Schools that should consolidate

I would not suggest high school's should be Mason sized, but I think schools can offer better options when a school is large enough to have the varied staff and teachers that allows.

A 1,000 seat high school would be better than 100, but 2,000 may be too much.
 
Former Presidential candidate Ross Perot discussed this during his two presidential campaigns back in the 1990’s. Yes a school that graduates 1,000 or 2,000 students a year has advantages such as being able to offer more advance classes, tutors/intervention specialist for kids with learning challenges, better school facilities (weight room, fields, club sports, etc). Perot’s take was if you had 4 schools that graduated 250 kids compared to 1,000 it meant you had 4 valedictorians, 4 captains of the football/baseball/basketball teams, 4x as many kids participating in activities at school. These kids are learning, competing, winning and just as important losing. Learning to deal with and overcome losing/failure is extremely important in life - sports is a great metaphor for this life lesson. I just think the advantages of having more kids/parents/administrators participating and involved in our schools is better than a economy of scale that a 1,000 or 2,000 school provides. Also, over the last year Zoom has proven to be an alternative way to overcome a lack of school resources, teachers and class offerings. Once schools dip below 100 per graduating class, yea I think looking at consolidation does make sense.
 
I will not mention anyone specifically for fear of retribution, but Wayne Co is a PERFECT target for this. They have 3 schools that currently share a superintendent. One district across the entire southern span of the county bordering on at least 6 other districts with buildings that look like they're from the opening of a 70s sitcom.

Some of these districts benefitted BIG time from pipeline money so "we can fund it" will become the justification for why no one would consider a consolidation.

Since we've seen districts consolidate in the last 20 years, my question is - wouldn't you want to look forward and address it now instead of waiting until the situation becomes an emergency and there's no way out? Community identity is very important, but ensuring the kids have the educational resources they need should supersede that every time.

PS - Not sure this is the right forum for this discussion. Those of us addicted to HS Football are not the most even-keeled thinkers out there. ; )
 
Now, if we MUST consolidate....

Up around here, there's a bunch that would be prime candidates. Putnam County's 9 schools could easily drop to 4 or 5. Paulding County could have all 3 merge into one and STILL be a large D3 football school, but one that will be continually shrinking. Williams County probably doesn't need 7 districts, again that could probably shrink to 4. Eastern Defiance County maybe doesn't need 3 schools within 10 miles of each other all drawing from the city of Defiance. Ayersville could probably combine with Tinora or Defiance and no one would really notice a huge difference.

But again, is any of it necessary just yet? I'd say no. Putnam County could just as easy benefit from co-ops adding another couple of football teams. Every other school mentioned has or is adding football.

I guess the one I think of most around NW Ohio is Pettisville. Its a tiny unincorporated town between Archbold and Wauseon. Why do they still have a school? Why not send the western part of the district to Archbold and the eastern to Wauseon?
 
a good bit of the Scioto county schools could merge but many of the small ones have gotten new schools and or renovated. Ross county schools are so small and sparse but very spread out across the county. The same could be said for pike county Waverly being the biggest wouldn’t need to but the others are on opposite sides of the county
 
In Cincinnati, two obvious changes to me are Lockland combining with Princeton HS and St. Bernard-Elmwood Place getting absorbed by Cincinnati Public.
 
joelmama said:
Not at the level of small we arre talking about for most of these schools. The small schools have enough overhead to teach all the kidfs in the middle very well. The kids that are exceptional or need extra help do not get it because there is not enough mass to do it well.
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Agreed. There's certainly an economy of scale. I was just making a point that consolidation is not always and answer as well as the point that it's not all about sports.
 
LCL said:
First merge that came to mind for me.
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Was discussed publicly back when Buckeye Lake had the dam issues about 5-6 years ago, but the issue was WTLSD/Millersport had too much debt that scared away neighboring districts.

Believe they’re at 520 students K-12.
 
CC Track Fan said:
Every school in Putnam county not named Ottawa-Gandorf and maybe Columbus Grove should consolidate with their closest district.
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Thoughts I've had. Leipsic isn't in a terrible spot by themselves. Grove is fine.

Continental/Miller City
Kalida/Ottoville/Fort Jennings
Pandora-Gilboa crosses County lines and tales on Cory-Rawson

Could also send MC to Leipsic and let Kalida go with Continental.
 
Avon and Avon Lake
Brush and Mayfield
Eastlake North and Willoughby South
North Ridgeville and Midview







I'm kidding! LOL
 
Years ago there was talk of East Canton dissolving and those kids getting split between Canton South, Minerva and Louisville. Not sure what happened to that? Fracking maybe.
 
Here in the Cincinnati I think there are two districts that this would make sense doing. In the Northwest School District you have Northwest and Colerain. Cost wise I think those two should have been combined a long time ago. Then on the other side of Hamilton County you have the Forest Hills School District that includes Anderson and Turpin. about 3-4 years ago combining those two was a hot topic with a lot of public meetings discussing the pros and cons of staying as two schools or becoming one. It got pretty emotional as both schools have followers that pretty prideful. Well they kept the two schools and as predicted by many the costs to remodel Anderson went over budget .

Just east of Cincinnati is Clermont County. The ended up closing Glen Este and Amelia high schools when they built a brand new school naming it West Clermont. It's a beautiful school and sports complex and from what I hear the transition seems to have gone well.
 
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