The High School Task Force is now in Phase 2 in its process to select the best option for upgrading Decatur’s two high schools. You can weight in online by clicking here. Four options were recently presented to the school board: renovating both high schools and building a new tech academy; building a single new high school with the tech academy on campus; converting Stephen Decatur Middle School back into a high school; or the “do nothing option”. There’s a Powerpoint and video presentation on the school district’s Website here detailing each plan.
I didn’t choose any of the four options. I participated in phase 1 of the task force meetings and saw many of the plans. There were pluses and minuses for each. However, after thinking about it, I really think the best option (which doesn’t equal the cheapest) would be to renovate Stephen Decatur and convert it back into a high school, demolish Eisenhower and rebuild it and convert MacArthur High School into a junior high.
To me, it makes the most sense geographically to have a high school on both the north and south sides of town. It also makes sense to have our two junior high buildings on the east and the west. Busing kids from South Shores up to Stephen Decatur, which is on the northern edge of town, would be less than ideal. A single high school for a city the size of Decatur isn’t in my opinion a good option. I think it would limit our growth potential and reflect poorly on the community. It would be a major turn-off to many parents and prospective residents moving into the area.
According to the engineers during Phase 1, students could continue attending Stephen Decatur while the remodeling was taking place; however, an issue to work out is what do we do with the students at Eisenhower when they’re building is being rebuilt? It would be impossible to completely rebuild a new high school during the summer months.
Interesting – thanks for posting this. I haven’t followed it much although I think it is really important to Decatur that we do the very best we can in our schools. I really see both sides regarding consolidation. There are advantages to consolidating to one school – like we could afford the best adn to offer the best in it one more than we can in 2 but I also am concerned the a bigger school is not the solution to real problems we have in district 61. What keeps people away from our schools is fear of them and larger is more scary. My friend who is raising her grandkids and sending them St Pats even though she and husband don’t have much money. She said the best things DPS could do is put in cameras in classrooms and make kids wear uniforms….
I think there are advantages to one consolidated school but I haven’t heard many people liking the idea in the community. I think it would result in more parents looking towards smaller communities. There is a fear of big schools. The teachers I talked to at the meetings didn’t care for it either.
Also, I’d just hate to waste two buildings. MacArthur is kind of the anchor for the west end of town and it’s not in so bad of shape that it couldn’t be renovated, especially for middle school use.
I was totally in favor of 1 state of the art school. It’s your comments and some I’ve heard from other parents that have swayed me. Not totally but now I’m pretty undecided on it.
I’m generally like you on not wanting to waste buildings but here I think the bigger picture of drawing people wiht school age children BACK to Decatur will save more buildings (including houses) than anything long term. What I’m starting to question is would bigger feel safer? I really think the main reason many flee Decatur is fear of the safety of our schools. We need to do whatever does the most to address that problem.