BY CARMEN McCOLLUM, Times of Northwest Indiana
cmccollum@nwitimes.com
GARY | As part of the reconfiguration of the Gary public schools, the board approved terminating all high school administrators Tuesday night.
The vote, which had to be completed to ensure that about 20 principals and assistant principals are notified by Sunday's deadline, is part of the district's school consolidation and reconfiguration process.
The board approved plans last year to shave $23 million from its budget by eliminating staff and closing and consolidating school buildings.
Enrollment has been dropping over the past few years, and many buildings are in a state of disrepair. A committee of experts who reviewed the buildings said the cost to repair some of them is astronomical.
Instead it will create three themed high schools for students in seventh through 12th grade and transform Wirt High School into the new Emerson School for the Visual and Performing Arts. The Dunbar-Pulaski building will be converted into an administrative office.
Benjamin Banneker Achievement Center will close, and its students will move to Kennedy-King Elementary School, which will be converted to a school containing kindergarten through eighth-grade students.
The board's new two-year facilities closing plan will begin in the fall with the opening of the three seventh through 12th grade schools. The academies should be fully in place in the fall of 2010.
As a result of the consolidation and reconfiguration of schools, Interim Superintendent Myrtle Campbell said fewer teachers, administrators and staff will be needed. She said the numbers are still fluctuating.
She said all of them will be able to reapply for their jobs as the district determines its needs based on the number of students.
School Board President Nellie Moore said architects are looking at each building and talking to staff to discuss program needs.
"As we close facilities, we have to reduce the administrative staff," Moore said.
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