Update: Wednesday, April 17, 2019, 4 p.m.
A school that serves special needs children in Greensboro will remain open next school year. Guilford County Schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras backed off a planned recommendation to close Gateway Education Center at a school board work session Wednesday morning.
The News and Record reports that individual families are going to get a choice to stay at Gateway or to move to one of the district's three other schools that serve students with special needs.
The school building was recently tested for mold after water from heavy rains seeped into the building.
According to a press release from Guilford County Schools, the facility is no longer suitable for medically fragile students.
Also today, Contreras said she wants to use proceeds from tornado insurance for the design costs to build a combined Hampton-Peeler elementary school.
Both buildings were closed after a tornado hit the city last April.
Original Story
Several Guilford County parents are raising concerns over the possible closure of a school that serves children with special needs in Greensboro.
Parents say they were notified by administrators last week that Gateway Education Center would close in June, and many expressed shock.
Dania Ermentrout's 7-year-old daughter Moira suffers from a rare, life-threatening disease. She says she was told Moira would be relocated to another school for children with special needs in nearby Jamestown.
"I'm concerned about the long bus rides for some children if they are moved. It is a really serious medical concern,” says Ermentrout. “And you have families that don't have personal transportation and if they have to go from Browns Summit to Jamestown to pick up a child with a wheelchair, that's a really significant hardship on those families.”
The school building was recently tested for mold after water from heavy rains seeped into the building.
According to a press release from Guilford County Schools, the facility is no longer suitable for medically fragile students.
"The Gateway facility, which was built in 1983, is in poor condition, according to the recent joint facilities study. Even when higher marks for the school's technology, equipment and educational program suitability were accounted for, the overall score remained unsatisfactory due to poor building conditions."
Officials with the district say a final decision on Gateway's future hasn't been made, and a public hearing would take place before that happens.
They say Superintendent Sharon Contreras plans to discuss Gateway Education Center at Wednesday's school board meeting.
“Certainly, I've made the best recommendation possible in order to keep these children safe,” said Contreras in a press release. “Nevertheless, Board Chair Deena Hayes and I agree, if Gateway parents wish for students to remain in the building given the condition, we will not insist that Gateway students move from a building they love.”
Ermentrout says parents and other community members are planning a rally in front of GCS Administrative Offices before the scheduled budget meeting to voice their support for keeping the school open.
*Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news