In DeLand, Starke Elementary School to stay open

BEACON FILE PHOTO

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Nov 11, 2009 - 9:15:16am

Members of the audience at the Nov. 10 Volusia County School Board meeting erupted into applause. A bright smile spread over the face of DeLand City Commissioner Leigh Matusick. West Volusia NAACP President David Staples was jubilant.

The reason? Edith I. Starke Elementary School in DeLand will not close at the end of the school year, as originally planned. It may have a few more years of life.

The School Board had planned to close the little school, saying it would be more cost effective to put money into a new school than to renovate Starke's old building and pay to keep the school operating.

Now, the School Board has done a 180 on that decision. Starke will remain open indefinitely.

The decision to close the school was made before the big economic crunch and a sharp decline in the budget for building new schools and enlarging and improving others. Those expansion projects were needed to accommodate students who would have been moved from Starke.

Plans to demolish and rebuild George Marks Elementary School in DeLand are on hold. Enrollment is expected to outpace revenue.

School Board Member Candace Lankford of the DeLand area noted the capital budget is down $225 million over the past two years.

Therefore, it will be essential to keep Starke Elementary operating.

Lankford said Staples had been campaigning for two years to keep the little neighborhood school open. There had been a lot of opposition to closing Starke Elementary, and busing students who attend there out of their neighborhood.

Now, Staples has his wish.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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