The Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to close Pasquotank Elementary School and repurpose it as an early childhood learning center.
The decision, which followed a recommendation by Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools Superintendent Keith Parker, also approved a rezoning map that redirects Pasquotank’s current students to four other elementary schools — J.C. Sawyer, P.W. Moore, Weeksville and Central — starting next school year.
Parker previously has said his recommendation to close Pasquotank Elementary and repurpose it as a pre-K school was driven by ECPPS’ declining enrollment and the declining state funding that comes from having fewer students.
During Monday’s meeting held at Sheep-Harney Elementary School, Parker presented a slide show showing the school district’s enrollment numbers from the 2021-22 school year. It showed the district has 1,100 unfilled seats across its seven elementary schools. There are about 3,000 unfilled seats across the entire district.
Parker has said several factors have contributed to ECPPS’ declining enrollment, including the decision by more parents to enroll their children in either the local charter school, at private schools or in homeschools.
The superintendent said the district’s declining enrollment requires ECPPS to develop a new strategy.
“That’s led us to come up with plans such as these, to think a long-term strategy, how to sustain the facility capability of our schools, to ensure our students go to a neighborhood school, that they are not bused (for) hours, that they go to a fully staffed school,” he said.
“We are excited to move our pre-K program to Pasquotank Elementary,” Parker continued. “We have a phenomenal program in the district, a five-star rated program and there is a waiting list to get into that program. We want to expand that program.”
In an earlier meeting this month Parker explained that increasing the number of pre-K students at the new learning center would have no bearing on how much state funding the district’s K-12 schools receive. The current pre-K program is housed at Sheep-Harney Elementary School and the transition to the current Pasquotank Elementary School will begin this summer.
“Over the next five years we will seek opportunities to expand our pre-K program,” Parker said “As a district we will have to seek funding to expand the number of those classrooms. We have to come to terms that there is a list of kids not in our pre-K program that want to be there.
“There is a tremendous need for early childhood learning,” he continued. “We only serve 4-year-olds in pre-K and a kid has to be 5 years old to enter kindergarten.”
Parker said the district plans to continue working with its local daycare partners; it is not going to get into the daycare business. He also said the district has had conversations with officials at U.S. Coast Guard Base Elizabeth City who are interested in opening an early childcare facility off base.
Parker said ECPPS has to think about what the district will look like 10 years from now. Some of the looming challenges include future facility renovations and improvements, as well as the need for new schools.
“We have to think about population growth, where people are moving in our county, the age of our facilities,” he said. “How do we set our county up to have beautiful, well-funded, well-maintained facilities a decade from now?
“Tonight is that first step in that conversation of how do we do something different, how do we think differently,” he continued. “And that’s a conversation we will continue to have.”
Parker noted that the new rezoning map approved at Monday’s school board meeting will only affect children who currently attend Pasquotank Elementary School.
Bus routes and travel times, a desire to keep kids as close to their neighborhood as possible, and the availability of seats at other elementary schools all factored into which school Pasqutoank’s students will attend next year, he said.
He also said the decisions approved at Monday’s meeting followed meetings with Pasquotank Elementary School staff, three community meetings dedicated to discussing the proposed changes, and phone calls to families of all students attending Pasquotank Elementary School.
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