Well, you can probably tell by the title of this article that I’m not in favor of the single high school concept in Decatur. As much as I’d love to see the Wabash Crossing area redeveloped, and could envision a lovely new high school campus there, I just don’t see it being a great selling point for families with school-age children. I don’t believe it would compete with our rural neighboring communities. The inner-city stigma would be hard to shake. Hope Academy, which is built in this same location, hasn’t been successful in attracting new families to Decatur. A high school in this area would probably follow in Hope’s footsteps.
I personally believe it was a huge mistake to close Stephen Decatur High School and tear down Mound Middle School. Stephen Decatur was located on the north side of town and was our newest high school building; it is now used as a middle school. The Mound Middle School building was in good condition but had the misfortune of being located on a high traffic corner, that was commercially sought after. It’s too late for Mound but the Stephen Decatur building still stands. We can fix one mistake and make up for the other.
What I would suggest, is reoping Stephen Decatur as a high school and converting MacArthur High School into a junior high. The Stephen Decatur campus is large and was designed for a high school. It wouldn’t take much to upgrade it and modernize it, in comparison to the costs of trying to upgrade the MacArthur High School building. The Stephen Decatur campus is an attractive location and could compete with Forsyth, in attracting and retaining families in Decatur. Modernizing Eisenhower would keep a high school on the south side of town, making it convenient for those living on the south side to commute to. Converting MacArthur into a junior high would be far less costly than trying to upgrade it into a modern high school.
I don’t know who wrote it but there was letter to the editor saying instead of spending the money on a new structure Decatur should advertise for the best teachers in America and pay them salaries that are way above the national pay rate. Building do not make the school its whats inside the school and I sort of thought it was a great idea. Headlines read Decatur Illinois Hires Best Teachers in America…Welcome New Students and teachers. The question is how do you know who the best teachers are? There may be some kind of process to determine this, but I don’t know what it is but I liked the idea.
p.s. CONO tonight.
Ack! I totally forgot about the CONO meeting. I’m so pathetic! I kept thinking today was Monday.
Really all the teachers my daughter has had from pre-k (Pershing School) through the 5th grade (Ben Franklin) have all exceeded my expectations. My son goes to Pershing and their early learning program is excellent. I don’t think the problems with our schools have much to do with the quality of our teachers; it has to do with the quality of parents. A new building, no matter how fancy, won’t solve the real problems.
I guess I’m also just old fashioned. I don’t get the new “group learning” techniques and the other strange “hippie” teaching styles. I was told by a parent that one of the magnet schools in town doesn’t assign desks nor have set schedules. Kids just sit on mats on the floor or float around to different tables and do their work when they want to. Huh? What kind of job lets you do that, besides the state?
Hey Kris cool to hear that Decatur has such good teachers!
Regarding the “hippy classes” (you know I’d like them ?) Many years ago my littlest brother (now a middle aged man with 3 teen aged kids) absolutely HATED school. He was really smart really funny and creative but he hated it so bad my mom had to force him to go every single day – walk there with him – until he got this crazy style teacher at John Adams who used some free flowing group study style – my brother just thrived on it! Just loved it and did wonderfully – at least that year…. Today he is a union electrician and really good at what he does and manages a group of people at a company in Champaign. Different people respond and learn better under different styles.
I agree 100% that the problems are more than likely not with our teachers but with the parents and the fact that Decatur and District 61 handle the toughest cases in the entire county…. with the least money…. I saw something interesting on PBS Sunday regarding how the majority of criminals in prison come from the same areas and then return to the same areas. I think until we improve the neighborhoods in District 61 we are fighting an uphill battle cause we have too high of a percentage of the at risk kids…. I’m not wanting to get rid of the at risk kids but just raise the percentage of better parents that want to move here with their kids. There is plenty of vacant space.
Also, in some ways I’m leaning toward supporting a single HS. What do you all think about year round school? I’m thinking it would be a good thing both for the kids, the parents and the neighborhoods… Too many kids left unsupervised with nothing to do over the summer causes big problems… We would need newer buildings to handle the AC and they could be built more green. Also much more could be offered economically in one building and since they all went to the same school it may better the mix of kids from caring families and at risk kids. Just off the top of my head at this point…. The cons to me are I like older buildings and I hate wasting them they were built to last and it is a shame not to use them.
Yeah, I can see where some kids would benefit from different teaching styles. I’m more the traditional learner: the teacher standing in front of the class teaching, me taking notes and then going off to the next class when the bell rings. I also learn best on my own with just books. I’m a self taught web designer and graphic artist too. Some kids would keel over dead from boredom with the way that I prefer to learn. I hate the group stuff. I’m too quiet and shy for that. That would seem like torture to me.
I wouldn’t mind a single high school if it’s in an area of town that folks could live with. I’ve heard so many people say they’d rather yank their kids of out of District 61 than send them to “the hood”, though that area really isn’t that bad anymore. There’s hardly anything there. But then I look at Hope Academy’s school population and it’s 90% African American, from what I could tell when my son went there. I’ll admit, it was awkward. Maybe a better place to locate the school would be up north near St. Teresa. There’s acres of empty lots that direction and decent neighborhoods not far away. Maybe people could live with that option more. I don’t know if there’s enough land though. The Stephen Decatur location is ideal: plenty of land to expand, a newer building that wouldn’t take much to upgrade and a school that could compete with Maroa-Forsyth. Eisenhower needs some major upgrades though. We’d need to know what the costs savings would be with the different options and also think about what options would be most attractive to parents and kids. (And teachers.)
I also worry about “wasting” two high school buildings. I can’t imagine anyone wanting MacArthur. Eisenhower’s property might be marketable. But it does seem really wasteful to leave those buildings vacant. They aren’t that old. Some schools in town are pushing 100 and they’ve been upgraded. My daughter goes to French Academy for advanced orchestra lessons and it’s a very old building with a newer wing added to it. It seems to be a great school.
The problem is no one belives we have good teachers if they did we wouldn’t be talking about declining students. Decatur had great test scores ranking in the top 3 of the entire State but yet talk to the locals and you don’t hear this. I had no problems with any of my sons teachers at Macarthur but had problems with a few at LSA which are no longer there, wonder where they went? I know where they went but I will let the parents make there own decisions. Advertise that we are wanting the best, hiring the best prove it with coolege placement and people will come back to Decatur schools. A single building will not do it. Move everyone to 1 school and then what happens? If we have growth build a second school? Not with my money I will sell in a heart beat if that happens. I don’t blame it all on the parents. A high majority of those parents also attended Decatur public schools so there may just be a reason parents don’t get along with the current school system and its teachers. I don’t have any more kids in school and my grand daughter will not be going to school in Decatur because of the bad publicity (moms choice why take the chance). People are already tired of the highest sales tax in the area the only other place to get the money is from property taxes and you know how that will go over. We have plenty of open buildings if they build a new one its a waste of money. When my daughter was little 18 years ago she went to South East and we absolutly loved it there, it was an excellent school. The whole thing is pereption and that won’t change with a fancy building. Like I said before I don’t know how to guage what makes a teacher the best but the sooner we let people know thats what we got the faster things can turn around, or we can throw money at a new building and hope all the whistles and bells keep people from moving to the out skirts. I would rather pay big money for excellent teachers than for brick and morter.
I agree Doug. Perception is everything. I’m sure we’ve all heard how awful Decatur’s schools are, yet my experience with Decatur’s schools have been 99% positive, both as a student and as a mother of two students. I don’t think Decatur’s schools are any worse than nearby districts but some people have such a rotten perception of Decatur, and a lot of it isn’t grounded in reality. To be honest, a lot of it is grounded in racist attitudes.
The only problems I’ve witnessed have come from kids who have irresponsible parents. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
I’d also like to keep two high schools for the reason you stated above. If Decatur’s population were to grow then we’d have to build another new school.
Personally, I’d rather have two schools with smaller campuses than one big honkin’ school. It just seems pathetic that a city the size of Decatur would only have one public high school. We used to have four not that long ago.
I know, I just hope it turns around.
Do you know who the little girl was that got attacked by the dogs yesterday? I was driving to work and saw 2 guys with baseball bats getting ready to ambush the 2 pit bulls so I called the police so that they could come out and shoot them if needed. Then on the news today it said an 11 year old got attacked by the dogs while she was walking to school on Ravina.
My daughter knows who the girl is. I guess she was walking to school on Ravina with some other kids and the dogs jumped through a screen and attacked the girl. The owners came out with baseball bats, like you said, and I’d hate to think what would have happened if the owners weren’t there. The school called me yesterday to pick up my daughter because they wouldn’t let any of the kids walk home, since one of the dogs was still loose. I don’t know if they’ve found the other dog yet.
This will probably bring up the question of whether or not to ban pit bulls in town again. It seems like every year some kid gets hurt really bad by one. I’m a dog lover but I’d never own a pit bull. I know most of them can be very lovable but they’re just too strong to control, if they go nutso.
I didn’t know who the guys were but they didn’t call the police and if they knew the girl was attacked they should of. I just can’t figure out why they were chasing them with bats if they were the owners talk about dangerous dogs even the owners were afraid. I haven’t heard if they caught the other dog either.
On the banning of pit bulls I wouldn’t mind. Friends of my son have a pit and they bring it over to our house to play with Lydia and its like a big baby but I still don’t turn my back to it and would never allow any kids around ever. Lydia and the pit play very well together but I still don’t trust them. Did they try to ban them before here I have heard of other places that have.
They caught the dog that was running loose. I don’t know if anyone in city management has ever formally brought up a ban on pit bulls or not, but it’s been discussed before in the community. I think a boy was killed a couple years ago by one. That’s not the only time I remember that happening in town.
I don’t trust pit bulls either. They can be lovable and I know how much people can love their dogs but if they turn on a child, the outcome can be deadly. Other dog breeds might bite but it usually doesn’t take a baseball bat to get them to quit.
I would like to offer a variation of the idea promoted by Kris. I for one, am willing to sign up for providing Decatur kids a functional and effective high school learning environment. I do slightly disagree with Kris in that I am open minded that a quality high school may contribute to drawing students into Decatur schools if it is coupled with measurable improvements in student achievement (and behavior).
I would encourage the high school task force and the community to critique ALL options including redesignating SDMS as SDHS. I think it would only cost the change of one letter (m >> h; kidding – kind of).
Here is the variation. Instead of redefining a building as an alternative middle school to current SDMS, I suggest increasing the number of buildings with K-8. One of the best schools in the Decatur system is Johns Hill which is K-8. In addition, several of the private schools operate with this same model.
Educators have known and argued for years that a K-8 model works better for kids because as evolving adolescents, they don’t “jump” into a new environment with new friends, social networks, new teachers and new class structure. By staying in their current building, they retain relationships and familiarity which provides stability and improves educational achievement.
As far as age of buildings, older buildings can be rehabilitated. DPS 61 has done this with a number of buildings (i.e. Dennis). I am not advocating rehabilitating EHS and MHS, but think that the existing buildings available to the public schools could be enhanced to substantially reduce the cost of realigning our student base and providing a functional learning environment.
Please note that I resisted using the terms “world class” or “first class”. There are excellent educational facilities all over the US and right here in Decatur that may not be brand new or “state of the art”, but do provide an excellent and functional learning environment.
I would prefer to spend the money on upgrading facilities and programs at a modest cost. The simple truth is that we don’t have the economic base to have every public sector facility be “brand new”.
Taxpayers and our local economy must be a factor. If the costs and burden are ignored, we will continue to lose population and our economic base.
The K-8 concept is interesting. I don’t know what grade schools in Decatur could easily expand to accommodate the number of junior high students though.
My daughter’s school, Ben Franklin, is already busting at the seams. Many of our other grade school buildings are designed with the same blueprint as Franklin – quite literally. Stephen, I get what you’re saying about the buildings themselves. They don’t have to be brand spanking new to provide a quality education. I would support upgrading our current facilities before building new, unless it just wouldn’t be cost effective.
Actually, I wouldn’t mind trying a 6th-8th grade middle school concept. I think kids are ready for more diverse courses by the sixth grade, or at least they should be. It seems kind of wasteful to only have two grades in our middle schools. Many school districts already have 6-8th grade levels in their junior highs.
There’s lots of options to discuss but of course, it all comes down to money. I guess I’m looking at it from a business standpoint. What kind of school system is going to be competitive with other districts in the area to stop the urban flight? It becomes a viscous cycle when families leave for the rural districts. The poor remain poor and get to deal with all the problems that stem from that fact.