By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph School District officials remain committed to a two-high school model, eliminating a high school from the current model.
How that will be done remains up in the air.
Superintendent, Ashly McGinnis, says the school board has instructed her staff to review a Lafayette-Central model as well as a Benton-Central model that would include the Hyde Elementary school building. A recommendation is to be made next month during the St. Joseph Board of Education work session and regular meeting.
“And so, from this point, what we will do is gather quite a bit of data for our board to consider, look at the pros and cons of both of those options, and then ultimately hope to make a recommendation to the board at the October work session for them to make a decision at the October board meeting,” McGinnis says on KFEQmmunity.
The Benton model would include Hyde, because Benton is the smallest of the three high school buildings and isn’t big enough to house an entire high school. It would need the room Hyde would provide.
McGinnis says both models also include potential school building closures as the district adjusts its facilities to a student population that has dropped below 10,000. Fall enrollment has set a new mark with 9-Thousand, 781 students enrolled in St. Joseph public schools, the lowest student enrollment of the district.
McGinnis says the drop is more than symbolic.
“And so, to fall below that 10,000 mark is concerning,” McGinnis says. “We know birth rates are down and those numbers will continue to decline.”
McGinnis says the drop in enrollment confirms the decision to move to two high schools.
“I presented at Rotary just a couple of weeks ago and someone asked me, ‘What would it take to keep the three high schools open?’ And I think this is important, because it’s very simple. We would need more students,” McGinnis says. “And because we are below 10,000, it’s simply not a wise use of our taxpayer dollars to continue operating with three high schools.”
Under the Lafayette-Central model, Pickett, Hyde, Ellison, and Webster would close. Under the Benton/Hyde-Central model, Ellison, Field, and Webster would close.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ