Will Springfield pay for the district’s grand plan?
No one disputes that Springfield’s three public high schools need help.
Students at Springfield High School squeeze into 93-year-old classrooms that were meant for their grandparents and great-grandparents’ generations. Even at four stories, the building lacks modern necessities like computer labs and art spaces. Instead, students share six computer carts, each equipped with 20 laptops, and convene for band and choir practices in converted locker rooms.
Southeast High School was built in 1968, but still lacks adequate space for its students. Some classes meet in storage closets and office spaces, and until recently, the cafeteria doubled as a study hall. The school has only one gym, so as many as 130 kids per period share the space or run laps upstairs on asbestos floor tiles.
At Lanphier High School, originally built in 1937, students spend the school day sandwiched between asbestos-filled floors and ceilings. The three-story building doesn’t have an elevator, posing an additional safety hazard to students with injuries or disabilities. In the past, these students have been asked to study from home or to transfer to another school.
The subject of debate obviously isn’t that something needs to be done for these capital city schools — but how and when the school district is going to do it.
The Springfield School Board voted last November for “Option B,” an estimated $231 million plan to build a new SHS on a westside Koke Mill site, change the current SHS building into a magnet high school with offices for district administration, replace Lanphier and renovate Southeast. While School Superintendent Walter Milton told Illinois Times that he staunchly supports Option B, some school board members have discussed paring down the pricey plan or returning to other options.
Further uncertainty surrounding Option B surfaced last week after the school board voted to fund the construction with an increase in the countywide sales tax. District 186 will jointly decide with other county school districts and the county board how much of an increase to request and during which election. However, even if the school district receives the maximum 1 percent sales tax increase, the revenue would still fall short of paying Option B’s price tag.
If cash-strapped voters in Sangamon County vote down the sales tax, or if additional funding is not secured, the district’s high school students could wind up waiting indefinitely on better schools.
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