By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph school board members have scrapped the two high school model, favoring a plan to keep all three high schools.
The decision comes after months of planning to move to two high schools. Public discussion, though, led the Board of Education to reverse course in favor of maintaining the current system.
St. Joseph school Superintendent, Ashly McGinnis, says details have not been worked out.
“So, we will be meeting with some individuals this week and in the future weeks to iron out all of those details,” McGinnis tells KFEQmmunity, “but, I think the main part of that is the community spoke and I think our board listened to our community and the voice that they heard was that the three high schools want to be maintained by our community. And so that is the route we will be pursuing.”
The decision by the St. Joseph Board of Education comes in wake of public discussions during three public hearings, held at each of the high schools.
In April, St. Joseph voters rejected a $157 million bond issue which would have financed the building of a new high school, pivotal to the St. Joseph School District plan to downsize from three to two high schools. The Board of Education decided to forge ahead on the two high school model, first considering using Central High School and Lafayette High School. The board then instructed staff to consider using Benton High School as well, which would have required using Hyde Elementary School to provide enough space.
During its regular monthly meeting Monday evening, the Board of Education reversed course and adopted what has been labeled Plan E, a community-based realignment maintaining all three high schools. The plan does call for three middle schools teaching 7th and 8th Grade students, eliminating Bode Middle School. Though the plan still remains vague, it does call for the closure of Hyde Elementary School as well.
McGinnis acknowledges the decision caught her by surprise. She now will meet with her staff to flesh out a plan that at best is a mere outline.
“We will take that back to our team and then calculate what staffing looks like, financial projections, all of those pieces. We may have to adjust boundaries,” McGinnis says. “But then we will bring that back to the board at the November work session.”
In short, get to work on Plan E.
“So, the next step for us is to consider Plan E and mold that into a plan that works for our district,” McGinnis says. “It will be molding the three high school model with three middle schools, what elementaries we can have, what staffing looks like, potential closures for our buildings, and then budget projections and what the savings could be long-term.”
McGinnis doesn’t see a problem in drafting a plan in time for the Boad of Education to consider it next month.
Interview with Ashly McGinnis on KFEQmunnity
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ