The more I’ve thought about it the new Ordean plan simply sucks. There. I’ve said it. Thank goodness blogs are mostly read by younger folks who think nothing of such crass language.
Its sucks because there was a reason the District moved to buy up land to the east. Ordean’s current plot is a cracker box. Dr. Dixon’s lame justification that its still bigger than Denfeld holds no water. Putting half of Central High’s 9-12 student population in either Ordean or Denfeld will be unfortunate. The best indication of how nasty it will be is the proposal to lock all the kids up with a closed lunch hour. The District knows these sites will cause problems in the neighborhood with today’s much more liberated kids. If Dr. Dixon won’t impose a closed lunch hour now on three smaller relatively harmonious schools how can he think this will work in the future? Oh, it might if we let enough kids drop out of school.
The Ordean neighbors to the west have, for the time being, prevailed and ARI Architects will once again cram everything into a cracker box. But if and when the District builds the new Ordean High it will only be a matter of weeks before it becomes obvious that the District will have to acquire more land for expansion. The only question is whether it will move back to the west or plow to the east.
There is one possible solution. Keep the ninth graders in “middle schools.” There is just one little problem with this simple solution. It would eliminate the flimsy justification for most of the Red Plan’s plans.
