Following expiration, Pike Road terminates purchase contract for Georgia Washington Middle School

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Georgia Washington Middle School

On Monday a contract for the sale of Georgia Washington Middle School to the Town of Pike Road expired amid an ongoing lawsuit filed by the Alabama Education Association (AEA) on behalf of three Montgomery Public Schools (MPS) employees.

A judge in the Montgomery County Circuit Court was scheduled to hear the case on Thursday, but Pike Road’s attorney, Susan Copeland, told WFSA-12 the town has gone ahead and terminated the contract and is pursuing “other options” to serve students in the fall.

Copeland’s full statement is below:

Pike Road’s termination of the contract for the purchase of Georgia Washington school does moot that part of the appeal that concerns the sale of GW school. However, the trial court’s injunction on appeal was much broader than merely enjoining the sale of GW. It enjoined the State Superintendent from closing GW and other MPS schools and prohibited him from taking any action to accomplish those closures and relocating students to other schools. So the appeal remains as to the power and authority of the State Superintendent to act on behalf of a local board of education in those matters

Interim State Superintendent Dr. Ed Richardson announced the sale of Georgia Washington in early February during a press conference when an intervention plan of the Montgomery Public School System was released.

He said if the school isn’t sold, layoffs will have to be made.

“If Georgia Washington is NOT sold, we anticipate approximately 200 MPS teachers and 75 support staff will have to be laid off in order for MPS to meet its financial obligation,” Richardson added.

1 COMMENT

  1. Dr Richardson, was that noise I just heard, the dropping of termination packages for the 200 MPS teachers and 75 support staff necessary to meet your financial obligation”. Interesting that the jobs of several hundred Montgomery School system employees was hanging on the sale of a Montgomery school to Pike Road.
    Seems to me the Alabama Education Association and the Montgomery Public School System relied just a bit too much on a sale that fell thru. Now, its crunch time to figure out how to pay these folks. They should not have been placed in this position. Responsibility rests with senior management in AEA and MPS.

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