Paulding Board Sets Hearings on Potential School Phase-Out

Paulding County School Board members at their meeting Tuesday night got a preview of the school system’s five-year facility plan. But one of the district’s school facilities may no longer be educating students when that five-year plan ends.

One proposed part of the five-year plan is the phasing out of P.B. Ritch Elementary School, though Associate Superintendent Brian Otott said such a move would not be enacted in the immediate future—students will still be going there at least through the 2011-2012 school year.

As the potential closing of the school would impact students, the district is required to hold at least two public hearings before a phase-out resolution could be sent to the state. Board members during the meeting set those hearings for Tuesday, March 22, and Thursday, March 31. Both meetings, which are open to the public, will convene at 6:30 p.m. in the central office boardroom.

Otott said under the phase-out plan, Hutchens Elementary would be the primary relocation school for P.B. Ritch students. In response to one board member’s question, Otott said Hiram Elementary could be a possible destination as well. That school, however, currently has more students than can be handled with the school building’s 36 instructional units, and portable classrooms are in use there.

Visit Dallas-Hiram Patch on Wednesday for further coverage of Tuesday’s school board meeting.