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I will not repeat the extensive comments that I made in response to the article and editorial in last Thursday's Beacon. However, in summary, there is no educational purpose to consolidate high schools that already contain over 900 students each. An ideal high school should only contain between 600 to 900 students. The plan was rejected because, even if the numbers had been accurate, the plan was inadequate because it only addressed costs; it failed to address the impact consolidation would have on the students. A school system should do not determine how many students should be in a high school by how many students fit in a building; it should determine its size by estimating how many students allow a high school to maximize educational, social, and athletic opportunities, and minimize disciplinary problems and most studies find that this is accomplished through schools no more than 1,000 students. A smaller size school also reduces students' feeling that they are in a big impersonal institution whose administrators and teachers do not know or have the time to care about them individually; this impersonal mega school approach contributes to " at risk" students quitting school. Some school districts have dealt with having buildings that are too big, but the number of students for a high school is the right size, by having "schools within schools." For example as Mr. Salerno noted, by putting junior and senior high schools together in the same building. However, if this were done, they should remain separate schools within the same building. They could remain separate through maintaining different start times, class starting and ending times, and dismissal time. The plan submitted rejected this ideal this year because they assumed it was unworkable.

From: Plan should focus on children’s education, not money saved

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