Schools

Current Enrollment to Help School Board Decide About Third High School

School board members ask for updated enrollment projections and proposals on what additions to the current high schools would cost as opposed to building a third.

While members of the Board of Education agree the district’s student population is growing rapidly, some are not ready to say a third high school is needed to to ease crowding.

“Before I make a decision I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing and spending the taxpayers money in the best way it should be spent,” said board newcomer Alison Swanson during a workshop following Monday night’s board meeting.

School board members have asked RSP & Associates to update the projected enrollment numbers with the 2010 census data and run projections out to 10 years. RSP provided the district with its most recent projected enrollment numbers.

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Robert Schwarz of RSP said the firm predicted the last enrollment numbers with a 99.9 percent accuracy rate.

"You need to put faith in what the numbers are," he said.

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He added that though there will be "significantly less redevelopment than in years past, the households with younger children continue to move through the system."

“The main thing the board is looking at is longer range projections,” Superintendent Daniel O'Donnell said. “Even though when you go out past three years in this environment it’s iffy because things are going to change. All we know is something’s going to happen.”

Board members also asked the architects who worked on both and schools, Kluber Architects and Engineering and ATS&R Architectural Co., to complete proposals on what additions to the schools would cost as opposed to building a third high school. The companies are to report back to the board at its May 9 meeting.

During the workshop, administrators and board members viewed a PowerPoint presentation that outlined several other options to address high school overcrowding, including year-round school where one portion of the student body is off while the other portion is in school; trailers or mobile classrooms; a split-shift schedule; and freshman centers; additions to the two existing high schools; building a third high school; or leaving the schools as is.

Officials said the latter option could lead to an increase in discipline problems, air and health quality issues, and leave the district open to potential lawsuits.

“Putting more kids in spaces not designed to be classrooms could lead to increased liability if something should happen in the classrooms or hallways,” O'Donnell said.

Some board members took issue with Monday’s portions of the PowerPoint presentation, especially with how leaving the school as-is was depicted.

“By displaying these you’re letting parents think their child is sitting in some kind of cubby in the middle of nowhere with no way to get out,” Board member Laurie Pasteris said.

Board president Bill Walsh agreed.

“We should explain some of these issues because these are very scary issues if they’re put up there and just left up there,” he said.

Oswego High School currently enrolls a little less than 2,200 students and Oswego East High School enrolls about 2,100 students. With 840 seniors graduating this year and 1,150 eighth-graders set to enroll as freshmen, officials said the district will be over optimum capacity of 2,100 in each school and will shortly reach maximum practical capacity of 2,400 in each building as class sizes continue to increase over the next several years.

Editor's notes: Attached to this report is the PowerPoint presentation given at Monday night's school board meeting.

This story has been corrected to more accurately reflect discussions about leaving the two high schools as-is. We regret the errors.


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