Ronnie Crum had a tough decision to make earlier this year: where to send his son to school.
“My son was flunking out at Leon [High School]. Really all F’s,” says Crum.
Crum chose Capital City High School, a charter school in Leon County for dropouts and students who have failed courses. Crum's son Chase started attending Capital City in February and his grades increased. But now, Crum has to find another school for his son. Capital City High is shutting down due to what its officials say is a contract dispute between the high school’s governance board and the Leon county school district.
“Their dropout rate was huge, ours was .72 [percent]," says Leon County School District Charter School Liaison Beverly Owens. "Theirs is 16.9 [percent].”
Owens says along with having a high dropout rate, the school failed to meet 5 out of 7 of their student performance goals. One of the goals they didn’t meet was the graduation rate. The overall graduation rate at Capital City High was 1.55 percent and the district's was nearly 77 percent. But for parents like Crum, Capital City High may have been the best place for his son.
“For this school to close I think it’s a bad thing to happen, like the gentleman before me said, you’re going to have a lot of these kids get on the streets, and you don’t need that not at all,” Crum says.
Capital City’s demise follows the closure of the Life Skills Academy, which shut down three years ago, served a similar group of students and was located in the same building now occupied by Capital City High School. Capital City’s last day is June 30th.
