You can help Save a Community School

It's been almost a year since Superintendent Jerry Weast's surprise announcement to close Monocacy Elementary School in Poolesville, Maryland. The planned closure is now a distant memory as the Superintendent's effort was quashed by community outcry that resulted in a unanimous Board of Education backing away from the Superintendent's decision.

But over in Fairfax County, at about the same time, a decision was made to close an elementary school with similarities to Monocacy Elementary. The school is Clifton Elementary. Clifton Elementary has been in operation for over 80 years in a historic part of Fairfax County and serves around 370 students.

Despite the pending decision to close Clifton Elementary, the community is still advocating to save the school. Included in the action plan for saving this community school is a new organization in the community called Friends of Community Schools.  The Friends of Community Schools group is in the running for a $25,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help preserve this community school. 


You can help this community win this grant to help save their school by voting here.    

Here's an article on the decision to close Clifton Elementary School in Fairfax, Virginia:

Fairfax Station Connection: Clifton Gets Creative To Keep School Open
Community will pursue legal, political and historic preservation options.

The Fairfax County School Board may have voted to close Clifton Elementary on July 8 but the local community said the school fight is far from over.

A group of families directly affected by the decision filed a lawsuit against the school system Aug. 9. Approximately 100 people also gathered at the Town of Clifton’s Town Hall Aug. 2 to discuss alternative for keeping the school open, including starting a Clifton Elementary charter school.

Ideally, the community would like to see the School Board take another vote to reverse the Clifton closure. The school system plans to operate Clifton for at least the 2010-11 school year. If new construction is needed to accommodate the Clifton students at another campus, the school could remain open beyond next summer.

"That school is still open right now and, as long as that school is still open, it is not over. … This is going to play out over the next school year. Strap yourselves in for a year of working together to make it happen," said Clifton Mayor William Hollaway to the crowd at the town hall meeting...