Dozens of Moline residents demonstrated their opinions of the district’s proposal to close two elementary schools.
Friends of Small Neighborhood Schools marched up 16th Street from Browning Park to Garfield Elementary School in Moline while showing their opposition to the Moline School District’s proposal to close Ericsson and Garfield Elementary Schools.
Students at those two schools would be forced to attend other schools in the city.
“The regular days when it's raining and it's cold or it's snow and it's ice when they don't close, a 1.2 mile walk or a 1.24 mile walk is just too much to ask students to do,” said Phebe Lees, a group member. “ We think it's dangerous for the students and we think it's bad for the community, bad for the neighborhoods to close the neighborhood schools."
Some students would go to the new Hamilton School, which district leaders broke ground on May 7.