Consolidation

[Manfred]

In the past 10 years, at FH, I'd be curious to know how many kids that , say, played football in Jr. Hi., came out for the Varsity when they were eligible. Jr. Hi doesn't offer a lot of the same sports that HS does, do they? Volleyball, soccer, hockey, rifle, golf, tennis, what have you. Kids diversify a lot more than they used to do. Why would a kid go out for football if he can "play golf"?

[cleaverstuart]

We've seen a decrease in numbers since the Laurel valley Liggy merger. The numbers from max preps since the merger are 2010-49, 2011-47, 2012-49, 2013-44, now the last two may not look like a decrease but remember 9th graders are no in those numbers. Looking further back the 09 numbers were Liggy 35 Laurel 36, 08 liggy 40 Laurel 32, 07 liggy 40 and Laurel 31. (the LV numbers are from old programs). That's a decrease from about 70 varsity players in the 10-12th grade (both schools did move at least 1 Freshman up in the period). to 49 included Freshman. I believe limited playing time accounts for a good portion of the exodus but in the Liggy Valley one must also look at the effects of pay to play and the elimination of an activity bus. A player from Seward who is too you to drive must have someone pick him up everyday after practice. P.S. Liggy also has a steep fee for a student parking pass

[richaboli]

Here is the solution to your problem....
4. Redraw all school district lines to level the population at AAA levels.

I have to disagree with you about AAA being the ideal size school.
I attended a class AA high school, and a class AAA high school.
Believe me, AA schools offer plenty of college prep classes,opportunities and sports for everyone who wants to play. Class A high schools can't offer enough, and class AAA sometimes gets into offering splintered off non necessary classes. And the big thing is that there is a feeling of community in class AA. You even know all the people you graduated with. The teachers get to know you better. You don't have that togetherness and feeling of community in class AAA.

[odoyelrules]

Good points.

On the cost side, I found this snipet:

Districts with fewer than 500 students spend an average of $9,674 per pupil on operating expenditures. As districts get larger, their per-pupil spending tends to decrease, until it reaches an average of $8,057 among districts with 2,500-2,999 students. However, average per-pupil expenditures tend to go back up again as enrollments exceed 3,000 students.

This was from a June 2007 report when Rendell was lightly pushing consolidation.

[konjo78]

I attended a A and a 4A school. They were no major difference academic. A felt less clique like. The bigger the school the more I felt like a stat not a student

[PApride]

I have to diagree with the statement A and 4A are the same in the academic setting. Graduating from a A school I only went to college with 6 credits and this is all the school was offering, talking to ppl that go to 4A who go to college with 18 credits, that's one semester done in HS! My HS was not even offering an intro to pshchology, while taking that course in college (which is mandatory) I found out that I was one of the handful of people who didn't have an intro, all from A schools

[cleaverstuart]

I find the Rendell numbers from 2007 very interesting. When I was in college 83-87 I saw a study that graduating classes of 200-220 offered the best mix of academics and extracurricular activities. That would be close to 2500 district wide if you had a single H.S. district. That would be very close to most of the LHAC public schools just a few years ago (definately if you count Johnstown Vo-tech students lost when Vo-Tech was full day) but not so much anymore with shrinking class sizes. Physco please note that Greater Johnstown is still slightly above those numbers even though I can agree with you that merging some or all the schools in the J-town area would make sense.

[LionDad]

The playing time issue is not really an argument since most schools are playing JV football, at least in the Heritage Conference. One area of concern with smaller schools is that the number of sports has increased while the number of students keeps decreasing.

I can use United as an example. You have 41-42 kids on the varsity football team. Probably between 20-30 on the soccer team, 10-15 on the golf team, 10 maybe on the cross country team. If there is no soccer, it would be a safe bet that football gets 10-12 of those kids. Golf and cross country may get a few, some may not do anything.

You go from 41-42 kids to 50-52 kids that's a big difference for a small class A school with not that many boys

[upnorth]

The playing time issue is not really an argument since most schools are playing JV football, at least in the Heritage Conference. One area of concern with smaller schools is that the number of sports has increased while the number of students keeps decreasing.

I can use United as an example. You have 41-42 kids on the varsity football team. Probably between 20-30 on the soccer team, 10-15 on the golf team, 10 maybe on the cross country team. If there is no soccer, it would be a safe bet that football gets 10-12 of those kids. Golf and cross country may get a few, some may not do anything.

You go from 41-42 kids to 50-52 kids that's a big difference for a small class A school with not that many boys

I'm reading between the lines and extrapolating (not trolling) here, but I would hate to see small schools eliminate offerings such as soccer for more established offerings like football. I would rather see them enter into cooperative agreements for sports that are at or below minimum participation levels. For example, Ferndale may be able to co-op with Westmont or Johnstown High in football and still offer other fall sports. I realize that co-ops can be difficult in terms of classification levels, transportation and program control, but they can also be mutually beneficial and provide opportunities to students that they would not normally be able to have.

You can put me in the camp that favors AA sized schools (especially when they are coupled with small class sizes). They offer a nice balance between academics and extra-curricular activities. In my neck of the woods, State College High School and its 2,500 students is the size of a small university. That's great if your child is in the upper or lower 10% academically speaking, but not so great if he/she is in the middle 80%. Athletically, the kids they cut from most sports would be starters at any A - AAA school in the district.

[knowitall]

The real world is all AAAA.