By MIA LENZI – Earlier this summer the buzz of the town was whether Indiana County was going to have a “super school” or not. The school board ruled a “no-go” for their super school project, but leaves students in the dark about why school started so early! This super school idea directly affected IHS students because the school start date was moved forward a whole seven days. This also leaves the month of May 2018 to be one jam-packed month.
The project, named PlanCon, focused on two of the elementary schools, East Pike and Ben Franklin. The plan was to tear down Ben Franklin and rebuild it as a larger, more modern facility, while also expanding East Pike. As a result of having two new schools, Horace Mann and Eisenhower were going to be closed.
Senior Seth Villemain says, “I think it’s a waste of taxpayer money when the current schools are working just fine.”
This project raised controversy within the school district. Many people were against the project, saying that it was too expensive for the district, while others did not want to close the borough-based elementary schools. The board later released that they were considering a different version of the project. This new plan would house nearly 600 students rather than the original plan of 900 students.
Senior Maeve Morris comments, “The super school would have been a big, and possibly difficult change for the students. With four elementary schools, creating a new one does not seem necessary.”
Earlier in the month of June, White Township released their rejection letter to the plan for the project. This left students believing that the school start date would be moved from August 21 to the original date of August 28.
To much surprise, the board kept the start date early, saddening many of the students. The cause of not changing the date is reported to be as a result of pre-made schedules that compromise with the end of school date, May 25.
Senior Sydney Shearer comments on the change in date, “I enjoyed starting the school year earlier because now I get to graduate earlier!”
Keeping the early school start date, despite allowing for an early vacation arises the question of how is the school going to fit prom, AP tests, Keystones, Senior Class Trip, and graduation into 25 days? The truth will come out as the end approaches.
[Photo from IASD website]
Photo Caption: It appears that Ben Franklin will keep its original image because of the cancellation of the super school plan.
