(KALB-TV, KNOE-TV) – To the dismay of the large throng of school supporters in attendance, the Winn Parish School Board voted to close Atlanta High School following a 6-5 vote in a special meeting held this past Tuesday, July 3rd. All grades, pre-K through 12, will be reassigned to Winnfield schools for the 2023-24 school year.
Winn Parish School System’s superintendent, Al Simmons, who in a previous meeting recommended that grades 6 through 12 be moved, says student enrollment has dropped by almost 900 students over the last 20 years, and he’s trying to build a stronger system.
“You get to the point where your MFP allocation is not sufficient to fund the number of positions you’d like to have,” says Simmons. “And so, to reduce our expenditures requires us to reduce salaries and benefits numbers, and the only way to do that is through attrition to reduce the number of teachers we have.”
The decision is a reversal of the one made on June 13th where the school board voted down a move to consolidate Atlanta High School, which is located in the southwest corner of Winn Parish and has been in operation since 1908, with Winnfield schools.
Watch out Dodson an Calvin the money hungry people of winnfield will be closing yall next so they can put more money in thier pockets they could care less about the students or families this affects because it don’t affect them none so they don’t care about nobody else just shows the true colors an souls of people in winnfield so glad I left there