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Members of the East Allen County Schools board have tough decisions ahead. Facing a budget shortfall, they must decide how to restructure the district to best serve students. They should begin deliberations by acknowledging that the worst decision would be to avoid making one.
Superintendent Kay Novotny offered a recommendation Tuesday to close Paul Harding High School, New Haven Middle School and Monroeville Elementary.
Three attendance areas would be established in the district: one that would feed into New Haven High School, a second that would feed into Leo Junior-Senior High School and a third that would feed into Woodlan and Heritage high schools, both of which would be reconfigured as junior-senior high schools that would include sixth-graders.
The three attendance areas would be structured around Adams Township, Cedar Creek Township and the nine remaining townships, all of which are sparsely populated.
Novotny’s recommendation was based on a study detailing needed renovations and repairs. The plan would include renovation of New Haven High School and demolition of the oldest portion of Harding High School. She offered the recommendation as one proposal, suggesting that better ideas could come from the discussions that follow.
From the response Tuesday, the proposal will not be popular. Harding has a 91 percent minority enrollment, compared with New Haven, with 25 percent, the next highest minority enrollment in the district. Heritage, where half of the Harding students would be sent, is 88 percent white. Black students would unevenly bear the relocation burden, which sadly is the case in most school integration efforts.
The temptation for parents opposed to the plan will be to fight the recommendation rather than seek a better plan. That includes parents whose schools are not directly affected. That would be the wrong approach in this case.
The East Allen school board has for too long bowed to pressure from residents fighting for the status quo. When a previous board made the tough decision in 1990 to reconfigure the district with three high schools, three middle schools and 10 elementary schools, opponents targeted the board member who cast the deciding vote and seated their own candidate.
When the superintendent who proposed the plan left for another job, his successor dropped the consolidation plan, and East Allen has continued on for almost two decades with five high schools, five middle schools and 11 elementary schools.
With about 3,630 students in grades 9-12, the district struggles to maintain five high schools and to offer comprehensive courses at each.
There are no easy choices left for East Allen. Board members must resign themselves to the fact that not everyone will be pleased by the ultimate decision. They can reduce the number, however, by inviting community members to participate in the decision, provided that the goal is to best serve all East Allen students, not just those in their own attendance areas.
Those who were on the front lines of Fort Wayne Community Schools’ desegregation efforts, with the high schools in 1971 and with elementary schools after a 1989 court settlement, will attest to the fact that it is difficult work. But few would suggest going back to the way things once were. The end result is what East Allen board members and parents should focus on. At every step of the decision-making process, they should ask what is best for students.
The school board can facilitate those discussions by scheduling numerous community meetings, preferably in school buildings throughout the district. The emphasis on district goals should be stressed at each. There’s tough work ahead, so strong board leadership is a must.
