Lake Superior High School which houses about 100 9-12 students is likely to close because the Duluth School District is washing its hands of the school.
I can understand the desire of the District to simplify as the consequences of the Red Plan and a dysfunctional State Budget make life hard but I don’t see anything particularly happy resulting. The story is that the 100 students at the school have mostly been in our schools and did not do well. Being in Lake Superior High kept them in school if not thriving academically. If their charter closes they will most likely end up in the Duluth Schools which will be hard pressed to give them the attention they need and they will, most of them, likely simply drop out.
I never got to know much about the charter. My last year on the School Board was 2003 when Supt Almanza asked the Board to let our district become the sponsor of the struggling school. From the beginning it was intended to serve kids who were likely to avoid or drop out of public schools and who did not have the ability to pay to attend Marshall School. Evidently these students are still struggling but according to the article they still managed to get 20 students graduated last year. I’d have to ask if ISD 709 will do any better with the remaining students.
I can’t even picture in my mind where the physical location of Lake Superior School is and soon, because of our District’s indifference and preoccupations, it won’t matter. That’s something these 100 soon to be abandoned students are probably used to by now. That’ll make it OK.
