Anderson board votes to close schools

ANDERSON (WISH) - Anderson Community School Corp. board members on Tuesday gave the green light to close two intermediate schools as the district attempts to accommodate a $7 million budget shortfall.

Under the approved plan, the district's two intermediate schools, East Side and North Side, will close, and Edgewood Elementary School will reopen. The former Highland High School will then become a middle school, housing sixth- through eighth-graders.

• ONLINE EXTRA | Read the complete proposal

The adopted proposal is a stark change from the one Superintendent Felix Chow introduced last month. Initially, it called for putting sixth-graders in the same campuses with high school seniors. Under the old plan, the high school would’ve had two campuses.

Parents feared that would’ve created an environment for bullying.

“I think it’s safer with putting just the freshman (at the high
school) and not adding the sixth- through eighth-graders,” Jessie Ferguson, an Anderson junior, said.

Ferguson a band student at the high school, also said she had feared splitting the high school into two campuses would disrupt the learning experience.

Ferguson is one of nearly 430 students who wrote essays to district leaders voicing their opinion.

Parents like Michelle Bond didn’t think her voice would be heard.

“It was like beating a dead horse,” the mother of three said, adding that if the district decided to mix sixth-graders with high school seniors, she would put her son in another distinct.

The district is losing on average about 1,000 students each year. Chow said he can’t predict the future but hopes the school will be able to stabilize the student population.

“But there is a chance we will lose 1,000 more students this coming summer,” he said.

By 2015, the district is expected to have about 3,000 students.

The changes voted on Tuesday will be implemented during the 2012-2013 school year.