Hard choices loom for the school board

The St. Joseph School District enrollment report raises a classic chicken-or-egg conundrum.

Are public schools in their current shape because of declining enrollment, or is enrollment falling because of the condition of the schools?

We don’t know. However, we are certain that three public high schools are no longer an option. Not after SJSD Superintendent Dr. Ashly McGinnis revealed that kindergarten-through-12th-grade enrollment has dropped below 10,000 for the first time in three decades.

The Board of Education has danced around the issue of high school consolidation for years. The district held numerous engagement meetings, and the board floated a couple of bond issues for new high school construction. Voters swatted them away, leaving consolidation and renovation as the only path going forward.

There was always a sense that the board recognized the problem but preferred to leave the inevitable firestorm for another day. It would appear that day has arrived.

SJSD K-12 enrollment has dropped 7% in five years and 18% since reaching a three-decade high of 21,168 in 1993. As far as enrollment goes, it doesn’t look like things will get better. Kindergarten enrollment – the future of the district – is down 16% in five years and 36% since 1993.

While the drop in enrollment comes as little surprise, anyone who cares about education in St. Joseph should be alarmed at the accelerating trend. It took 19 years for the district to go from 12,000 to 11,000 students. Enrollment dropped below 10,000 in just six years.

Meanwhile, Benton High School is at 73% capacity and Lafayette is at 53%. In an aging city with stagnant population, this is unsustainable. For a district that needs a short-term loan of up to $10 million to meet expenses and rebuild its reserve ratio, it borders on reckless.

There is plenty of room to debate the details of what to do next. The board has signaled an intent to pursue a two-high school system involving either Central and Benton/Hyde or Central and Lafayette.

The district can’t lose sight of other priorities: creating equal opportunity for all high school students, developing a sensible feeder system that keeps students together and reducing the total footprint of district buildings.

But the board can’t wait any longer. It has to make the politically unpopular but fiscally responsible decision of closing one high school.