Lorain/Elyria, OH
BREAKING NEWS: Superintendent wants to close a Lorain high school
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LORAIN — The Lorain Schools superintendent plans to recommend the district close one city high school by the end of the school year.
Admiral King
Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson said in advance of tonight’s 6 p.m. board meeting that a school consolidation plan will be presented to board members for consideration.
Lorain currently has two high schools – Lorain Admiral King on Ashland Avenue and Lorain Southview on East 42nd Street.
At this time, Atkinson said a decision on which of the two schools will close has not been made. School officials will solicit input from the public and discuss the consolidation plan more in the coming months before making a decision.
“The thinking is if we are going to go to one high school at some point, why not do it now and get some cost savings out of it,” she said.
The district is currently working with the Ohio School Facilities Commission to refine its master building plan and in the course of those conversations, it was determined that the state money would be allowed to build one new high school to replace the existing ones.
Southview
The plan to close a high school is the first step in outlining a plan to remedy a $9 million deficit the district will face in 2011.
Earlier this month, voters overwhelmingly rejected a levy attempt to raise more money for the district, forcing officials to look at several ways to cut cost for the upcoming school year.
“I think the people spoke through their vote and we would be less of leaders if we did not rise to the occasion,” she said. “This will be difficult, but necessary.”
Also included in the recommendation plan to be presented tonight includes the possibility of closing other schools. While no elementary or middle schools have been singled out for consolidation, Atkinson said both Irving Elementary and Whittier Middle School are slated for replacement in district’s capital improvement building plan and there will be talk of relocating students in advance of any construction to garner cost savings now.
With the closure of schools, staff may need to be reduced.
However, Atkinson said details are still being worked out as to how teachers and staff will be cut. Some may move to other buildings.
Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.
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Thats gonna be a big mistake. It’s like calling a puertro rican mexican . Fights will happen. The school they pick, and the students that are already in there will think they are better than the new kids transfering. Plus way to make it hard for those living right by the school and maybe have to walk because of parents working!! Lorain… what a stupid city!
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Will need a lot of security which the city can’t afford.
Talk about shoot-outs!
Just wait!
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Well Sarah, unfortunately when levies get rejected decisions must ultimately be made without the luxury of taking people’s feelings into account.
When faced with budget shortfalls you do what you have to do. Of course, somehow I am not surprised to see negative comments already posted in response to a proactive decision that looks at the big picture. Oh, and god forbid some kids have to WALK to school!
Lorain… what a stupid city!</I.
Good one! Please offer an alternative solution from your infinite wisdom.
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38years:
Are you recommending that students attending either school walk all the way to the other? That would be about a 5 mile walk. Is that practical? How many would actually show up? On a rainy day they would be soaked to the bone before they got halfway there.
*Also, how in the world would they fit double the number of students in either building????
*Then, on top of it, they would reduce staff so class sizes would be about 50 - 60 kids depending on the class.
*Can you imagine how long it would take to feed all of them lunch?
* They will kill some of the programs that are proprietary to the individual schools so if you are a student in the midst of one of those programs, you’re just out of luck.
*I also believe it would be an administrative nightmare trying to keep track of double the students with the same number of staff.
This sounds like either a scare tactic to get voters to vote for the levy in February or just plain sour grapes on the part of the school board. Cheryl - you need to sit down. put your thinking cap on, and come up with something more practical and not so insulting to the people of Lorain.
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I have to agree with auntmaryjo. This could potentially be disastrous. There are several logistics concerns, not to mention the almost guaranteed conflicts between students. I understand that the school board must do what they feel is the only course of action, but I am aware of the downfalls of this plan.
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Well…this PROVES IT!!!
Atkinson is retarded!!!
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Are you recommending that students attending either school walk all the way to the other? That would be about a 5 mile walk. Is that practical? How many would actually show up? On a rainy day they would be soaked to the bone before they got halfway there.
No, students that live that far away will be bussed in, as they are now. Sarah was referring to the students that live very close to the school and, as such, are ineligible for bussing because of this close proximity.
I wouldn’t expect kids to walk >1 mile to school through inclement weather, etc.
Regarding the rest of your post, I agree the logistics don’t seem to make much sense at first though I’m sure they don’t plan on just throwing everyone into the same building and letting them all have at it. You jump to conclusions yet have none of the details available to do so.
It would only be temporary until a new facility is constructed, as mentioned in the article.
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If the Lorain School board does close one of the High Schools they should beef up security because as the Cleveland School system found out, the kids didn’t mix well.
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Clearview will be licking their chops over this one. When Lorain closed schools before to rebuild schools, they lost lots of students to Clearview. The students never returned after the schools were done. They had built lives at Clearview and stayed there along with siblings who were coming along in school. Open enrollment money is pure cream.
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Ha! Now others can see how us LHS students felt when they had to close our school…It was horrible to have to go to a new place after 3 yrs of LHS…We worked it out though…It was, however, extremely overcrowded, loud, and sad…They claimed back then that LHS was too old and needed too much work to keep it running. Yeah right…They opened it up the following year I believe as a middle school and that lasted 10 yrs…What the heck? They have a very rude awakening ahead if they do that…LHS 96′!!!
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My daughter goes to AK already and says she hears of all kinds of fights between Southview and AK going on now. She comes home and says theres gonna be a fight tonight over here. Now I dont know but i will home school my child and protect her from all of this as long as i can i will not take any chances in her getting shot or beat up or killed by accident. She is scared to even goto school if they combine the 2 together. All i have to say its not about our children anymore its about trying to put some money in atkins pocket. I think its time for me to check into either home school or clearview school. God Bless All and Good Night. I know my spelling sucks. Sorry for that
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If I am fortunate enough to be elected to State Senate one day, I will institute a state-wide voucher program. Every student gets a $7500 voucher to go to any school he or she wishes. These programs have had limited success in cities such as Cleveland and Washington D.C., but the programs themselves were very limited. We need to look at Sweden who faced the same education issues that we are facing. They developed a nation-wide voucher program that has solved their education crisis. In fact, the early opposition of the program voted to increase funding because it was working so well. If we can take this leap, gone will be the days of 50% graduation rates (Cleveland City Schools), ever constant school levies, and wasteful school officials.
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Well, if I still had kids in the Lorain School System I too would open enroll or better yet move out of Lorain. At least my sister has gotten smarter and is looking to move out before her kids hit high school…probably to a country school…like wellington.. I remember the fights between all 3 schools…can’t imagine joining 2 of them…Well, the best of luck making it work…Lorain police are gonna be BUSY!!.
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How about opening up a trade school for continued education and or for dislocated workers. Something like a culmination of a JVS, Hardhatted Women, LCCC and or a St. Joseph Career School. Theres so much potential in Lorain we just need to funnell it in order to succeed. Why can’t Lorain build a Medical Mart?
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Those are some good ideas, Colleen. I have been very prooud of the work LCCC has been doing for the area, especially opening up more branches such as the one in Wellington. We live in a global economy and we cannot depend on manufacturing jobs to come back to the area (might temporarily with the dollar being low). We need to train workers for the jobs of the coming decades.
I know a friend with a masters degree in civil engineering who could only find a job as a manager at McDonalds. This is a huge problem.
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well it not gonna get your levey passed . there is no way you can close eather school the fire code wouldnt allow all the students in 1 school ak is not large enough sv is not eather are you gonna have school around the clock . The students would learn to get along they did whrn they closed LH but .we had the room in each school as far as the kids getting to school there is a GRANDFATHERS CLAUSE IN THE BOOKS ANY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT IN LORAIN CITY SCHOOL MUST BE BUSED IF THEY LIVE 2MILES FROM THERE HOME SCHOOL .SO HAPPY KIDS LAST YEAR IN LORAIN CITY SCHOOLS so many threats from mrs atkinsons evey year you have been here you are making threats to your staff about loseing there jobs you are like the playground bully like i said this threat not gonna pass your levy worrie about our students education why was the tourting of ogt 1wk befor the test /the student didnt pass the ogt they were told we have to find staff and the money for the tourting wasnt it in your budget oh yea i forgot we gave you a bounus how dumb of us pay the bully extra money we dont have why not give it back dont we pay for your home a car far more then the avarage lorain citizen get and you want us to pay for a levey not happening
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Why not leave both schools open and make one for kids who want an education and the other for those whose parents just send them for whatever reason? My kid will be leaving. Going to one HS that is new has some advantages in terms of new technology and modernization is not part of this plan. I’m not willing to sacrifice my kid for this.
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Every student gets a $7500 voucher to go to any school he or she wishes.
I like your positive thinking Jason, but don’t get caught in the pitfall most politicians do by supplying ideas with no logistical foundation to support it. I am not familiar with Cleveland’s implementation of the program - how do they fund it?
Sweden may have solved their crisis through a program similar to this however I don’t doubt the ability to fund it has a lot to do with the fact that the personal income tax rates there are ~30-57%.
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