The Fayette County School Board in an Oct. 20 split vote said “No” to an immediate application for a $1.2 million state grant that, if received, might have established a local Center of Innovation at the former Fayetteville Intermediate School (FIS) to help prepare students for employment in the health sciences and digital media/animation fields.
District 4 school board candidates Ogechi Oparah (Democrat), 23, and Diane Basham (Republican), 66, were asked to have their say on the issue.
While two board members voted to apply for the grant, three others voted against submitting the grant application. Those opposed cited concerns such as not having viewed the proposal until three days before the school board meeting and a lack of information on how the school system would fund the program past its initial inception.
Post 4 incumbent Bob Todd was one of the three votes against the grant. He is not seeking reelection.
Oparah in her comments said she was disappointed that the school system lost the opportunity to pursue funding for innovation.
“I am more troubled by what the vote says about our board’s ability to prioritize student success over fear of the future. At the end of the day, whatever the uncertainties, the superintendent is hired and entrusted to act in the best interest of Fayette’s students,” Oparah said. “The rejection of Dr. [Joseph] Barrow’s recommendation here reads as an unfortunate vote of no confidence in those core intentions. I don’t believe it’s fair to students or to Fayette County to let fear of what might happen through Centers of Innovation get in the way of pursuing those pathways to success.”
Basham in her comments on the innovation center said she supports such an initiative though, like the majority of the school board, she said there are a number of unanswered questions remaining.
“As a school system, we have a responsibility to provide the best educational opportunities to all our students. The question we currently face is how we should proceed with establishing these centers,” Basham said. “This pilot program could potentially be expanded to include additional career programs. Students interested in healthcare and animation classes would be given two options. Option one would be to attend this pilot school for those programs and then to complete their other classes via videoconferencing or online. Option two would be for students to remain in their regular high school and view health care and animation classes via videoconferencing.”
Oparah said the vote against submitting the grant application also suggests the board majority’s loose grasp of the emerging vision for Fayette County schools to be truly world-class.
“The innovation grant application seems part of a larger vision to better prepare students for today’s expectations in higher education, careers and life,” Oparah said. “If a board can reject applying for an innovation grant as small as $1.2 million because of lack of expertise and understanding, what larger opportunities are at risk down the road? Can we afford it?”
While there are merits to the plan, Basham said the school board should consider whether enrolling students in a substantial number of videoconferencing classes is in their best interest.
“Will this not defeat our goal of involving students in ‘hands-on’ experiences? Also, we need to consider additional options,” she said. “For example, we could establish Centers of Innovation at selected high schools and allow students to attend the school that offers the career programs that interest them. Students would not be limited to the school in their current attendance zone. Another option would be to offer students the opportunity to go the high school that offers particular courses and then attend their ‘home’ high school for the remainder of the day.”
The vision behind the Centers of Innovation is rooted in the best interest of the whole, Oparah said.
“It fosters hands-on and blended learning experiences, career and innovation opportunities for students,” she said. “It encourages collaborative professional development in state-of-the-art learning labs for teachers. It cultivates strong partnerships with Southern Crescent Technical College and industry leaders, bringing needed expertise and resources. What’s more, responsible stewardship of one grant extends Fayette’s track record, improving the likelihood of attracting future grants and partnerships to Fayette County.”
Oparah maintained that Fayette has what it takes to be a world-class school system.
“However, to do so requires a can-do spirit, a belief in the seemingly impossible and an earnest effort to move to the next level, despite uncertainties. That can-do spirit created the vision for Piedmont Hospital and Pinewood Studios in Fayette County and it’s exactly what was missing in the ‘no’ vote to innovation on Oct. 20,” said Oparah. “I am confident that if we focus our efforts as a school board towards doing what’s best for students first, bigger and better things will come.”
Basham said careful planning, including a cost/benefit analysis, is absolutely necessary to determine what is best for students.
“We have much more work to do before decisions can be made. There are still many unanswered questions. For example (in additional to the considerations already noted), how would the students be transported to the appropriate school? How much will transportation cost? How does the cost of operating a Center of Innovation at one location compare to offering our career programs at the present high schools? How will these changes impact staffing and course offerings? How would students participate in fine arts and extracurricular activities? Will technical schools and businesses interested in partnering with our schools be willing to work with whichever plan we choose?”
Oparah and Basham face off on the general election ballot for District 4 Board of Education post now being contested in early voting, with the final round of voting Nov. 4.
