[February 08, 2009]

EDITORIAL: School merger questions

(Herald, The (Rock Hill, SC) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Feb. 8--It's not enough for residents of Great Falls simply to protest the plan to close the town's middle and high schools. They have to help the school board find a workable alternative.

The problems facing the Chester County school system are daunting. With revenue cuts by the state and no local reserves to draw on, school district officials say they need to trim at least $3.9 million from next year's budget.

The proposal that has many local residents up in arms would close the middle and high schools and send Great Falls students to Lewisville schools. The move would save the district an estimated $1.7 million to $1.8 million, mostly as a result of laying off 40 teachers.

Great Falls residents turned out by the hundreds Thursday night at the middle school gym to discuss the possible school merger. Many of those who attended oppose the plan.

The unease is understandable. The schools are valued institutions in the community, institutions that help hold this small community together.

Closing them not only would deprive the community of fixtures at the center of the town's identity. It also would require students to attend a rival school where they would be in larger classes, possibly in mobile units on school grounds.

At Thursday's meeting, school board officials seemed uncertain about the actual net savings that would occur through consolidation. The merger would have its own costs, including the expense of mobile classrooms, which would eat into the money saved by laying off teachers.

Officials said all they have at this point are "guestimates." But the move clearly would not save the necessary $3.9 million.

But what are the alternatives? Great Falls Mayor H.C. "Speedy" Starnes said that a charter school, like one in Calhoun Falls, might be formed if the schools are consolidated. But that, too, would take money.

The argument for consolidation has its merits as well. The merger would affect only 540 total students from Great Falls. That is about the equivalent of one graduating high school class at Rock Hill's Northwestern High School.

Does it make sense to maintain a high school or middle school with a population of roughly 300 students each? While the immediate savings of merging with Lewisville might be hard to calculate, it is certain the merger would save money over time. In addition to reducing the number of teachers, for example, the merger would eliminate the need for duplicate administrations at the middle and high schools.

The fact that the two towns are rivals in sports should not be a long-term problem if the schools consolidate. Once Great Falls students have been fully integrated into the Lewisville schools, the old rivalries should fade away.

Chester County school officials have a responsibility to spell out in more concrete terms how the proposed consolidation would occur and how much money would be saved. Residents, meanwhile, have to do more than simply oppose the merger; they have to come up with reasonable alternatives.

If the schools are merged in the near future, the transition will go far more smoothly if most residents have accepted the need for the merger and are on board with the district's plan.

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Copyright (c) 2009, The Herald, Rock Hill, S.C.
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