Small Schools

[alohabear]

Why does the state keep small schools open? I was just thinking about this while i was cruzin' around the Big Island this weekend. Hilo to Kona and back small schools of days gone by are wasting state money just to keep small communities happy. In hilo alone I would close Kaumana Elem and DeSilva Elem.(both have less than 250 students)and send them both to Hilo Union.
Is this a problem on the other islands too?

When money is tight a solution can be found.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Small Schools

In some cases, like on Moloka'i and Lāna'i, there's no alternative because it's not feasible to send the kids elsewhere. This can be true for rural areas on the bigger islands, too.

For more urban areas, like in bigger towns, there is also the problem that it's not easy to start, or end, a school. There's a huge capital investment in creating a school, and even if the area that the school serves currently has a shortage of kids, you never know if the demographics will shift in 10 or 15 years and demand will pick up again. So I can see why DOE would be reluctant to entirely close a school down.

[pzarquon]

Re: Small Schools

Is 250 really that small a school? I thought we had, in some neighborhoods, schools with barely a dozen kids.

Hmm. Okay. Here's an article that mentions Lanikai Elementary with about 300 students requiring extra funds for being a "small school." And Lanikai? Good luck closing that school down. Apparently, shutting down small schools has been proposed before (and before that). Here's a call from last year to move toward smaller districts and smaller schools...

Oh, heck, there's a whole library of articles that mention small schools.

[alohabear]

Re: Small Schools

Why does the state keep small schools open? I was just thinking about this while i was cruzin' around the Big Island this weekend. Hilo to Kona and back small schools of days gone by are wasting state money just to keep small communities happy. In hilo alone I would close Kaumana Elem and DeSilva Elem.(both have less than 250 students)and send them both to Hilo Union.
Is this a problem on the other islands too?

When money is tight a solution can be found.

iFORGOT TO MENTION :the above schools are all within 7miles of each other.
BTW .... 250 is small ....our 2 large Elems. in Hilo have almost 1000 students each.

[scrivener]

Re: Small Schools

The question should not be, "Why does the state keep small schools open?" but "Why doesn't the state split up the larger schools?"

There is no reason for public elementary schools anywhere in America to be as large as a thousand students. Large institutions bring certain advantages, it's true, but the disadvantages are greater. In fact, the only serious disadvantage I can think of for operating smaller schools is the increased administrative and operating costs, and that's not a good reason to make public elementary schools larger.

Small institutions are flexible and dynamic; they foster healthy relationships; they avoid all the drawbacks of big bureaucracies. I'm all for a single, state-wide school district (such as we have), but I am also completely in favor of small schools.

Intermediate schools can get away with being slightly larger, as the needs for individual attention are not as great with early teens. At the high school level, extracurricular activities thrive better with bigger schools, up to a certain point. Even so, there should be smaller public high schools in some areas where students who need such an environment can get it -- charter schools are a good start.

I teach at a private school where my average class size is just over five students. This doesn't mean that I work less hard; it means that each student gets more of my attention and I can differentiate my curriculum to meet the needs of each. Many of them were incorrectly placed in special education tracks because even the larger schools don't have the resources (human resources, physical resources, or financial resources) to attend to these needs. In fact, the DOE pays the tuition for some of my students, knowing that it simply cannot provide the education these students are entitled to.