The Bibb County Board of Education is considering which elementary school to consolidate or whether to consolidate at all.
The board is evaluating five scenarios: three involving school consolidation and two non-consolidation options that include rezoning. Deputy Superintendent Katika Lovett is expected to present the final recommendations of the school consolidation exploration for the board’s vote at their April 17 meeting.
Throughout the town hall meetings and feedback surveys, stakeholders have expressed concerns regarding transportation, accessibility, class sizes, staffing, facility usage, community and cultural preservation, student well-being, and academic performance when it comes to the possibility of closing and consolidating schools.
The board members held a retreat March 28 that included further discussion and evaluation of the school consolidation scenarios. The district is considering consolidation due to declining student enrollment and potential budget shortfalls for the fiscal year 2026.
Lovett explained that elementary schools must have a minimum enrollment of 450 students to be deemed “operationally effective” by the state and to receive full funding. When a school falls below that 450 student mark, certain positions, such as art teachers, P.E. coaches, paraprofessionals, music teachers, and media specialists, are affected by that base-size funding number.
“The 450 is significant for whole funding, whether that’s facilities and capital, whether that means additional positions, it’s really significant in that space because where we don’t have that base number met, we have to pick those up with our resources,” Lovett said.
Williams Elementary School has the lowest enrollment in the district, totaling 306 students, according to the March 2025 enrolment numbers from the Georgia Department of Education. Hartley Elementary School had 362 students during the most recent enrollment check, while Porter Elementary School had 405 students.
Lovett stated that the board could vote for one of the school consolidation scenarios, one of the non-school consolidation scenarios, a combination of both, or none at all.
Non-consolidation Option A involves rezoning specific students from John R. Lewis Elementary School (South zone) to L.H. Williams Elementary School. In this scenario, enrollment in middle and high schools would remain unchanged, as students from John R. Lewis (South zone) neighborhoods will continue attending Miller Middle School and Central High School.
Non-consolidation Option B involves re-zoning students from Taylor Elementary School (North zone) to Miller Middle School and Central High School.
The Board President Myrtice Johnson expressed concern about how consolidation and merging student populations from different schools would impact student achievement.
“How are we thinking about student achievement when we put all those low-achieving students in one building?”Johnson said during the retreat.
Superintendent Dr. Dan Simms replied to Johnson, saying that regardless of student population, the primary concern is whether the school has sufficient resources to meet its needs. And that the school board’s goal is to combine the most valuable resources from each school into one to increase the resource support available to all students.
“We are not led by the budget outlook, but of course, we have to consider it,” Simms said earlier in the conversation. “So we’re prepared to consider opportunities for savings, but the question we have to ask ourselves is at what expense?”
Before discussing school consolidation, Simms presented the district’s direction and goals for the next three years. He wants to invest more resources in staff recruitment and retention, attendance, literacy, and quality teaching.
At the start of the retreat, District Chief Financial Officer Eric Bush presented the preliminary outlook for the 2026 general budget. Bush recommended that the board set a tentative millage rate as a potential option to provide funds for salary increases for teachers and staff and to support the recruitment and retention of highly qualified and effective personnel.
Bush also outlined the Student Enrollment Projections for 2025-2026 for Bibb County schools. The projections indicated that 52% of Elementary schools in Bibb fall short of the state target enrollment of 450 students. Additionally, 33.3% of Middle Schools in Bibb do not meet the state target enrollment of 624 students, and 71% of High schools in Bibb are below the state target enrollment of 970 students.
The latest data from the Georgia Department of Education shows that the following elementary schools in Bibb County meet the state target enrollment of at least 450 students: Alex II, Carter, Heard, Heritage, Ingram/Pye, John Robert Lewis, Lane, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Taylor, Southfield, Springdale, Union, Veterans and Vineville.
The Georgia Department of Education is showing that Bernd, Bruce, Burdell, Hartley, Porter, Skyview, and Williams are all under that 450-student threshold.
