Later today, the School Reform Commission will announce its recommendations for closings, rebuilding, or consolidating schools. This plan for "rightsizing" is expected to generate savings for the district but can have adverse effects on neighborhoods. As a teacher at Overbrook Elementary, I am nervous about the plight of our school, which has been on the short list of school closings. Yes, it is an old building (100 years and counting) but it does have its charm. This small neighborhood school works. The staff and parents are invested; students are happy. We work hard. Make AYP. On the down side, we don’t have a gym or an auditorium. But we make do.

The school had closed once before and then reopened in 1996 when parents petitioned the School Board. They thought it wasn’t right for their kids to pass a neighborhood school building and cross highly trafficked streets to attend nearby schools. I have been here since then. So today as we await our fate, I will recall all the good moments and try to remember staff and students who have moved on. This has truly been, “The Little School that Could.”