By Paul Wilson, Guest Columnist
This letter was addressed to the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners.
I am writing to share my opinion concerning the proposal that you will soon receive from the Cherokee County Board of Eduction, which is to build a grades 6-12 campus on the same site as the Schools of Innovation in Peachtree.
At Thursday evening’s meeting, the board voted 4-3 to send this particular plan to you for consideration. I am only one taxpayer and a former educator, but I want you to know that I believe this proposal is far better than the proposal that failed at the meeting.
That failed proposal was to build a pre-kindergarten through grade 8 school at an unidentified site. The proposed school would have housed all of those students from Martins Creek, Murphy and Peachtree.
Although hundreds of parents would probably have resorted to homeschooling in order to avoid a school so large, if they all enrolled their children, that proposed school would have served 1,200-1,300 students, which is far too many on one site, in my opinion. The proposed 6-12 school will be closer to 800 students.
Unlike placing elementary-age students in close proximity to a community college, there are, of course, educational benefits to placing high school students there. The proposal that you are about to receive would be better if it omitted middle school students.
Prior to serving 16 years as a principal, I taught middle school students for 11 years. I can tell you that middle school is a critical, difficult time in young people’s lives.
For many reasons, I do not think it is healthy to have middle school students in close proximity to high school students. The national movement away from junior high schools to middle schools that became prevalent in the 1980s was borne out of those very developmental concerns.
In other words, I would be much more supportive if the proposal were to simply build a new Murphy High School on the site than to build a grades 6-12 school. However, having said that, I am greatly relieved and thankful that the proposal soon to be presented to you will not involve elementary students.
The writer is a retired principal from Martins Creek School.