The future of the Gary Community School Corp. is expected to come into focus Friday as its emergency manager, Peggy Hinckley, is set to tell a state board which high school she plans to close.
Hinckley is scheduled to present a deficit reduction plan to the state Distressed Unit Appeals Board at an 8 a.m. meeting in Indianapolis. The plan aims to shrink a $1.5 million monthly shortfall, she told an audience Monday at a Miller Citizens Corp. meeting.
Hinckley also said she will present plans for the district’s new grade configuration for the Distressed Unit Appeals Board’s consideration. Besides closing either the West Side Leadership Academy or the Wirt-Emerson School of Visual and Performing Arts, Hinckley will target an existing school to become a stand-alone middle school for grades 6 through 8.
Elementary schools would house grades K-5. Hinckley also plans to close the administration center at 1988 Polk St. because she said its space is unneeded.
“The state has been very clear. If I can’t reduce the monthly overage, we won’t make it,” Hinckley said. “The state’s only choice would be to dissolve the district.”
The public can offer comments on the new configuration at a 6 p.m. meeting Feb. 21 at the Gary Area Career Center. Final action is expected March 2.
Since she arrived in August, Hinckley has voiced concern over the abundance of schools in a district with scant resources to support them.
“We have too many schools and too much classroom space,” she said.
Early on, it’s been a game of “Survivor” between West Side and Wirt-Emerson. Most expect Wirt-Emerson to be the loser after a feasibility report showed West Side is in better shape.
Miller resident and property owner Cullen Ben-Daniel voiced concern about the potential of Wirt-Emerson closing.
“Having a huge closed facility in the heart of our community will devastate us,” he said.
“It’s rare to have one school with 900 students and another with 600,” said Hinckley, a retired Indiana superintendent. “High schools are expensive to run and one high school with 1,000 to 1,200 would allow for more comprehensive offerings.”
Hinckley said Wirt-Emerson and West Side received B’s on state report card expected to be approved Wednesday by the State Board of Education. Five others received F’s, she said.
Hinckley says she’ll market the high schools’ academic success to former Gary students who defected to other area schools.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
