http://www.timesenterprise.com/homepage ... d=topstoryPublished: February 14, 2006 12:00 am
Magnolia rezoning hearing March 6
By Brewer Turley
THOMASVILLE ? The Thomasville Planning and Zoning Commission will meet March 6 to determine whether plans to turn the old Magnolia-Chappelle school property into a boarding school have a future.
Dr. Harold Dabel, director of the Pillars of Hope school in Costa Rica, along with partner Doug Pennock, have applied to have the property rezoned from R1 residential to R1 conditional use, college or university.
Dabel and Pennock have a contract with the Thomas County School System to purchase Magnolia for $750,000 ? the highest bid entered for the property. However, the purchase is contingent upon the City of Thomasville?s ruling on the zoning request.
?We want to continue using it as a school. There are a lot of classrooms already ideally sized, and things that work really well for us in a boarding school environment,? Dabel said. ?Some areas will be converted into dormitories.?
Dabel said the school will work with teenagers, mostly between the ages of 14 and 18, sent there by their parents.
?The type of students that come in are typically students who have fallen behind in their schooling for different reasons,? he said. ?Some kids suffer from depression. Some were home schooled and the parents have seen it just wasn?t working.
?Other students had some type of issues, gone to therapy, and been recommended to go to a boarding school, where they can be supported with high standards and 24-hour chaperoning.?
Dabel was briefly hired as part of the management team for the Dundee Ranch, a Costa Rican boarding school that was shut down in 2003 amid allegations of student mistreatment.
?Two weeks after I got into Costa Rica, the school had closed down,? he said. ?The decision to close was made by the administration and by the owner of the school at that time. Within a week, all of the students? travel arrangements had been made to return to the United States to their parents, or to another school.?
After the school?s closing, Dabel transformed the facilities into Pillars of Hope, an international boarding school that still helps teens today.
If the rezoning request is approved, Dabel said a local advisory board would be put together to give the school direction. He also said the historical legacy of the Magnolia Chappelle School will remain intact.
?We?re huge on investment in tradition and history. Those are things we would love to resurrect,? Dabel said. ?We will make sure the grounds are well kept. We plan on investing quite a bit in beautifying the area of the school.?
Magnolia was an all-black high school prior to the integration of all public schools, after which it was a middle school. Most recently, the facilities housed Hand-In-Hand Primary School, which relocated last year.
Dabel is now hoping to use the old school to teach other students.
?The kids we work with are great. They go on to be very successful. They?ve just made some poor choices,? he said. ?But once you get them away from that environment, they have tremendous potential, and they prove it.?
Part of the curriculum of the school is to teach students about community service, by way of local projects and fund-raisers.
?They become all about service. That?s what the community will see if we are provided the opportunity,? he said.
The Thomasville Planning and Zoning Commission will hear the rezoning request, then make a recommendation to the Thomasville City Council for final consideration. The commission meeting will be held at City Hall March 6, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
To contact reporter Brewer Turley, call (229) 226-2400, ext. 226.