Trinity isn't so big that it's unwieldy and impossible to keep class sizes relatively small ... with an enrollment of 1400, it isn't close to being the largest school in Kentucky. The all-boys enrollment, however, does seem to provide an athletic advantage.

There is a happy median somewhere in there. Are you telling me that the government under the Articles of Confederation was more efficient than the Federal Government under the Constitution?

 

 

Heck I don't know if it was more efficient or not as I did not live during those times so I am not qualified to have an opinion on that question. My guess is that you weren't alive either.

 

I don't think the many govt units we have in N. Ky is inefficient at all. And as they say, the proof is in the pudding. N. Ky has lead the state in economic growth for many years. The local govt units have realized that cooperation is necessary at times, but they retain the right to withdrawal from joint operations when it is best for their constituients. That keeps everyone on their toes if you will. Ft. Thomas for example withdrew from the Campbell County Cable Board when the City Council realized that a large amount of money was being spent on public access yet very few people in Ft. Thomas utilized or even watched public access ( a city wide survey was done). Furthermore when the Exec Director refused to quit spending money in ways the City Council thought was frivolous (sending the entire cable board of directors and multiple members of staff to annual conventions in Las Vegas), the City Council said to withdraw.

 

I know the argument that by combining you eliminate costs (one police chief instead of 48 for example). But what usually happens when you consolidate is that you get one police chief, 20 assistant police chiefs, and 20 more lieutenants, which results in multiple levels of bureacracy. When a citizen wants to air a complaint, he has to deal with 3 people before he or she ever gets the opportunity to talk to the chief (if he ever gets to do that). With big govt, the average citizen has limited access to the real decision makers and in my mind that makes big govt less efficient, not more. In my little town, the average citizen gets plenty of access to the mayor and the city council members, whether its at the football games, garden club meetings, graduation parties, walking into the convenient store etc, to discuss city services. That would not be the case if we had one big govt in N. Ky. Heck I work in downtown Cincinnati. I have never seen Mayor Mallory. He's too busy managing the many bureacrats that work for him. If I called Mallory with a problem of my client, I'd get referred to multiple committees and bureacrats. My guess is that not many people from Louisville get much face time with Jerry and that's not a slam against Jerry at all. I have found that big govt generally results in the big corporations and big rollers having that access, but the average Joe and Joetta does not. As a result the average Joe and Joetta comes to the conclusion that the govt does not care about them and does not listen to what they have to say. That is not the case in small govt. Elected officials in small govt units have to listen to the Joes and Joettas or they won't get reelected. Heck, I am one of about, my guess, the 1,000 people that vote in Ft. Thomas. The mayor has to listen to me. If we combined into a metro govt for all of N. Ky, I'd be one of about 20,000 or more voters and the leader of that metro govt would not be as concerned about my opinion because my vote would mean less.

 

Our multiple govt situation is definitely working in N. Ky. or else it would be impossible to explain the fantastic economic growth and vast improvement of quality of life. Is it perfect? Of course not. No govt model is. Maybe its not what would work in Louisville, but it definitely works up here. As someone who has to deal with the many govt units up here, I find them to be very responsive to the needs of the people and the businesses. And a responsive govt is an efficient govt as the taxpayers feel that they can have a real voice in how their govt governs.

Let me interject a thought towards my NKY bretheren about any such multi-county school. I am striclty going to ask a question about Kenton Campbell, and Boone county schools. Presently we have Dayton, Belleview, Ludlow, Newport, Holmes, Campbell Co., LLoyd, Highlands, Beechwood, Simon Kenton, Scott, Dixie, Boone County, Ryle, and Conner. 15 teams, 50 players at least each. 750 kids playing football. How many kids will be playing if there is a consolidation? ............ I bet the numbers isn't half, isn't a quarter. Bigger has disadvantages. Advantages to be sure, but quite a few disadvantages as well.

 

And BTW, this is NOT a dig at anyone. Just wanted to be clear about that.

I assume you mean less kids getting the opportunity to suit up and play on Friday nights, to actually get on the field, playing time, etc, right? Well lets ask the kids at Trinity or X how they feel about that. They say, we have JV and freshman games that are serious games for our younger players. They'll say, we actually get MORE kids out because of our bigger numbers. (Well success has a little something to do with that too, but you get the idea)

 

I'm not saying consolidate all the schools in a county into one super/giant/mega school. Instead, leave the independent school districts Ludlow, Highlands, Walton, etc. to do as they please. Take the county districts and consolidate the high schools into one school. One school for Boone Co. schools, one for Kenton, one for Campbell. Heck, this would already solve the complaints against open-enrollment that Kenton Co. faces. Not to mention the complaints about one schools facilities being better than anothers, why do they get this before we get this, etc. Instead of building 3 new football fields with turf, the school board only has to build one.

 

I simply hate the way that Boone Co. approaches education. How many schools are we going to build for one county? 6? 8? Ridiculous. I had a friend from the Owensboro area ask me how many schools were in my county, and in Kenton, and Campbell(including non-football schools). I rattled off the gi-normous list. After I was done(and sure I left some out), he asked this: Why? What makes your region of the state any different than my region that you need that many schools? Owensboro is one of the 5 biggest cities in the state. They have approx 4-5 schools. Maybe we'll just continue to build schools in Boone Co. until we all drop back down to 3A. Maybe that's the double secret mission of the Boone Co. BOE, who knows?:sssh:

I'm not 100% sure about the pay, because I'm not a teacher. But, in the overall scheme of things, there is less pay, & fewer benefits (if you mean health, retirement, etc). On the other hand, they are an extraordinarly committed group of educators, those private school faculty. At my kids' grade school, I can still go back and visit teacher they had in first grade, for instance. Quite a few Trinity staff are ex-students...and some are even ex-X-students. Although no teacher (public or private) is ever paid what they are worth, I think that it's interesting that you never hear a group of private school teachers picketing for higher pay or better benefits. Or at least I haven't. They love what they do, and the do so much more, like all teachers. I would think it goes hand in hand with the loyalty the students, alumni and parents of current and former students feel toward the "Entity known as Trinity".

I'm sure that "unwritten" benefits, like loving your work and the place you work at, play a large role in drawing educators to Trinity. You do bring up an interesting point about never seeing private school educators picketing. I don't think they have to do much picketing, a simple, "I'll go to a public school and make more money" usually suffices. But in general, in my experience, private school educators are very, very loyal to their school, community, etc. I don't know how they afford to put food on the table at those salaries, but they somehow manage.

I assume you mean less kids getting the opportunity to suit up and play on Friday nights, to actually get on the field, playing time, etc, right? Well lets ask the kids at Trinity or X how they feel about that. They say, we have JV and freshman games that are serious games for our younger players. They'll say, we actually get MORE kids out because of our bigger numbers. (Well success has a little something to do with that too, but you get the idea)

This is not heresay, we get great crowds for those JV and Frosh games, because everyone BUYS into the system, and each indivual believes in his role.

What benefit would it be to have 1 high school in Boone County with

almost 4 thousand students?If current increases in enrollment happen

by the time the new school is built there will be more than 4 thousand.

That would be rediculous.

 

And yes the goal is to keep building schools if needed,BOE wants

to keep enrollment below 1 thousand per school.

What benefit would it be to have 1 high school in Boone County with

almost 4 thousand students?If current increases in enrollment happen

by the time the new school is built there will be more than 4 thousand.

That would be rediculous.

 

And yes the goal is to keep building schools if needed,BOE wants

to keep enrollment below 1 thousand per school.

Then I'd say they are woefully behind in their building plans.:lol:

I assume you mean less kids getting the opportunity to suit up and play on Friday nights, to actually get on the field, playing time, etc, right? Well lets ask the kids at Trinity or X how they feel about that. They say, we have JV and freshman games that are serious games for our younger players. They'll say, we actually get MORE kids out because of our bigger numbers. (Well success has a little something to do with that too, but you get the idea)

 

I'm not saying consolidate all the schools in a county into one super/giant/mega school. Instead, leave the independent school districts Ludlow, Highlands, Walton, etc. to do as they please. Take the county districts and consolidate the high schools into one school. One school for Boone Co. schools, one for Kenton, one for Campbell. Heck, this would already solve the complaints against open-enrollment that Kenton Co. faces. Not to mention the complaints about one schools facilities being better than anothers, why do they get this before we get this, etc. Instead of building 3 new football fields with turf, the school board only has to build one.

 

I simply hate the way that Boone Co. approaches education. How many schools are we going to build for one county? 6? 8? Ridiculous. I had a friend from the Owensboro area ask me how many schools were in my county, and in Kenton, and Campbell(including non-football schools). I rattled off the gi-normous list. After I was done(and sure I left some out), he asked this: Why? What makes your region of the state any different than my region that you need that many schools? Owensboro is one of the 5 biggest cities in the state. They have approx 4-5 schools. Maybe we'll just continue to build schools in Boone Co. until we all drop back down to 3A. Maybe that's the double secret mission of the Boone Co. BOE, who knows?:sssh:

Here is your biggest problem that I see if your idea comes to fruition and we have one school a piece for the three counties...... road trip. We will be traveling quite a bit more in district and out. I'm not gonna say that I am not sympathetic to your argument, just not fully convinced.

Here is your biggest problem that I see if your idea comes to fruition and we have one school a piece for the three counties...... road trip. We will be traveling quite a bit more in district and out. I'm not gonna say that I am not sympathetic to your argument, just not fully convinced.

I'm not necessarily advocating a single school, that was merely a suggestion. I AM advocating not having 4 high schools in Boone County. 1 school with 4000 students may be a stretch, but certainly not 4 with 1000. For arguments sake let say Boone Co. has 2 schools, Ryle and Conner. I picked these two for several reasons. First, geogrpahically, they represent the Northern and Southern parts of Boone Co. Second, I left Boone Co. HS out because it is VERY landlocked, and would probably have the most trouble expanding its campus. Third, the Hebron/Burlington and Union/Walton areas are the fastest growing areas of Boone Co. I don't think you'd need 2 schools in Kenton Co., and certainly not in Campbell(they do it pretty much with one anyways). Remember, you'd still keep all the independent districts, i.e. Holmes, Highlands, Ludlow, Bellevue, Lloyd so this would primarily affect the 4A schools only.

 

So here's the "new" 4A district

 

Boone #1(Conner)

Boone #2(Ryle)

Holmes

Kenton #1(not sure which school would be good here)

Campbell #1(Campbell Co.)

 

5 teams, plus Grant Co. isn't far off from being 4A, and possibly another Kenton Co. school. On a side note, you could make the "old" Boone H.S. into yet another middle school for the county. And you could use Owen Hauck field as the Boone Co. Pewee field.

What benefit would it be to have 1 high school in Boone County with

almost 4 thousand students?If current increases in enrollment happen

by the time the new school is built there will be more than 4 thousand.

That would be rediculous.

 

And yes the goal is to keep building schools if needed,BOE wants

to keep enrollment below 1 thousand per school.

Off the top of my head:

 

Benefits

More centralized resources(instead of needing 3 turf fields, you'd only need one or two, big savings when your talking millions of dollars)

More course offerings(due to expanded faculty)

More "college like" atmosphere

 

I'm sure there are more, but I'm tired and its late.

 

My question is, what is the purpose of keeping the schools below 1 thousand(and as Sandman pointed out, its not like they are even close to that either)?

With all this consolidation being considered and the savings with operating one facility versus 3 or 4 and fewer fields, gyms, coaches etcc... what is the cost to the kids of having only 25% - 33% of them participating in Varsity Athletics?

 

If you really get to talking to the parents of the kids at these giant same sex schools about the experience with athletics it wont take long to hear the complaints about lack of playing time or not making the team. The education is excellent but they are not the only schools offering excellent education. Many of the public school have excellent programs to offer and many kids take advantage of it. My point is the opportunities are available in the public schools for the kids willing to take advantage of it. Because you have such a diverse mix of kids in the public schools the overall result is not as impressive as the Private Schools but the overall experience of the public schools provides qualities the Private Schools cant match either good and bad much like the real world.

The make-up of the the regions is completely different and the base is spread over the entire region. This area has its share of problems as well, but not to the extent of the L-Ville area. There is so much going on in this area and you also have the professional teams (Bengals and REDS) right across the river, plus NKU, Xavier, UC, UK, that take up much debate and radio air-time, and newspaper space. It isn't talked about as much in this area and success has been seen in the public schools as much as the private schools.

 

This is a never-ending debate that the KHSAA doesn't even understand how to handle properly. This debate of Private versus Public has been going on for decades, it is a hot-button issue now and always has been!