DLGF says no

Hi, thanks for inviting me!
So, what does everyone think about the DLGF saying no to SCH on the new high school?
When I went down to Indy for a meeting w/Ms. Musgrave, et al, they were expressing concerns over the financial sleight of hand and self-contradictory statements made by the SCH reps. Of particular concern was the entire train of "what ifs" that had to go just right for the SCH plan to work.
I heard from a little birdy about a week ago that the decision was made to deny the proposal, but was told to keep quiet.
I think a more modest plan would go over much better with the taxpayers, myself included.

Thank god

I'm glad this got turned down

I agree Mark, a good plan that takes into account the fact that ?Clark? (the one in Robertsdale) is pretty decrepit too.
I know, redraw the district lines to allow Robertsdale to be in the Whiting district. Build a new (realistic) Hammond High to consolidate the high schools to Morton (seriously under used) and the new HHS.
But it will never get a serious consideration or even a cursory glance as it would mean giving up part of a fiefdom by someone.

i agree on all counts. the biggest thing that needs to be incorporated is clark. that school needs to be converted to a middle school. but what do you do with the high school kids then?

what id like to see happen is for whiting to consolidate with hammond schools, for a northern high school to be built to service everyone north of gostlin. and then a new high school built for the remaining hammond/gavit high schoolers. with morton remaining mostly the same, a few of the gavit kids would wind up at morton

the total construction cost would be about the same (slightly more actually). but wed be converting 5 schools into 3 instead of 4 in to 3 and eliminating a whole bunch of administrators in both whiting and hammond.

heck, i even have the perfect cheap location for the central hammond school. how about where city hall and the adjacent park are. no condemnation needed, no property fights, and the same approximate location.

it would just need to be a more economically sound project. and this way we could still find a way, if possible to utilize the old school as a landmark, and keep the civic center viable.

the only problem is where to build the northern school? oh, and how do we get whiting to finally recognize the writing on the wall and move to consolidate some resources with hammond?

Oracle, the price is what doomed it the most

You cannot tell me that they cannot consolidate and renovate for less than $100 million

oh i know they could have. which is why i was so against thus proposal myself.

i personally saw what they did at the elementary level and back in my radio days had a great time lampooning it. imo they spend at least 40% more than they needed to on the elementary level. and the high school seemed about equally overpriced.

Couple of things...
why didnt they build High Schools first? They obviously needed the most attention.

Was giving Watkins a raise and contract extension a smart thing to do before this decision was made? It culdnt have helped.

Why not build one high school at Morton? There is additional land to the East that could be used for expansion and consolidating all those resources makes sense. If Merrilville can do it why couldnt Hammond?

Here's my 1 opposition to having one big happy high school for the city - buses. If Hammond transit dissolves and if the school bus program ends how would anybody get to school? At least today a kid "could" walk to high school. I wouldn't even bike to Morton on a good day given the traffic and safety concerns.

i think morton is probably the most modern high school in the city at the moment currently. that and its location make it unattractive to be a much larger school then it currently is. although i think its current boundary reach could expand to say, indy blvd

but i agree the high schools should have had priority over the elementaries in the building cycle.

honestly i think the school city has done everything regarding its latest building cycle completly wrong.

as for watkins. i couldnt understand why they gave him a contract extension three years ago...much less why hes still getting raises today. the guy has presided over nothing but failures in the school city for the past 6 years.

and besides that, even after being flatly denied by the state, the guy is still trying to claim the project is not dead yet, and that he somehow has something left up his sleeve.

he doesnt. it is dead (barring a referendum) and his entire suit (including his sleeves) seems to be completly empty!

this could play into my hoped plans above

http://nwi.com/articles/2008/12/17/updates/breaking_news/doc494978bd882f0739034181.txt

as you can see, the governor is proposing eliminating school districts with less than 2000 students. and according to this whiting is well under that number http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:MSJNKREgYyYJ:dew4.doe.state.in.us/SCHLSTATS/APRPT/4760.pdf+whiting+school+enrollment&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

if thats the case. whiting is going to have to consolidate its schools with someone. and i think hammond is the logical choice.

should be an interesting few months on this front. (not to mention the govs new township proposals

Its less than 2000, not 200 Oracle


But I do have an issue with that as well, because some school systems work out better because they are less than 2000 kids.

What about the ones who live in the country and the nearest school system besides the one they have now, is over 20 miles away?

sorry, typo. i corrected it.

i agree the rural schools should probably be differentiated. i think i posted that in a similar thread in the state forum.

If Robertsdale students were allowed to go to Whiting High School this would eliminate the Illinois effect and allow Clark to become a middle school. thus eliminating a high school in Hammond...what do you think?

I think Clark is only a little behind Hammond High as far as needing to be replaced. It might make for a better location for a middle school but it would still not be an ideal building and certainly not worth a retrofit if needed. At best it might be a transition though.

I have always questioned why Robertsdale kids don't just go to Whiting High. Last I heard it didn't have room to expand and didn't have the space needed. Now if the problem is with non-citizens attending illegally, thus taking up space, I guess that is something that could somewhat be corrected.

is whiting high big enough to handle all the robertsdale kids? if so then yeah, that sounds like a reasonable idea.

It does seem reasonable, if there is room.

From my understanding their is room and cooperation but without the states approval it aint gonna happen