According to a 2023 Stanford University study, there are roughly 1,000 public school closures each year. Schools are essential community institutions. However, just one in three students in the U.S. attended a new publicschool created during the last three decades. The education landscape today looks very different than it did 30years ago. The old way of preparing students for success won’t work in this rapidly changing world.
New school buildings are a necessary component because of the direct impact on student learning and well-being.
Our community is engaged in a passionate discussion about constructing a new E.E. Smith High School facility. The present structure is about 70 years old. Most of the Golden Bull memories are good, but some are not, especially during the turbulent late 1960s when school systems were court-ordered to desegregate.
E.E. Smith legacy survived segregation
After the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, manysouthern states were left with deciding how to combine their Black and white dual school systems into onethat was unified and integrated. Many local school boards approached integration by closing some Black schools and converting Black high schools into junior high, middle and elementary schools.