EDITORIAL: Many numbers have been tossed around during the debate whether to open a high school in Washington Township. There is only one that really matters 922.
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Many numbers have been tossed around during the debate whether to open a high school in Washington Township. There is only one that really matters 922.
That’s the number of high school-age students the district expects in 10 years.
Currently, the district’s 248 high school students attend Lawrence High School under a sending-receiving relationship that will expire in 2005. Washington hopes to open a high school by the fall of 2005 and cut its ties with Lawrence. According to a feasibility study approved by Washington officials last week, there is no reason not to move forward with that plan.
There is no question the Washington-Lawrence relationship, which started in 1990, has run its course. Each district’s school board agrees it is time to end the arrangement, according to the feasibility study.
Lawrence High School cannot handle the enrollment growth created by Washington’s ongoing population explosion. In 10 years, LHS will be operating at 151 percent of capacity 2,002 students in a building designed for 1,326 if Washington remains. Washington students will make up 46 percent of the high school’s population at that time.
If Washington leaves Lawrence, LHS will be able to operate within its current capacity for the foreseeable future.
With a projected enrollment of 922 in 10 years, there’s little doubt Washington must open its own school. It is unlikely any other district would be able, much less willing, to accommodate Washington’s burgeoning population. And why should any other district accept that burden? With nearly 1,000 students on the horizon, Washington which would be spending somewhere around $10 million annually in tuition costs to LHS by 2010-11 should take responsibility to educate its own children.
Some residents have complained that opening a high school in Washington will send property taxes skyrocketing. Taxpayers have every right to be concerned about the financial aspects of the proposed high school. However, those residents don’t seem concerned about the taxpayers elsewhere. If Washington was to remain at LHS, Lawrence would have to expand its high school facilities and Lawrence taxpayers would pay the majority of the costs costs created solely by the presence of Washington students.
Washington’s taxpayers might not like it, but the school board’s determination that a high school is necessary is not a whimsical notion. If 922 high school students by 2010-11 don’t represent a need, nothing does.
The Board of Education has done well to include the public in discussion regarding the proposed high school. Pending state approval of the feasibility study, the most difficult work remains ahead convincing the community to spend the money to make the project a reality.
A construction referendum to fund building a high school, estimated at $41.6 million, will be held in December. In the past, Washington taxpayers have been willing to spend money on school-related construction, but this might not be an easy sell. In April, voters narrowly approved spending $197,000 on architectural and engineering fees for the high school project. Also included in that sum was funding for an assistant superintendent. Just 51 percent of 1,415 voters gave approval to the spending.
Washington school officials must continue to educate and work with the public on this project. As noted in the feasibility study, construction of a high school could serve as a community-uniting project. It will be up to the school board to continue its hard work to make it a reality.