect Goree played to those dynamics, netting him a historic decade-long run at the helm. Some would directly call him a "yes man," who was the puppet of the current superintendent, who served as second in command before being promoted.

With BESE quietly granting a charter to open a new elementary school in southeast Shreveport, and funds set to the side by the Caddo Parish School Board for construction (or additions to) of a new school near Greenwood (something the citizens have voted against as recently as 2015), there was certainly some element of compromise on end of central office administration. Further, it is safe to describe Goree as the man, who, to a greater degree did what Dr. Robert Schiller scandalously tried but could not, what Mrs. Ollie Tyler proudly would not, and what the late Gerald Dawkins regrettably (to his school board cut-short tenure) should not have done.

Caddo's board loves a good ole’ Dog-and-Pony Show

Even with their tired dog-and-pony show styled search process at play with the unconventional, in-house, and deserving selection of the current superintendent, the Caddo Parish School Board indeed engaged in the proverbial “playing in y’all faces,” by wasting taxpayer dollars on a consulting firm that has proven to attract and recommend candidates, who ultimately were bestowed rebuke from the constituency. 

We have thrown money at every alternative to supposedly fix so called “failing schools,” except experiment with smaller, community schools. If you take a look at the typical elementary school campus built before the 2000's, most schools including Sunset Acres and Werner Park have additions, temporary facilities, and upgrading to lighting and HVAC that have minimally (and in some cases will never) fulfilled lifetime use, in effect wasting taxpayer dollars.

Elementary schools were not originally the massive complexes that society has told us they should be today. When you close a school building (regardless of its letter grade), the biggest house in the neighborhood, it brings down its property values that adversely impacts the net worth of middle age to older rural residents of diverse races, and inner-city Black residents (our parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles). 

Honest school profiles will always reflect the social conditions of the people served

We have forgotten the long-existing excellence in the American Fabric, most representing products of public schools. As an alumnus of historically black and often underrated Booker T. Washington High (constructed 75 years ago this month), I know firsthand how the view of our schools has been blinded through outsiders convincing the masses that our considerably diverse-rural and inner-city, majority black schools, and even HBCUs are not good enough.

A true community school that serves ALL circumstances imaginable will have data that reflects the good and not so good.  Using cookie-cutter accountability measures will always produce school profile data that reflects the social conditions of the people they serve. You don’t punish schools for attempting to serve everyone, Louisiana Department of Education!

The race card is tired in American education, but it is far from being played out

They want our community. They want to buy low and sell it high. They took our banks, they took the franchises, they took Circle K, while letting folks not native to this country get loans for businesses that prey on minorities. However, before they could do any of that they had to convince the masses that our schools were no damn good, and the only way to save them is to concede to an ill-advised plan that involves some mogul enriching self and greasing the palms of those we elect, to let that happen.

The solution is an appeal to the Caddo Parish School Board to reconsider allocating funds towards consultants and memoranda of understanding with state agencies and instead promote policy that strongly mirrors advocating for the preservation of our community's educational infrastructure. It appears that the interests of our elected officials may not align with those of the community they serve. I pose these questions in peace, without any intention of dissemination of misinformation regarding the school in question.

Dr. Frederic Washington is an Associate Professor of Education Policy and Advocacy at Edward Waters University. With Full Disclosure: His prior professional experience in part includes an unsuccessful 2010 bid for Caddo Parish School Board, District 5, which at the time included now closed Oak Terrace (Demolished in 2021), Fair Park (as 9-12), Lakeshore (as K-5), Sunset Acres and Werner Park Schools. For brief periods in both instances, Dr. Washington also attended and taught at Werner Park. He remains domiciled in Caddo Parish, Louisiana.