I personally do not want to see the merge. Students at Harrodsburg are used to smaller classrooms with a more one-on-one study time with teachers. Certain athletes would be left out in the cold: example: Instead of 11 players starting on offense in football for HBURG and 11 players starting on offense at MERCER, there would only be 11 now playing. Same on defense. Athletes will be suffering. That goes for all sports if the two combine. Merging is not about getting the best sports teams. That's not what children go to school for. They go for academics. Academics are great at HBURG. The students have all the AP classes they need.

I personally do not want to see the merge. Students at Harrodsburg are used to smaller classrooms with a more one-on-one study time with teachers. Certain athletes would be left out in the cold: example: Instead of 11 players starting on offense in football for HBURG and 11 players starting on offense at MERCER, there would only be 11 now playing. Same on defense. Athletes will be suffering. That goes for all sports if the two combine. Merging is not about getting the best sports teams. That's not what children go to school for. They go for academics. Academics are great at HBURG. The students have all the AP classes they need.

According to Harrodsburg's school website their student/teacher ratio is 14 to 1. Mercer's is 16 to 1.According to the statewide test scores academics are not in very good shape. How many AP classes does H'Burg offer?I heard it was less than 3. I was also told that one of those won't count as an AP class In 2007 because it was being taught by non certified AP teacher and that the curriculum was not being covered. I also was told they won't be offering Band next year. Mercer County's band just won the State Title this year.Hogtown Pride, how many times have you beaten Danville since they started playing again in 1997? I'll answer that for you, they have beaten Danville 1 time in the last 12 games.As of last week your baseball team was 0-6 and had lost all of their games by the Mercy Rule which means a 10 run rule after only 5 innings and your girls softball team was also winless.I think the boys baseball team was like 2 -20 something last year. Both of the B-ball programs only won a few games and the football yeam finished 3-8. I'd rather play a little on a great TEAM than start on a losing one.

Excellent evaluation Buffalo Gap. I agree. Whenever programs start declining over the span of time and seem to never regenerate then a merger may not be a bad idea.

I think the rules in football allow you to play 11 different players on offense and defense.

 

If that's the best arguments Hogtown Pride can come up with, it looks like it's time to merge. I doubt the extra two students per classroom is going to make much of a difference.

 

Does Mercer offer more extracurricular activities than Harrodsburg? You could up with more Harrodsburg kids participating at Mercer than they do now at Harrodsburg.

 

What happened to Burgin in this discussion? They were barely hanging on a few years ago and the school is smaller than Harrodsburg.

Would a new school be built? If not then I don't see them hiring all the teachers from both schools, therefore the student/teacher ratio will definately climb up to at least 25-27 students per 1 teacher. Even if a new school is built the need for all the teachers will not be there and the ratio will still climb up over 22/24.

A new Mercer County Senior High School is being built that will hold 750 students 10 thru 12 along with new athletic fields.

I think Muhlenburg North is a good example of a school that has been more successful since consolidation. They have won their district in Basketball both Boys and Girls easily 80% of the years since consolidation. Football still has a way to go, but I'm pretty sure that none of the 7 former Muhlenburg Co. schools ever had a football team so their wasn't any tradition to build on.

 

Even with your Eastern KY schools, the politically bias may exist now but afther a few years these kids would be looked at as former students of school A, B, or C. They will have all started within the same system.

 

Just a couple of 9 win seasons for Greenville in football. Yes there was football @ Greenville High School for 15 years before the consolidation. Also Central City had football before Vietnam (I think), but something happened to the program. Secondly, their so-called district in basketball before the new one districts had three teams in it, so yeh they should win a few district titles. And their success @ Muhlenberg North has been based on the demise of every other sports program in the school. Players are encouraged to not play other sports besides baseball or golf which are other just ran by the political powers at the school I would say. That place is a wasteland for any coach of a sport besides basketball.

Would a new school be built? If not then I don't see them hiring all the teachers from both schools, therefore the student/teacher ratio will definately climb up to at least 25-27 students per 1 teacher. Even if a new school is built the need for all the teachers will not be there and the ratio will still climb up over 22/24.

 

 

I would be shocked if the student/teacher ratio goes from 16-1 to 25-1. Every merger I've followed, the teachers from the smaller district are hired as part of the agreement, at least the tenured ones. The state funds for the students would follow them to Mercer, so the Mercer district should be able to hire the Harrodsbur teachers.

Anyone against the merging of these schools is thinking with their heart and not with their head. The benefits would be tremendous. All the resources are in Mercer county to have state level teams in all sports. I personally don't really care about the academic changes. The kids that want to will do great in the classroom regardless of the ratio. Let's get the Hogs and Scotties and make 'em into a big mean cross-bread crazy dog! Go Hogs; razorbacks or 'er whatever you want to call 'em.

Just a couple of 9 win seasons for Greenville in football. Yes there was football @ Greenville High School for 15 years before the consolidation. Also Central City had football before Vietnam (I think), but something happened to the program. Secondly, their so-called district in basketball before the new one districts had three teams in it, so yeh they should win a few district titles. And their success @ Muhlenberg North has been based on the demise of every other sports program in the school. Players are encouraged to not play other sports besides baseball or golf which are other just ran by the political powers at the school I would say. That place is a wasteland for any coach of a sport besides basketball.

 

Central City played football (and had some very good teams!) through the 1941 season. They gave up football after Pearl Harbor was attacked (as did several other schools), and they never took up the sport again.

 

Providence and Dawson Springs are two other examples of schools out west who gave up football after their 1941 seasons were over and proceeded to not play after Pearl Harbor was attacked, then never played it again.

 

Also, Homecoming was not observed at several schools during WWII. This was not the case at BGHS, where the student body and the administration were in agreement to go ahead and continue Homecoming activities each season during the war.

One consolidation in my area was fought bitterly, but it took place anyway. Tompkinsville and Gamaliel consolidated in the 1980s, and the two schools absolutely despised each other. It still didn't get in the way of progress, and Monroe Co has done quite well since the consolidation.

 

BGHS, in 1976, was victimized by a consolidation. We played Henderson Co in the first round of the State 4A playoffs (which, back then, determined the region champion). Henderson City's last football game was the 3A Region One Championship against Franklin-Simpson in 1975 (the Flash lost the game to the eventual 3A Runner-up). Both City and County were going to have excellent teams coming back, but the consolidation yielded one fantastic team, as the Colonels were 4A Runner-up to Trinity in 1976 when Trinity staged a great comeback to win 28-24.

Anyone against the merging of these schools is thinking with their heart and not with their head. The benefits would be tremendous. All the resources are in Mercer county to have state level teams in all sports. I personally don't really care about the academic changes. The kids that want to will do great in the classroom regardless of the ratio. Let's get the Hogs and Scotties and make 'em into a big mean cross-bread crazy dog! Go Hogs; razorbacks or 'er whatever you want to call 'em.

 

Hogs + Scotties = Hotties OR Scogs? I like the first one better.

Not nessecarily, over here in the eastern part of the state as everyone knows weve had quite a few schools consolidate. Although the classrooms and the facilities are far better than where these kids originally went to school, and lets face it thats the most important thing. The Sports teams have kind of suffered over here due to politics. Heres an example say school A and school B consolidated and made school C. Schools A and B were bitter rivals in all sports before they consolidated. School C know has to hire a football coach, the old coach at school A looks like a right fit but the coach at school B is threatning to call in some favors and get some board members fired if they dont hire him. Meanwhile The parents and students of both scools A and B are supposed to put behind them years of fighting, both on the field and off, and play together as a team and the parents who fought these battles are supposed to join hands with the ones they played against in those heated contests and band together to form a booster club. Right about here is when human nature kicks into overdrive. The kids are talented and the teams are good at school C but the parents and board members from both schools A&B are fighting amogst themselves over which old school will have control over the new one. If there is more kids from School A playing than from school B or vice verca then the other side is complaining about favoritism and will not support the team. While all this is going on the kids see all this fighting and just say "Heck with it". Ive never seen this fail to happen when a school consolidates and the sports suffer because of it.

 

 

 

I'm still curious as to what schools suffered in Pike County due to consolidation.

This issue must be getting close to being approved. I understand Danville is looking to fill week 10 next season.

 

Rumor also is that Coach Yeast is looking to becoming the assistant AD if it happens.

 

So is this signs that this merger will happen?

 

Also Coach Jaggers is a good coach. So I doubt he wont play the best kids.So no need to worry about kids not playing.

I would guess this will take more than a year to get done. I DO NOT think it can happen in roughly 3-4 months. Are the new facilities even done at Mercer? If they arent finished, where will heyput the new kids?

 

too many questions, not enough answers, or enough time for this to be wrapped up by August. Maybe august 07