Let's see just how many actually transfer now the decision has been made to have one high school. Here is ACSC enrollment data and projections as calculated by the IDOE.

Anderson Community School Corp - Enrollment Projection
Year Total
2012-13 8,623
2011-12 8,791
2010-11 9,041
2009-10 9,216

Anderson Community School Corp - Enrollment
2008-09 9,421
2007-08 9,688
2006-07 10,101
2005-06 10,020
2004-05 10,396

Once this sinks in, most kids will not transfer that have stated they would. Many won't have the money to pay even a few hundred dollars a year in transfer tuition fees and the additional transportation costs. They also will quickly realize that many schools limit what awards and scholarships that transfer tuition students are eligible to receive. Next, they will realize as transfer parents, they will have little input at board meetings. They locals will still rule the roost. Next, the students that can afford to transfer out will learn that many of their lifelong friends will not be transferring. Most kids would rather stay in school with their circle of friends. Schools are cliques and the older you are the harder it is to break into one. The new kids typically get left out.

Transferring out sounds good in theory, but what has it really taught the child? Anytime something doesn't go your way, you quit? Sometimes in life it is better to work through the struggles and make a difference while coming out better and stronger at the conclusion.
Parents need to accept this and then explain to their child that everything will be okay. Kids feed off their parents emotions. We have too many parents that think kids should be in on the decision making process when they do not have life experiences to base their conclusion upon.

In five years or so, the complaining will have subsided just like it did after MHHS was closed.

I would also add, that the name should be Anderson High School Indians. That is the name that most identifies with the city as a whole, its' heritage and has been known throughout the state and country for as long as any one living can remember. I do think the board should put a long range plan in place that includes a downtown campus for the high school. This would be years off but it should be in the works.

I agree that far fewer students will transfer out than say they will. Once the parents find out it is not that easy getting their kids to and from a school every single day and it costs them extra money besides many of then will rethink their decision.

I am not sure about keeping the name and mascot as Anderson Indiana but I believe that is what will happen. Hopefully they won't be sanding the scot off the gym floor before school is out next spring.

Let me make sure I have this thread's prevailing logic correct: Parents will find it difficult to move their children, so, therefore, the ones that do move will not be sufficient to make any significant difference?

Let us all pray that this type logic is not infectious.

It is precisely because of these insignificant moves by insignificant parents that caused ACS to now be down to one high school...

quote:

Originally posted by OldWiseOne:


Let us all pray that this type logic is not infectious.

It is precisely because of these insignificant moves by insignificant parents that caused ACS to now be down to one high school...

Would that make it an insignificant high school?

Observer, if it were a problem with a teacher or a difficult cl*** then persevering would be the correct answer. This time though what you are advocating is accepting a sub-standard education. No one should have to do that.
You are right, most parents won't pull their kids but enough will and they will be many of the brighter students which will compound further ACSC's problems.

How do you know the education will be substandard? There are many large schools who do very well.
Where do you get your proof that the educational standards will fall?

Gradution rates, isep scores, suspension figures? Your child being in a cl*** room already where they have to spend have the time controlling the students? Tobi, you are a board member do you not have this information?

quote:

Originally posted by Tobi Jones:
How do you know the education will be substandard? There are many large schools who do very well.
Where do you get your proof that the educational standards will fall?

One thing is for sure, it can't get much worse.

quote:

Originally posted by Tobi Jones:
How do you know the education will be substandard? There are many large schools who do very well.
Where do you get your proof that the educational standards will fall?

Exactly Tobi. They don't know. My point was that in the end very few will transfer.

The other point that people overlook is that if your kid is an academic achiever like those at HHS seem to insinuate, they won't be in cl*** with wha they consider the 'riff-rafts'.

The folks that keep saying the board didn't listen to them frustrate me. They ***ume because they had more people at the meeting, they were the majority of the community. That is just not true.

Think of this, you just got laid off or took a pay decrease to keep working, you need a new vehicle. Your wife and kids come in and tell you they want an Audi A4. They tell you all the features and benefits including how is it one of the safest cars on the road. You elect to purchase a used Chevy Impala because your budget simply will not support a payment for the Audi. Did you listen to your wife and kids opinion? Do they think you did? Understand the point? The board can listen all they want but they understand the entire financial picture of the district. They do not have time to educate everyone in the community on how school finance works and what ACS' budgetary limitations are. If you were truly involved, you would have already taken time to learn about this and would have seen this coming. Instead, everyone wants to sit back and revisit history, Monday morning quarterback and complain because their voice wasn't heard (because they didn't get their way).

quote:

Originally posted by Beth:
Gradution rates, isep scores, suspension figures? Your child being in a cl*** room already where they have to spend have the time controlling the students? Tobi, you are a board member do you not have this information?

Perhaps the education is considered substandard for those that chose not to behave, stay in school and grab the opportunity to learn and run with it. I would say for most kids that fall into the problem areas you mention, you will find substandard parents at home. ACS cannot change a kids support network and make their parents, parent. Perhaps the state should hold the parents accountable when their kids fail ISTEP, get suspended or drop out of school. I think that you should not get a drivers license until you graduate high school. If you drop out, you wait until you are 19 to get it.

We could always open a boarding school...then we could really be held responsible for all those aspects of a students life that are currently out of our control.

It's always someone elses fault.

What if, instead of pointing fingers and trying to find out who is responsible for all of the problems, we identify a couple of things that we can do that include the whole community while looking for those answers?

What if we, the ACS community asked our school board to use the absolute power that they have to FIND a way to review teachers so that we, the parents, know that we have the best of the best teachers in every cl*** room?? It is currently impossible to get a teacher who OBVIOUSLY does not like children out of the cl*** room. Who does that help?? NOT the children and not our community!!!!!

What if ACS did what Yorktown does and make the teachers update the online grade book every week to get that info out to parents?? Instead of looking at it like it was divulging information, look at it even as getting the onus off the back of the teachers. Who could argue if ALL of my child's homework, grades and attendance were as easy to get to as logging in to a web site and looking?

What if our local Churches looked at our ACS students as a mission field?? My Church sends faithful Christians all around the world; why not make a collective, concerted effort to mission to the children right here in our community?? AHS has a wonderful program called Power of One. What if we got our local churches to invest in this?? Think of the retirees in our city that have so much to give young people. Yes there are issues with safety and making sure that we do not subject our children to situations that are improper or even dangerous to them….but what if we made our community a priority for mission work???

What if our WHOLE community looked at the reduction in buildings as a way to do something great and different for our community rather than a time to stump for my old school?? When will we figure out that the name of the school doesn’t matter as much as the spirit and environment that is created inside of it??

What if our newspaper kept a keen eye on our students and made a big deal about the great things that our students have accomplished?? What if great accolades made the front page instead of making a small print in the “oh by the way” section???

What if we had The Anderson Indians on the sports field and the Spirit of the Scots on the band field?? Some other school have a very different look for their band than they do for the sports.

What if between now and the end of the year we had a local entity offer to buy pizza for the collective student councils and have them work together to see what THEY think can be done to help the one school succeed?

think of the possibilities and ask yourself “what if”

quote:

Originally posted by Tobi Jones:
How do you know the education will be substandard? There are many large schools who do very well.
Where do you get your proof that the educational standards will fall?

Wow. It was a tough day at work so this one brought a real smile to my face. I laughed pretty hard while reading it.
Proof that the education will be substandard...
The least of the proof is my neighbor, a sub, who said we she never let our daughter step foot in the school...that alone is good enough for me.
Second, and really, what more do you need than this one...the education at ACS ****s now and has no hope of getting better as more students and money exit the system. The yearly records for ACS prove full well that the education from ACS is substandard.