The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Dear Editor:
First of all, I have been encouraged by the number of positive comments that I have received as a result of last week's letter. Your phone calls and comments have been greatly appreciated.
And now for the latest. At the last committee of ten consolidation meeting held in Colchester, I learned that the transition plan that the committee would recommend to a newly elected board of education would be one where all 500 high school students would attend the Sciota facility the very first year, school year 2003-2004.
This would be the plan while the building addition is being added to the Sciota facility if the bond referendum also passes.
The transition plan is a plan that would be implemented if the consolidation issue is approved, and is a recommendation as to how to get the new district started.
There are a number of reasons that this idea is the wrong approach.
First let me say that I am not trying to run down the building that currently houses Northwestern High School.
A lot of these same concerns would exist if the plan was gong to be to put out all the high school students in any of the other high school buildings.
However, I have been told that the building in Sciota is probably in the worst condition of any of the schools that are part of this consolidation effort.
1. The most obvious reason as to why this is not a good idea is the amount of locker room and gym space available in this building for the everyday physical education classes.
The locker rooms are inadequate now for the number of students that this building houses, even without considering the extra curricular activities that would be held there.
For a school of 500 students in an eight period day there would have to be 8 P.E. classes for male students and 8 P.E. classes for the females. These classes would have at least 30 students in each one of them, making a total of 70 students in the small facility 8 periods a day.
In my experience, half of a small gym is not enough space to conduct any meaningful physical education activities for classes of 30 students.
2. I was told that the present cafeteria will seat 75 students. If the lunch schedule started at 11 a.m. and went to 1 p.m. (four 30 minute periods) that would mean that for a student body of 500, 125 students would have to eat at each 30 minute period, 50 more than what the cafeteria will hold.
Remember, the gym would not be available either as it will be used 100% of the time for P.E. classes. Also, construction of the new building addition would be going on. Preliminary plans call for the remodeling of the cafeteria and some major construction around the main entrance. We would be trying to use a facility that is being remodeled at the same time.
3. Approximately eight years ago, our community passed a bond referendum to build on a new addition to LaHarpe High School. Part of that new addition was a badly needed library to accommodate 500 K-12 students.
Our faculty has taken advantage of this great resource to aide them in the education of our children. In my estimation, the Northwestern facility is less than half the size of the one we have here in LaHarpe. It is not adequate to handle 500 high school students.
4. About ten years ago, the industrial arts classes were eliminated at Northwestern.
The Industrial arts shop is nonexistent at the present time. I doubt that it can be brought back to any level of competency in a short period of time since it is being used for other purposes now.
5. The home ec lab is inadequate also. Too small to accommodate the number of students it would be asked to serve.
6. The water and sewer systems have been a constant problem at the Sciota facility. Although the water problem is probably going to be solved with water coming from Good Hope, and the sewer system scheduled to be completely redone as part of any new construction, the new sewer system would not be ready during the first year.
Along with this, the current restroom facilities would be inadequate for the student population.
7. The Sciota building is not air conditioned at this time. This would be a step backwards for LaHarpe students as all classrooms are currently air-conditioned. Could there be anything worse than being in an overcrowded building on a 95 degree day?
8. I would have to admit that I have been spoiled by the easy access that our students have had to computers and computer labs. Our faculty has taken full advantage of the computer labs by taking their whole class to the labs to work on assignments.
The library has a more than adequate number of computer stations to do research, or take the overflow from the other labs, or to be used for classes taken over the Internet.
I don't think that the equipment, space, or accessibility would exist during the first year with all students attending the Sciota facility.
9. The science labs that were built as part of our new addition have served us well also. We have two new labs and the older one that was converted to a combination classroom and science lab.
I do not know how we got along so well without this setup. For a school of 500, you will need at least two and probably three labs. Needless to say these do not exist in the Sciota facility.
10. For those of you concerned with extra-curricular activities, you have every reason to be. This question will not be decided until November. This will be in the middle of the volleyball and football seasons. By necessity, the 2003-2004 schedules need to be in place, and will be for each individual school or for those with co-op teams.
These schedules would be for the four individual schools consolidating, not for the newly formed school district.
Therefore, if the consolidation issue passes, no sports schedules would exist for the newly formed district. Officially, there would be no school to make a schedule for, as it would not come into existence until July 1, 2003. No school board, no superintendent, no principals, and no athletic director.
Who would have the authority to make any official decisions? This makes it impossible to come up with a decent schedule, especially for football.
Volleyball and the other sports would be a little easier but probably would not have any conference affiliation. All you have to do is look at Southern High School's problems with not belonging to a football conference.
Some of their closest away games are 200 miles away! I do not think that the West Central Conference or the Prairie land Conference will be too interested in adding a school of 500, especially when Southern would be there asking for the Thunder's spot in the West Central of Yorkwood/Roseville's spot in the Prairie land.
11. Eleven portable classrooms would have to be leased to accommodate the 500 students. These would have to be hooked up to the current sewer and water systems that are already overburdened.
There was some concern voiced about there being enough room at the Sciota facility for all the new rooms that have to be built.
With that in mind, where are the portable classrooms going to be placed so that they will be easily accessible and still be out of the way of the new construction going on?
There are two solutions to the above mentioned concerns. The first is the vote no on the consolidation issue.
At this point in time, I see that as the best solution.
That would allow us to revisit the consolidation configuration and hopefully come up with something more favorable to the citizens of LaHarpe.
The second solution, if for some reason the consolidation issue does pass, is to leave each school where it is for the transition year. That solves all the problems that I have listed.
"Kids First" is the title that the committee of ten has given this project. I don't think that the kids were even considered in this decision.
It was even said by one of the committee of ten members that putting all 500 high school students in the Sciota facility would guarantee passage of the bond referendum, as the kids would be in such poor conditions that everybody could see the need for a new building addition.
What is the hurry? If the majority of the voters do favor consolidation, what difference would one more year make? This would give everyone time to work out the numerous problems that will exist if the consolidation issue passes.
The decision to put all 500 high school students at Sciota the first year was made with haste. Come to think about it, this is not a transition plan.
It's a plan to throw everybody together as quickly as possible with no consideration of the problems that it creates. A new school board would not be elected until July 1, 2003. This does not leave enough time to get everything in place.
Not enough thought was put into making this decision. If the kids really are really the first concern, the committee of ten members will revisit this issue.
Charles Apt
LaHarpe