Historic Fessenden will continue operating as elementary school

Fessenden Elementary School [supplied]

Talks of closing the historic Fessenden Elementary School have been halted following community upheaval in support of the school to remain open.

The Marion County School Board has agreed to take the closing of Fessenden Elementary and other north Marion County schools off the table, at least until the completion of the construction of a new Interstate 75 interchange and a Buc-ee’s superstore.

The school was founded in 1868 as Fessenden Academy, eventually transitioned into Fessenden High School and was absorbed into Marion County Public Schools in 1951. The school was built and founded by a group of freedmen, led by Thomas Ward. It was founded as a private school to serve Black students during the era of Jim Crow laws.

Andrew Carnegie, the legendary steel tycoon, awarded the school a grant of $6,500 in the early 1900s for the construction of the main building.

School board member Allison Campbell had suggested that the school buildings be used for another purpose, given the age of the facilities and many renovation needs.

“I was one of the board members who kind of initiated the conversation about Fessenden and Reddick (elementaries) combining, or something to that effect,” said Campbell. “I would recommend at this time that the board not address those issues and actually hold off on our conversations on north end consolidation at all until the new interchange goes in at Buc-ee’s.”

“I’m finished with the present conversation. The vision that I had put forth, no one else caught. So, I’m fine with moving on and just leaving that issue alone,” Campbell said.

While board members agreed that the Fessenden conversation should be paused, the issue still remained about how schools will continue to operate if they are not able to cover their costs.

“We have to have a very productive conversation in the very near future about what schools will do when they do not generate enough money to cover their costs at site-based budgeting in a year from now,” said board member Sarah James.

The breakeven for site-based budgeting is about 600 students at the elementary level and several schools are not meeting that threshold. Four of those schools are in the north end of the county, said James.

“If those schools are expected to live within the site-based budget that they are going to get, there will have to be cuts from their staff because they will not have enough money to cover all of the expenditures and their payroll,” James said.

Board member Nancy Thrower emphasized the need to protect Fessenden and other historic schools, such as Osceola and Eighth Street Elementary.

“It’s just incredible to me that that we have a school in our midst that was started by freedman, former slaves,” Thrower said. “So, to see how that has grown from 1868 into what it is now, it’s something for our community to be so proud of living history.”