Parents fight to keep school’s doors open

[unhappycamper]

Parents fight to keep school’s doors open
By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, February 29, 2008

BAUMHOLDER, Germany — The numbers just didn’t seem right.

When DODDS-Europe announced that Neubruecke Elementary School was closing at the end of this year following predictions enrollment would drop from about 115 to 53 the next school year, a group of parents decided to do a little investigating.

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Soon after the Jan. 16 closure announcement, parents canvassed the neighborhood and discovered that the Department of Defense Dependents Schools’s numbers were too low. In fact, in their little housing complex alone, the group says it found nearly 80 children whose parents would send them to Neubruecke if it remained an option.

With an online petition drive and a constant stream of e-mails and phone calls, the parents are now attempting to convince DODDS officials that they made the wrong decision based on incorrect data.

“We feel like we’ve been lied to so many times,” said Shawna Roberts, Neubruecke’s School Advisory Committee president, who says parents were blindsided by the announcement.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52939