One of fifth-grader Harper Thomason’s favorite parts of her time attending school at Pershing is a session called “Buddy Time,” where older and younger students are paired together for projects and activities.
The variety of projects is interesting, she said, and they give a chance for older kids to teach younger ones. It’s one of many things she loves about being a student at Pershing. And if the school’s elementary grades are closed, no more students will get that chance, she said.
“It’s an amazing school, with amazing teachers and activities,” Thomason said, running through PE classes that involve fun games and music experiences. “There are so many fun programs, it would break my heart if this was closed.”
Springfield Public Schools hosted an informational session Monday for Pershing parents to explain reasons for shutting down kindergarten through fifth grade at the school, transforming it into a middle school.
Superintendent Grenita Lathan and other administrators answered questions after a presentation about the proposal.
About 100 parents, teachers and other members of the school community asked questions and expressed concerns about such a closure, saying that it would remove a neighborhood school that families have cherished. They listed a variety of reasons, including skepticism about Springfield Public Schools' plan for classroom utilization, the distance of replacement schools and the loss of a neighborhood school.
The Springfield Board of Education will make the final decision during a meeting set for Jan. 16.
Plan for closing tied to upcoming renovation
Pershing is due for a major renovation: As part of a $220 million bond issue approved by voters last April, the school will receive a more than $50 million makeover. The current building, constructed in 1957, has received very few upgrades in the years since.
As part of the pitch, Deputy Superintendent of Operations Travis Shaw said that a demographics study needed to be done in order to best evaluate what a new building should handle. In November, SPS released results of a demographic study that recommended converting Pershing into a middle school for grades 6-8.
Pershing has 700 students in grades 6-8, and 160 in grades pre-K to 5. Pershing’s elementary school is one of Springfield’s smallest. The school has one class for each grade level. It has annual expenses of $978,079, with the largest portion of $929,256 going toward employee salaries and benefits.
The elementary population is expected to increase to about 186 students by 2025, then remain near that number over the next decade, according to the study.
Springfield Public Schools last month recommended a plan to close Pershing’s elementary grades at the end of the 2025-26 school year. Students would be diverted to either Field or Wilder elementary schools, depending on which side of nearby railroad tracks the students live.
Doing so would allow the school district to make better use of bond money to build a school similar to Jarrett Middle School. Shaw said that the amount of money allocated for the project will not change.
“The utilization, the efficiency and all the other things we talk about, we can get more bang for the buck within a budget,” Shaw said. “We really have the most impact on this campus when we are able to focus on the 6-8 part of this.”
Neighborhood school valued
But many parents said Pershing should keep its K-8, neighborhood school identity.
Jennifer Ingemi is the mother of four children who all attended the school, and loved how they became part of a tight-knit group.
“It builds a community, and a strength in a sense of identity,” “These kids grew up knowing each other, looked out for each other, and the teachers looked out for them, and parents looked out for other children. It really was a community, and still is even though our kids have graduated and moved on.”
Patty Melton, a former student who also sent her children to the school, said Pershing was always intended to be a neighborhood school where children could walk to and from classes and where all the families knew each other. She said she was part of a petition drive about 20 years ago to keep the elementary open.
She said that during the campaign, there was no mention of moving Pershing’s elementary.
“I voted for the bond in 2023 because I believed that Pershing Elementary was not a closure,” Melton said. “It’s kind of disheartening, after watching (campaign videos) again thinking I voted for this, and now I’m standing here having to advocate for you all to keep the elementary.”
Stephen Hall, SPS chief communications officer, said the school district was careful in its campaign to make no promises about Pershing’s grade offerings, and that conversion to a 6-8 school was a possibility that the demographics study would address.
“We did more than 150 of those community presentations,” Hall said. “We had a scripted walkthrough and we trained our presenters, as they went out in the community, to follow various specific talking points and very specific scripts.”
Concern over attending a bigger school
Several parents who asked questions showed concern about their students joining bigger student populations.
Teachers also spoke against removing the elementary. Brandi Frazier, the school’s kindergarten teacher, said the small school allows teachers to focus on students’ needs, despite not having similar teachers to collaborate with.
“We may not have side-by-side teachers at grade level, but we work as a team. There is not a student in this building I do not know, and do not help with both behavior and academics,” Frazier said. “My question for the board: Is the option even being presented to leave us here and continue the amazing work we do?”
Field Principal Janell Bagwell and Wilder Principal Adam Bax answered questions about how their schools would handle an influx of Pershing’s students, taking their traditions and habits into account.
“There would have to be some intentional thought behind what are some of those traditions and things that your families are holding on to that we need to merge together,” Bagwell said. “Not just a, ‘You’re done with that and now you’re here.’ I think we would have to work together to work together and create what the future would look like.”
Demographics study focused on building capacities
A key point of the demographics study evaluated how efficiently each building would be used over the next decade — Shaw said a target of 80% of students is ideal. Two other options for reassigning students were considered, Shaw said, but both those options led to high capacities of students.
Both Field and Wilder can absorb Pershing’s elementary population more effectively, Shaw said. Under current school boundaries, Field is projected to remain near its current count of 399 students over the next decade, while Wilder is projectd to drop from about 350 now to 272 in 10 years.
Still, the switch would push Wilder to a use rate of 90% over 10 years, and Field to more than 100% over the same decade. About 85 of Pershing’s students would go to Field, while Wilder would take about 68.
Classrooms would be added at both schools to ensure the schools were not overcrowded, Shaw said.
Lathan said that the conversations about Pershing, as well as the potential closure of Robberson Community School, are the first in a series of many tough decisions the district will have to make.
“It’s not just Pershing Elementary,” Lathan said. “Not only this study, but a study that was conducted in 2013 that shows some of the same data that we have a number of buildings across our district that are underutilized. This is the first step in a long process of tough decisions that our school board will need to make over the next three to five years.”
