Paducah Sun, Nov. 3, 2011
EXTRAVAGANT
Editorial
The board of education was right to alter plans for the new McCracken County High School to include ninth grade, rather than just grades 10-12 as originally announced. That makes sense.
But now it makes even less sense than before to keep all 12 of the system’s existing schools open once the three high schools are consolidated in 2013.
Including ninth grade on the high school campus will make it easier to design a four-year college-prep program. It will also allow all four grades to compete inter-scholastically in sports, music and academics, since most other high schools in the state include all four grades.
The board was able to include ninth grade by adding a fifth “house” on the new campus. Instead of dividing the projected enrollment of about 1,300 students in grades 10-12 among four houses (325 in each), the school will divide about 1,850 students in grades 9-12 among five (370 in each) houses.
Each student will be assigned to one of the five houses for all four years of high school to become part of a smaller, close-knit community within the larger school. The students will take the core of their classes in their own pods but will be able to take some classes, particularly electives, in the other pods.
That’s all fine. But it’s the plans for the existing facilities that ought to concern taxpayers. The board plans to keep all of them, including the high schools, open.
The three high schools will become junior high schools for grades 6-8. The three middle schools will house only grades four and five. And the six elementary schools will include kindergarten through third grade.
It’s not as if the board has to build to keep up with population growth. According the U.S. Census, the county population has remained flat for the last decade. Only the Lone Oak schools are hurting for space, and that problem by itself did not require such a drastic solution. In fact, Lone Oak Middle School’s enrollment will still stretch the building’s capacity once the new high school is open, so one could argue that that problem isn’t solved.
Most of the other schools have plenty of space now, and they will soon have excess capacity.
The school system plans to expand its course offerings, which will require additional staff. And Superintendent Nancy Waldrop said each of the five houses at the high school will have its own principal. That’s a whole lot of new principals for a school system that is already heavy with administrators.
Increasing efficiency was, or should have been, the primary purpose for consolidating the schools. But eliminating a few instructors for courses that are duplicated in the three high schools won’t make a dent in the increased costs for additional staff and overhead for keeping all 12 existing schools open and adding what will be one of the largest high schools in the state, with its army of new teachers and administrators.
Efficiency was apparently a low priority in the decision to build the new high school, but it should be a priority in how the McCracken County public schools operate. The board should take a hard look at whether it’s really necessary to keep all 12 of the current schools open after removing 1,850 students, or nearly one-third of the enrollment.
Offering the best possible facilities for students is a worthwhile goal, but it must be balanced with respect for the taxpayers who are paying the bills.