Is it enough? : Decatur pride swells at event to save schools
Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008
DECATUR - With all the doom and gloom hanging over Decatur in recent weeks as its public schools hang in the balance, Saturday provided a much-needed lift for residents.
Decatur residents, friends and family packed Veterans Park Saturday afternoon for a Fun in the Park - Save our School Fundraiser. Country music was blaring over a sound system and children were taking turns reaching into the petting zoo area, where everything from goats and camels to a giant turtle were soaking up the sunny afternoon. There was food, games and plenty of items being auctioned off. Nearly everyone was wearing something to show their Decatur pride.
That Decatur pride is something Dustin Booth -to be a senior at Decatur High School this fall - said he hasn't seen before.
At least not like this.
"Decatur hasn't shown this kind of pride in a long time," Booth said. "It actually kind of surprised me. This is my senior year and Decatur is everything I've known. I don't want our schools to go away, but I'm really impressed with the way the whole town has come together."
From garden equipment and knives to soccer balls, fishing rods, blue jeans and more, residents made a point to stop by the auction and sales tables to contribute to the community's growing fund to save its schools. According to residents at the Saturday event, Decatur has raised more than $ 100, 000 to date. The community has a special fund set up at Decatur State Bank.
Activity around the tables at Veterans Park indicated that figure continued to climb on Saturday.
But will it be enough ?
Will anything be enough ?
"I'm going to fight to the bitter end," said LaVonn Foreman, a teacher in Decatur School District for the past 27 years. "We want to keep our schools in the community. I think this town has made that clear. Everyone is doing something - anything to try to make that happen. We just don't know for sure what's going to happen."
Students don't know. Parents don't know. And with the start of the 2008-09 school year a matter of weeks away, even the teachers - whose livelihoods depend on Decatur's schools opening - don't know.
"We don't know if we have a job," Foreman said. "That's an uncomfortable feeling, but I just don't know. This is about more than just my job. This is about the whole community. We can't get negative, because that doesn't do any of us any good. We just have to keep fighting and doing whatever we can."
The State Board of Education met Monday morning in Little Rock to consider several items that were of interest to school districts in northwest Arkansas, including the classification of the Decatur district as being in fiscal distress.
The board added Decatur to that list and officials from Decatur did not appeal the vote.
Based on figures from the last fiscal year, the state estimates that Decatur will have a $ 600, 000 budget shortfall by the end of this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2009.
Decatur officials will plead their case to the State Board of Education on July 31 when Decatur faces being annexed into one of three nearby districts - Gravette, Gentry or Bentonville.
While the estimated $ 600, 000 shortfall is part of the problem, the immediate issue forcing the annexation, state officials have said, is Decatur's $ 60, 000 deficit from the 2007-2008 fiscal year.
So residents continue to raise money in hopes of keeping their schools alive. No matter how many hours they put in or how much they raise, the fact is they won't know if it will be enough until July 31.
"We're giving it all we have," said Greg Goodman, who has three children in Decatur schools. "I'm worried that if the schools go, the town might die with it. The schools are the heartbeat. You can't just pull the heart out and expect things to be the same."
Goodman was one of many proudly sporting a blue Tshirt that read "Save Decatur. School's out for summer but not forever."
"We're trying our best," Goodman said. "I hope we can get it done."
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