High school open campus policy headed for change

Talk about it

The school board Monday night couldn’t decide – for now.

But by winter a final decision is expected that will once and for all settle whether the high school remains an open campus where students can leave for lunch or whether it is closed and such departures are banned.

To complicate matters, a third option has emerged: A privilege-based open campus for deserving students.

High school principals Elaine Baumann and Kit Luedtke hope to devise a privilege-based system that the board will approve or reject this February. Toward that end, an ad hoc committee of staff, parents, students and citizens is being formed.

Any decision will not bring a change until the 2009-10 school year. For the new school year starting in September, the high school will remain an open campus.

School board members Manny Kenney and Dennis Behnke are adamant about closing the high school campus. They have safety concerns.

Both voted in 2001 to close the new high school, then under construction. Even at that time the school board was deadlocked and the open campus policy stayed in place.

School board member Ned Fagan has championed an open-campus policy. He said overall the system has worked with very few problems and that it teaches responsibility and time-management that benefit students when they graduate and go on to college, the military or a job.

For more on this major story, please check the July 23 print edition of the River Falls Journal.

Tags: education, riverfalls, schools, campus, lunch_period