travelers rest high school graduation directory

“It’s the cornerstone of your town.”Ĭarri Howard, Dugger Union Community School Corporation board member, poses for a picture. “You lose your school, you lose your town,” Dugger Union Community School Corporation board member Carri Howard told State Affairs during an early September visit. Plus, Indiana’s pro-charter climate can make it difficult to reduce the number of schools in operation. It’s often an unpopular move in small towns whose identities revolve around the schools and their athletic teams. It also could help school districts struggling under the financial weight of declining enrollment make their money go further, in a state where public money follows the students.īut, Dugger Union serves as a test case on why any sort of school consolidation - whether it’s individual schools or the combination of districts - is such a challenging goal. The chamber’s leadership sees cutting the number of small districts in half as a way to up educational attainment in a state that struggles with declining college-going rates, as well as to ease the population decline in some small communities. The dilemma the district was trying to address - limited state funds caused by declining enrollment - wasn't solved by the attempt to consolidate.Īs part of its long term economic development plan, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, an influential business advocacy group, is asking the General Assembly to encourage the consolidation of school districts with fewer than 2,000 students. Rather than send their children to the other schools in the district, members of the community opened a charter school system at the site and named it Dugger Union Community Schools, buying the campus off of Northeast School Corporation for $1.Īs a result, the traditional public corporations’ enrollment was cut in almost half over the course of a decade, dipping under 800. A charter school system just south of Terre Haute may serve as a cautionary tale to other school districts that try to consolidate.īack in 2013, the cash-strapped Northeast School Corporation had to make what the superintendent called a “drastic decision,” voting to close a pair of schools amid declining enrollment.

Travelers rest high school graduation directory