When is a school too small?

That’s the question on the mind of one Warren County School District board member as the board discusses possibly closing a school building in the face of community opposition. Board Member Arthur Stewart asked that people provide him some input into when small schools are too small.

“I think we’ve hashed out transportation really well,” Stewart said. “We’ve talked a lot about the value of community schools. Talk to me about how we keep your school open. When we come to the next meeting … let me tell you where my vote is going to swing. The question for me is, ‘How small is too small for a school to operate?’ When we’re talking about keeping the four high schools, that was the vote we made 14 years ago. It was in part because we grasped having a Youngsville school in Youngsville has value and having a Sheffield school in Sheffield has value. I graduated from Eisenhower when we had 600 students 9 through 12. I used to think Warren was the big school and Eisenhower was the small school.”

At that time, Sheffield had more than 400 students, he said.

“When I voted to keep the four high schools 14 years ago, Sheffield had over 200 students in high school. Now you’ve slipped to about 130? If there were four students … would we keep it open?” he asked rhetorically. “The answer, of course, is no. At 400 we keep it open. At 4 we don’t,” Stewart said. “Is 50 a good number? Is 100? There’s a point at which it is too small. We can’t afford to offer labs at schools that have even 50 students. Our extra-curriculars are dribbling away from us. How small is too small to offer extra-curriculars? We had a robust band at Eisenhower. I learned a lot of life lessons in band. If we don’t have bands because the schools are too small, we’ve lost that opportunity. You can help in this really tough decision. It’s not going to help if we don’t talk about the other side of the coin. You want this. The other side of the coin is how do we deliver it?”

There are currently six reconfiguration options before the board. There will be a work session to narrow down the remaining options during the meeting of the physical plant and facilities meeting of the school board Monday night. The committee meetings start at 6 p.m.

A public survey about reconfiguration will remain open through Friday, April 21, and can be found at www.wcsdpa.org