TCSD votes U.S. 51 as dividing line for Coldwater High School students
After weeks of deliberation and deadlocked votes, the Tate County school board has finally decided where students at Coldwater High will attend school beginning next fall.
The school board agreed to make U.S. Highway 51 the dividing line for the high school attendance zones due the closure of Coldwater at a meeting Tuesday, Feb. 14. The measure passed by a 3-1 count after board president Terri Reeves changed her vote, ending the stalemate following several minutes of discussion.
Tate County School District officials had been trying to decide whether to use Interstate 55 or U.S. Highway 51 as a midpoint for the district since Dec. 13, the day after a federal judge fully granted a request to close grades seven through 12 at Coldwater effective for the 2023-24 school year.
Now that a compromise has been reached, Coldwater High School students who reside west of the dividing line of U.S. Highway 51 will attend Strayhorn, while students on the east side will attend Independence.
But the final agreement didn’t come easily or without some tense and head scratching moments.
Board representative Martha Jeffries abstained from voting on two motions that were presented just like she did at a special meeting at the end of January, resulting in a 2-2 deadlock between remaining board members.
“Why do y’all want me to vote to break the tie?” Jeffries said. “I didn’t vote on anything concerning closing Coldwater, so why should I vote to break the tie? We got two on this side and two on this side and everybody is looking at me saying ‘she is just holding out and prolonging time’. I am not voting, and what law says I have to vote? Ms. Jeffries is not fixing to break the tie until somebody puts cuffs on me and that still won’t make me vote. Why don’t one of you cross over instead of waiting on me?”
Jeffries admitted the U.S. Highway 51 proposal made the most sense from an accommodation standpoint to prevent overcrowding at Strayhorn.
The continuous impasse between board members prompted Malinda White, who voted to use I-55 as the dividing line, to suggest another method of determining where the proposed school line should be. “We are at a point now that we’re stopping the process of what we have to take care of…our children,” White said. “I don’t know if it’s legal or not and we obviously all are dug in for our own reasons on this, but we can’t do this anymore. Can we draw straws at this point? Can we flip a coin?”
“No ma’am,” replied board attorney John Lamar. “Statute requires you all to vote.”
“I would be willing to just flip a coin and whatever it lands on, it is what it is,” White said. “If it’s 51, I will change my vote so we can legally go by statute. That means one of you that are voting 51 will have to make the same agreement so we can get over this stalemate.”
Neither Sharann Gordon nor Dale Dunigan, proponents of using U.S. Highway 51 as the dividing line, were in favor of that idea. “You can’t leave these kids’ destiny to chance like that,” Gordon said.
In mid-January, the Tate County School District posted a parents’ survey on its website and various social media platforms to gather input and 68.8% voted to make U.S. Highway 51 the dividing line.
School board president Reeves, who was in favor of an I-55 split, asked for a show of hands from parents at the meeting which proposal they were in favor of. Six of eight parents showed support for U.S. Highway 51.
“I change my vote to Highway 51. Let’s move on,” Reeves said emphatically after the makeshift straw poll.
Dunigan said the decision to use U.S. Highway 51 as the dividing line isn’t just about demographics.
“The 51 plan provides better learning opportunities, adequate facilities for classrooms and restrooms and a safer environment,” Dunigan explained. “I would hope the students at Coldwater that go to Independence go there and become Wildcats because it’s a good day to be a Wildcat. And the students that go to Strayhorn, they become Mustangs because it’s a good day to be a Mustang.”
