At Black Bob Elementary in Olathe, first grader Gavin Lyon has found friends whose first language isn’t his own.
The dual Spanish-English Immersion Program at the school has enabled him to speak to students he might otherwise have had a hard time communicating with — though his mom, Jess Lyon, is worried the school’s recommended closure, and the program’s subsequent move to Arbor Creek Elementary, threatens those connections.
“Everyone is so kind to each other and it feels like family,” Gavin, 7, said. “I don’t think the building is old or anything. … I can learn Spanish and talk to my friends who speak Spanish. And I can learn at this school which feels so homey.”
OPS cited declining enrollment, rising home prices and budget pressures from underfunding as reasons for the recommended closure. Four other elementary schools and one middle school were also recommended for closure at the end of this school year.
Arbor Creek is 2.3 miles from Black Bob.
Olathe Public Schools spokesperson Erin Schulte said the decision was made to keep the program in the southern part of Olathe, but in a newer and larger building. The district’s other language immersion program is at Manchester Park Elementary, which covers the northern side of the district.
“We recognize that moving a specialized program can have an impact on the families who participate in it, particularly those who have built their routines around Black Bob,” Schulte said in an email Thursday. “We also recognize that some families may reconsider participation based on the new location. Our intent is to relocate the existing program, not reduce or phase it out.”
Additionally, she said, “the district plans to monitor enrollment and determine what additional recruitment or program promotion may be needed to support the program’s long-term sustainability.”
OPS would not require students already in the program to reapply, and current staff at Black Bob would remain with the program and move to Arbor Creek if the district board of education approves the recommendation, Schulte said.
Reassurances, however, do little to ease Lyon’s concerns. For her and her husband, the drive would go from about eight minutes at Black Bob, to 24 minutes at Arbor Creek in the opposite direction of where they work.
Lyon works as a speech pathologist, with her own private practice and she often visits different hospitals to help patients, and her husband works at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.
“For my husband to drop him (Gavin) off and get back to Children’s Mercy Hospital, it’s a 25-ish minute drive down there, and then 40 minutes up to Children’s Mercy Hospital,” Lyon said. “For me, I’m looking at 25 minutes or so to the school, and then 20 to 30 minutes respectively to wherever else I need to go.
“From what I’ve heard from other families, both in our petition and on our parent group chats, there are several families in our position,” Lyon added.
Black Bob families started a petition after Black Bob’s recommended closure came Sept. 3. As of Friday morning, it has 682 signatures — almost double the student population at the school, which is about 360 students, according to Niche.
Families at the school also started a website, saveblackbob.com, advocating for the school to remain open, and a survey to gauge which families in the program currently at Black Bob would move with it to Arbor Creek. While the survey is still underway, many participants state that transportation is a major barrier that would prevent them from moving to Arbor Creek.
For Alyse Sykes and her two elementary age children, they already travel outside of Black Bob boundaries for the immersion program. Moving to Arbor Creek wouldn’t change their enrollment in the program; however, Sykes said she’d like her children to stay at Black Bob.
“The community being built here at Black Bob is just really special,” Sykes said. “On top of the fact that there’s a dual language immersion program here, I think that it’s a really supportive community.”
Until the Olathe Board of Education makes its final decision, Lyon said she hopes it will explore other options to keep the school and share more information on why the recommendation was made.
“One of the bigger reasons that they (the district) have determined that that is a school they would like to close is because of the age of the school and the cost to maintain it and keep it up to code in its current state,” Lyon said. “We want to see, as parents, we want to see more transparency. What needs to be fixed? What is the trajectory we’re looking at?
“Can we raise funds to help with this?” she added. “Can we look at other options to keep Black Bob open?”
