Keeping community high schools separate

The subject comes up from time to time just as it did recently during county government deliberations: why must Snow Hill and Pocomoke City continue to have separate high schools, when the combined student body of both schools would be about half of Stephen Decatur’s?

The answer to anyone who’s been following this discussion over the years is this: it’s the way we’ve always done it.

This response might be viewed as critical and snarky or community-minded and traditional, depending on one’s perspective, but these days there’s some logic behind leaving things as they are.

As school officials said last week, the cost of demolishing two high schools, acquiring land for a substantially larger one and then building it would be so high that realizing any actual saving might take decades.

In the meantime, the citizens of Snow Hill and Pocomoke would be furious over the loss of these community hubs. Although it might be argued that residents of those school districts would come to accept this loss someday, it’s safe to say that the inevitable “someday” won’t arrive until after two or three county commissioner election cycles have passed … if then.

While it is true that numbers alone indicate that a consolidated school would eventually make financial sense, there’s much to be said in favor of community involvement in the local school and vice versa. It’s also a fact that Snow Hill and Pocomoke high schools are big parts of these towns’ identities.

That being the case, there’s nothing wrong with asking about high school consolidation, of course, but given the desire of these two communities to keep their schools separate, woe unto the commissioner who disagrees.