School board to hold special meeting tonight to discuss critical plans for facilities

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- The St. Joseph School District Board of Education is set to meet again tonight with a plan for the future of St. Joseph public schools yet to be decided.

Tonight's meeting at 5:30 p.m. at the Troester Media Center comes after Plan E for school facilities was temporarily shelved at Monday's BOE work session, with the board requesting more time to review facility details for Plan E, Plan 2B and Plan 7B.

Plan E (Lafayette/Central/Benton) would keep the three existing high schools open, while Plan 2B (Lafayette/Central) and Plan 7B (Benton/Central) would create a two high schools model.

Prior to the start of Monday's work session, Board President LaTonya Williams shared her thoughts on what the next steps would be Plan E didn't come to fruition.

"In all honesty, the board needs to make a decision and the community needs to understand the plan," Williams said. "If you look at all of the plans, there's issues with all the of them. People are going to be upset. If our board goes in there and we decide to look at a different plan I'm going to be disappointed. Especially after just two weeks ago, we made a decision all together using the information we have."

While no final decision is expected tonight, the hope is the meeting will provide clarity and direction on a preferred plan moving forward.

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