By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph School Superintendent, Ashly McGinnis, says the St. Joseph School District will move forward with its plan for a two high school system, though the Board of Education hasn’t finalized a plan, yet.
McGinnis says a recent public survey taken by the district disclosed mixed results with about half of those responding favoring the current, three high school model, and half favoring a move to a two high school model.
“The unfortunate part of that is right now we’re in a financial situation where we need to go to two high schools,” McGinnis says during her appearance on KFEQmmunity. “But I do think we have quite a bit of support with that; I do.”
McGinnis, a St. Joseph native who has been with the district since 2007, understands the difficulty in eliminating a high school.
“It is tough, because we have a population, a pocket of people, who are just so committed to that red, blue, and green and appreciate and respect tradition and the history there.”
McGinnis says the Board of Education has asked for the costs involved in moving to a model with Central and Lafayette Highs Schools as well as one involving Central and Benton.
McGinnis says all of this is a work in progress.
“The plan right now is a working document until we can land on which two sites and then, ultimately, the future,” McGinnis says. “Personally, I can’t settle with just having two high schools in any of those situations, either one of the two, and then just being done. I think for our kids and for our community to move forward we have to look at having a new high school.”
McGinnis says board members as well as staff have been working to understand what exactly voters told the district in April when they rejected a $157 million bond issue to build a new high school.
McGinnis says the district and board must take a system-wide approach, pointing out the district must cope with declining enrollment and staffing needs.
“We have to look at our system and our district as a whole, all of our buildings, and how can we address these inefficiencies,” McGinnis says.
McGinnis says though hard decisions are ahead, she’s optimistic.
“I’m hopeful for the future,” McGinnis says. “I think that it is time that we have action and I think we have a lot of leaders in place and it’s going to be a positive change. And I believe that will be positive for our district as a whole.”
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ