Residents urge board to keep L.H. Williams Elementary open and explore rezoning

Two residents told the Bibb County Board of Education during public comment on May 14 that L.H. Williams Elementary holds historic and cultural value for the Pleasant Hill neighborhood and urged the board to pursue alternatives to closure.

"L.H. Williams has remained one of the few long standing institutions rooted directly in Pleasant Hill," Tia Lockhart said, arguing that rezoning some students back from John R. Lewis Elementary would relieve overcrowding and strengthen Williams’ enrollment. She urged the district to consider options that protect neighborhood institutions rather than simply approaching schools "solely through numbers on a spreadsheet."

George Mohammed told the board that L.H. Williams has produced generations of leaders and cultural figures and suggested the district consider converting the school to a magnet or other innovative model to increase enrollment and community investment. He noted a recently opened $1 million facility intended to serve students and the neighborhood and asked the board to avoid closing the walkable neighborhood school at the end of the year.

Administrators had presented broader budget and facility discussions during the meeting that included possible consolidation and rezoning scenarios as one way to address projected deficits; the public comments urged the board to include historic and community impacts in those analyses.

Next steps: Board members acknowledged the concerns and earlier town-hall engagement materials; administration said it will incorporate community feedback as it prepares the more detailed cost and impact analyses requested by board members.