Brad Hollerbach is the Director of Information Technology for the Southeast Missourian. His opinions are his own and do not reflect those of the newspaper or its editorial board. He writes this blog primarily for his own amusement and to parody the absurdities of the world we live in. He lives with his wife and two cats that don't really care for one another in Cape.

Combining School Districts Could Cause Mascot Mayhem

Posted Monday, April 5, 2010, at 12:00 AM

The dour state of the economy continues to make news.

For instance, Missouri is trying to figure out how to slash next year's budget in anticipation of a half-billion dollar short fall in revenue. The state has even sought input from citizens on how it can either add revenue or cut expenses. What a novel thought.

One area that has already seen funding cuts for next fiscal year is the state's Elementary and Secondary Education portion of the budget. On March 23 the House of Representatives stripped $106 million increase in basic state aid from public schools. At the moment, school districts will get the same amount of funding they got this year.

To have schools districts save even more money, the Senate is discussing consolidating the state's 523 school districts.

That sounds like a good idea. Matter of fact, I think the legislature should go one step further and mandate only one school district per county.

Really, do we need any more than that?

Some counties would not be affected. Currently, Perry and Ste. Genevieve counties to our north only have one school district. However, Cape Girardeau County has five school districts: Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Oak Ridge, Delta and Nell Holcomb.

The only problem I see creating these Mega Schools would be whose mascot to use.

Do you use the mascot of the current biggest district in a given county? In our case that would be the Jackson Indians. Or is it fairer to have an amalgamation of the mascots from all five districts combining the best traits of the Indian, the Tiger, the Bobcat, the Hawk and the Blue Jay?

I'm leaning toward the latter.

That way no one feels slighted when the Cape Girardeau Indigerbobjawks take on the St. Charles Jagwolfindeaglespantherknikingsbullionswarrates in Class 12A football.

Comments

View 7 comments or respond

Community discussion is important, and we encourage you to participate as a reader and commenter. Click here to see our Guidelines. We also encourage registered users to let us know if they see something inappropriate on our site. You can do that by clicking "Report Comment" below.

Indianimals?

-- Posted by Old John on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 8:02 AM
Maybe we should call them the Cape Crusaders, and our mascot can be Batman. Batman would be a pretty cool mascot.

-- Posted by almighty on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 8:05 AM
Good suggestion almighty, although it might get confusing since Saxony Lutheran are already the "Crusaders." DC Comics might also sue us for using Batman so we might have to go with Batguy or Nocturnal Flying Creature Man as a mascot.

Thanks for reading.

-- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 8:30 AM
As school districts grow, more layers of administration are added. This is counterproductive to district accountability, and hinders the ability of district leaders to assess and make corrections at the classroom level. This would be a huge mistake.

-- Posted by slim_pickens on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 9:45 AM
Not that this would actually happen, slim, and certainly not one district per county. That would be a bureaucracy from Hell in larger counties. There'd be more administrators that actual teachers.

No, some Senators believe that cost savings could be achieved for some administrative type expenditures if nearby districts pooled resources.

TFR

-- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 10:08 AM
I believe I have come up with a solution for Cape's supposed classroom space issue. The high school should utilize some web courses, much like the university, and allow some of their students to do some of their classwork from home.

Therefore, you will have less students in school at certain times, students would have more time at home so they will probably be more motivated to perform, and also give them better computer skills.

Also, if you only allow the high performing students or seniors to access to this perk, it may give students more motivation to do better so they can spend more time at home.

Sure there's the issue of having someone design the websites, but I think this would be a great advantage for student performance and also make it easier on teachers to grade. Sorry if this post is a little off subject.

-- Posted by almighty on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 3:18 PM
Indianimals?

-- Posted by Old John on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 8:02 AM

... Elephants!

But really... Let's say that the Senate does decide to consolidate some of the school districts. I don't think it'll happen on any major scale, but what districts in the area do you all think could really merge?

I think there are several districts that COULD be merged together but the small towns those schools represent would never stand for it.

Ex: Merge Kelly, Oran, Scott City, Scott County Central, Chaffee, and maybe Delta (although that crosses county lines) into one big district. I don't know what you'd call it, because if you called it Scott County Central you'd make all the Kelly/Oran/Scott City/Chaffee people mad.

Ex: Merge Oak Ridge into Jackson and merge Nell Holcomb into Cape Central.

Ex: Merge Woodland, Meadow Heights, Zalma, and Leopold. (Bollinger Co. schools.)

Etc.

-- Posted by DonT15 on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 5:00 PM

Respond to this blog

Posting a comment requires a subscription.