Parents sad for kids, but choose to look ahead

By Connie Cartmell, ccartmell@mariettatimes.com
Elaine Roberts fought the good fight, but is resigned that Bartlett Elementary School is closed for good.

“I feel so bad for our children, the school district, but mostly for our community,” said Roberts, a lifelong resident of Bartlett. “We’ve stayed up talking about it until 1 a.m. many nights. I’ve been upset, I cried and have been mad, but now it’s time to move on.”

Bartlett was her school and four of her children attended school there. Now she has one granddaughter at Cutler Elementary School and Bartlett, both of which are closing as the Warren Local School District tries to remain financially solvent. The closures are expected to save more than half a million dollars a year through cuts in personnel, utility savings and reduced transportation costs.

“People are saying it’s a ‘done deal.’ If there was something I could do now, I’d be doing it,” Roberts said. “It’s hurt our kids and it’s hurt our community. Moving on now is the best thing we can do for our kids.”

Children are resilient, but as for her community, Roberts is less optimistic.

“Closing our schools will certainly hurt business here,” she said.

Bartlett, located about 10 miles west of Barlow on Ohio 550, is — except for the coal trucks occasionally rumbling through — a quiet village on a weekday afternoon. Birds are chirping and children’s laughter can be heard. The few cars that pass by, move slowly.

An old hardware store on the corner, paint long stripped by rain and weather, has been closed for years, along with the restaurant on the other corner and general store. There are more empty storefronts than filled.

A modern bank, new convenience store, gas station and post office create a bit more bustling feel on the east end of town.

For Amanda Custer, 14, of Bartlett, a former student at Bartlett Elementary, there was simply sadness Monday. It was the last day for her school.

“I don’t like it, and my friends don’t like it either,” she said. “I liked all kinds of stuff there, like field day on the last day of school.”

Amber Mayle owns Backyard Crafts and Tanning in Bartlett. She’s lived in the town about a year and is a 2001 graduate of Federal Hocking High School in Stewart.

“People are talking that there isn’t anything here for them anymore,” Mayle said. “Now that they’ve shut both schools down out here, it’s sad for everyone.”

She and her husband are renting now, but planned to buy a home in Bartlett.

“I’m not sure now. We’ll be talking about it more. It would be a long bus ride for my two little kids,” Mayle said.

Rex Roberts, Elaine’s husband, has been actively involved in trying to save Bartlett and Cutler schools.

“They went in like (President) Bush went into Iraq — no plan,” he said of the Warren Local School District board of education. “I’d say that in a year, they’re going to be sorry they did this.”

District officials have said closing Bartlett will save more than $400,000, including $374,800 in personnel, $10,000 on bus routes and more than $20,000 on utilities. Closing Cutler is expected to save $125,000.

Both Roberts and his wife are not convinced the numbers are correct and that savings will result from closing the buildings.

“We had community meetings and gathered lots of information,” Elaine Roberts said. “We had the facts, but they weren’t listening.”

Rex Roberts favored consolidating Cutler and Bartlett at Bartlett. Redistricting in that way would save overcrowding at Barlow-Vincent and Little Hocking elementaries, he said.

“I feel so bad for the school, but worse for our community,” Elaine Roberts said. “Who wants to move into a school district that is closing schools and that is overcrowded already?”

Morgan County resident Angie Grayson, 35, who works in Bartlett, said almost everybody she’s talked to has been against the local schools closing.

“I’m against closing Bartlett myself, I hate to see it, but I don’t have much to say about it since mine (children) go to BV (Barlow-Vincent),” she said.

Parents made it a habit to stop in the convenience store before picking their children up at school, or visiting the bank. Local residents see that business leaving town for Barlow and beyond.

“It’s awful,” said Amanda Mayle, 23, of Cutler. “We’re a small, close-knit community — a family — out here. Now they are separating everybody.”

Mayle attended her niece’s third grade graduation last week. It was the final one at the school. She remembers her own days at Cutler and Bartlett.

“I sat and cried and cried,” she said.

There is concern about upcoming school levies, which the couple said Bartlett always worked hard to pass.

“These people back their schools heart and soul,” Doug Dillinger, who retired to Bartlett a decade ago, said. “Anything they’ve needed (district-wise) these people have supported.”

Dillinger has no children in the schools, but is a concerned observer.

“I don’t think it’s a done deal,” he said. “There are options. There’s no reason Bartlett (and Cutler) couldn’t run a school of their own. They’ve done it before. A charter school is another option.”

Morgan County schools struggled through a difficult consolidation a few years ago, that is now behind them. Suzette Walker, 40, said she was opposed at the time, but now thinks it was a good idea.

“Our kids have new schools and they are much better,” Walker said. “My son is 4 years old and starts kindergarten. When I went to school there wasn’t enough room. It will be better for him.”