By Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer

VISALIA - Parents in this southern Kenton County community who are fighting to keep their local school are concerned school officials are not hearing their pleas.

So they hope Kenton County School administrators and board members will listen to their kids.

Kathy Patton signs a banner at a community meeting about Visalia Elementary School. Her daughter, Madison, left, 6, is a first grader at the school. Passing out markers is Abby Gardella, 7, another first grader at the school. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

About 50 parents, many accompanied by their children, staged a rally and organization meeting Thursday night in their effort to convince the Kenton County Board of Education that Visalia Elementary School - at 130 students the district's smallest - should remain open.

Along with a campaign by parents that includes writing letters and making phone calls to school and state officials, students at the school are making posters and writing letters of their own.

"If they want to close our school," second-grader Olivia Spaw, 7, proclaimed at Thursday's gathering, "they'll have to go through us."

School officials say the state has reduced the district's funding over the last few years by more than $6 million, forcing budget cuts. Closing Visalia would save $433,000 a year, officials have said.

With the Kenton County Board of Education scheduled to vote Feb. 24 on the closing, even students realize that time is short when it comes making the community's case.

Third-graders and best friends Frank Glaza and Brady Magee, both 8, said they don't want to go to another school.

"My dad went here and my granddad went here," said Frank, whose mother, Carla, is one of the leading proponents of keeping the school open. "And I want to keep going here. All my friends are here. I don't want to leave them."

"The teachers are really good," said Brady. "I've really learned a lot of math this year from Miss (Geri) Holbrook. I don't think it would be too smart to close our school."

Wayne Daniels, a parent, said he had difficulty getting information and answers from the district. While school officials have said all the community's questions and concerns have been answered, parents don't agree.

"Why is it that every state legislator I called - Jon David Reinhardt, Jack Westwood, Tom Kerr - called me back and talked to me," Daniels said. "But I can't get a straight answer or even a phone call from my school board members?"

Parents plan to attend the Feb. 24 board meeting in a last attempt at keeping the school open.

Angela Spaw, Olivia's mother, said since the community only learned of the proposed closing in late January, parents should ask the school district to delay a final decision on the fate of Visalia Elementary.

"We should be given an extension, and then let us try to raise the money to keep the school open," Spaw said. "We should at least be given the chance to try."

Students from Visalia would be sent to three other elementary schools in southern Kenton County - Whites Tower, Ryland and Piner.

Valarie Redman-Shearer, the president of Whites Tower PTA, said parents there are concerned that if students from Visalia are transferred, crowding may become an issue at Whites Tower.

"We already have some classes that are pretty crowded," said Redman-Shearer, who attended Thursday's meeting at the Kenton Fire Station. "When we have small schools like Visalia, I just don't understand why they have to be closed. It doesn't make any sense."

Cherie Fullwood and Kai Kohlbrand, Visalia fourth-graders, say going to another school would be difficult.

"I wouldn't know anybody," said Kai. "That would make it hard to make friends and would make it harder to learn."

Cherie pointed to the row of colorful handmade posters on the firehouse wall. "See that one," she said, "with the S.O.S. That stands for Save Our School."

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com