There is a story in this week's Republican newspaper discussing the RISE study and planning that the school system has been doing.
https://www.wvnews.com/garrettrepub...cle_c41d8ebc-1cff-571a-ac72-d5f2965fb107.html
The article discusses different options that the Board of Education is exploring at balancing the budget. One of the ideas is a consolidated comprehensive high school. Consolidation is never an easy thing to do, and I think logistically some things would have to change for it to even work, given that I'm not sure that either the current Northern or Southern has the room to hold all of the students. Given the way things are going in Garrett County population wise, I think it's something that really needs to be looked at or planned for, or some other change like maybe eliminating the middle schools and re-configuring the grade levels of all the schools. Whether it will happen or if it will be discussed and nothing changes, we'll see, but I think the BOE needs to do something to turn the financial picture around.
Obviously a consolidated Northern/Southern would change the local sports scene. Looking at the MPSSAA numbers, Southern has 527 in 9-11 and Northern 310 in 9-11, so a consolidated Garrett County HS would have 837 in 9-11 and would be middle of the pack 2A according to the current numbers. Just throwing around ideas and guesses of who the consolidated school would play if it becomes reality? I would guess the 3 Allegany County public schools, Keyser, Hampshire, maybe Preston County? Perhaps some of the Washington County Schools like Williamsport maybe?
Hopefully the combined Garrett County school could maintain the success that some of the sports teams have had at Northern and Southern over recent years, but if we look at Preston, I think the geography of the county has hurt them athletically, and Preston and Garrett County are basically twins (similar size and population) except one is in MD and one is in WV. Granted WV and MD are different, but I'm worried that the county being spread out could discourage some athletes from playing.
https://www.wvnews.com/garrettrepub...cle_c41d8ebc-1cff-571a-ac72-d5f2965fb107.html
The article discusses different options that the Board of Education is exploring at balancing the budget. One of the ideas is a consolidated comprehensive high school. Consolidation is never an easy thing to do, and I think logistically some things would have to change for it to even work, given that I'm not sure that either the current Northern or Southern has the room to hold all of the students. Given the way things are going in Garrett County population wise, I think it's something that really needs to be looked at or planned for, or some other change like maybe eliminating the middle schools and re-configuring the grade levels of all the schools. Whether it will happen or if it will be discussed and nothing changes, we'll see, but I think the BOE needs to do something to turn the financial picture around.
Obviously a consolidated Northern/Southern would change the local sports scene. Looking at the MPSSAA numbers, Southern has 527 in 9-11 and Northern 310 in 9-11, so a consolidated Garrett County HS would have 837 in 9-11 and would be middle of the pack 2A according to the current numbers. Just throwing around ideas and guesses of who the consolidated school would play if it becomes reality? I would guess the 3 Allegany County public schools, Keyser, Hampshire, maybe Preston County? Perhaps some of the Washington County Schools like Williamsport maybe?
Hopefully the combined Garrett County school could maintain the success that some of the sports teams have had at Northern and Southern over recent years, but if we look at Preston, I think the geography of the county has hurt them athletically, and Preston and Garrett County are basically twins (similar size and population) except one is in MD and one is in WV. Granted WV and MD are different, but I'm worried that the county being spread out could discourage some athletes from playing.
