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May 14 , 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels January 21, 2004 A tough call, but a necessary one Picture an elementary school with 300 students. In Ashland, this is not hard to do, since for the last few years, that had been about the enrollment of each of our five elementary schools. It's also the capacity each was designed to accommodate. But times are changing. Briscoe was closed last year, and Lincoln will be closed this year or next, according to superintendent Juli Di Chiro, leaving the city with three primary schools. Is it inevitable? Yes. Will it adversely affect our city? We doubt it. While small schools and tight-knit neighborhoods are essential to a thriving community, the former can be taken to extremes - extremes we would see in short order if the district had decided to maintain all five elementaries. A school of 300 students is good. Is a school of 200 students better? Consider the tight-knit neighborhood. Where does it come from if children's class sizes are so small that they do not have enough people to have a soccer team or the critical mass required of other activities that foster extracurricular interaction? Or worse, what if the schools the funding to offer the very programs that have made the Ashland School District so desirable. It is easy to lament the closing of a school - in most cities, it would be a step backward and lead to overcrowding - yet the enrollment numbers prove that even four schools would be impossible to maintain. Moreover, actual enrollment this school year is already well below the projected drop. There are 284 students in 12th grade this year, whereas there are only 144 kindergartners. Enrollments for the other grades don't follow a perfect line, but the trend is clear. The reason there is bad blood over the school board's decision to close Lincoln - and that decision was made in late 2002 - is that residents hear "fewer schools" and inherently think "bigger classes." The board has to consider many factors in making decisions on the school system. Enrollment is only one. Funding is another, and it's declining as quickly as the number of students. Resident input is a third. A panel of locals was put together for six months in 2003 to study the effects of the impending school closures, and public hearings were held. While most likely not everyone's voice was heard, that's a reality in any process that involves the public. However, leaving discussion open ended would prevent any decision from ever being made. Perhaps the mistake is not in deciding to close the schools, but in delaying the process of relocating students, one of the more difficult things educators face, be it in growth or in decline. To be sure, many students will be displaced from their current school. Some won't be able to walk to school anymore. But these are among the few drawbacks resulting from the closures, and displacement is a one-time negative. Picture a school with 300 students. Picture three of them. That's what we're going to have. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams