Our Opinion: The School Board is Ready to Take the Leap. Are We?

Warren County School Board members are ready to have a tough conversation on Sept. 9.

Are we?

The board will discuss a motion to close Youngsville and Sheffield high schools at its next meeting. It’s a step no one really wants to take, but one that most board members and district administrators agree is necessary. The enrollment and budget numbers indicate that it’s time to reshape the district for the next 20 years. The enrollment we lost isn’t coming back anytime soon. The tax base and employers we lost aren’t coming back anytime soon.

As people and businesses leave, district expenses increase, while educational offerings do not progress.

And that’s precisely the goal of the Sept. 9 meeting. Keeping four high schools open doesn’t allow the district as a whole to provide the kind of education Warren County students and their parents should expect.

The September 9 meeting can go in two directions: one looking back, the other looking forward. Looking back is really repeating all the other meetings where school closures were discussed. Those arguments got us here. Making a decision based on those old arguments means we will be back there in a year or two. Let us not repeat the mistakes of the past.

It is more productive to look to the future. How can we overcome the community’s legitimate concerns about transportation and opportunity? How can we help students who may be struggling with the transition? What kind of new learning opportunities can we expect not only for Sheffield and Youngsville high school students, but also for current Warren Area High students? How will a new configuration make graduating classes more college-ready or job-ready each year?

We are confident that the house will be full on September 9th. We are confident that there will still be people who want to cling to the old four-school model that got us to where we are—a district that struggles to balance its budget every year, that continues to cut classes and activities for students so we can keep small schools open.

Are we ready to take the plunge? We hope so. It’s time.

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