| School Board to look at alternate plan |
| Tuesday, May 26, 2009 |
|
School Board may look at alternate plan if Lebanon High is closed By CONNIE ESH Wilson County Schools has no plan as of now for what to do should Lebanon High School have to shut down all or part of its classrooms. Concern for the health and safety of students attending LHS has led Director of Schools Mike Davis to start talking to the county high school principals about a contingency plan for just such a situation. Davis said recent visits from the State Fire Marshal and news stories pointing out problems at the high school brought him to the decision. School Board may look at alternate plan if Lebanon High is closed By CONNIE ESH Wilson County Schools has no plan as of now for what to do should Lebanon High School have to shut down all or part of its classrooms. Concern for the health and safety of students attending LHS has led Director of Schools Mike Davis to start talking to the county high school principals about a contingency plan for just such a situation. Davis said recent visits from the State Fire Marshal and news stories pointing out problems at the high school brought him to the decision. “Someone asked me what we would do if the school was required to close and I had to say I didn’t know,” he said. “We need a contingency plan, even though we hope it will never happen.” Davis said he thinks there are two possible options. First, if only some parts of the school had to be closed, students could be transferred temporarily to each of the other three high schools with some students remaining in the newer sections of LHS. The problem he foresees with that plan is WHS for example could not absorb more than 100 to 150 students, and even those would need to be short term. The influx of students would overcrowd the other two high schools as well. The second possibility is to do an early and late shift at WCHS, he said. “We could have Wilson Central students and teachers come in from 7 a.m.-1 p.m.,” Davis said. “Then LHS students could come in at 1:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.” However, he also pointed out that whatever plan is chosen first it must be approved by the Wilson County Board of Education and that it would involve moving not only students, but teachers and equipment. Davis also plans to discuss the problems with the sewer system with Lebanon Commissioner of Public Works Jeff Baines to see if he knows of a way to put an airtight seal on the manholes located inside LHS. Baines said Tuesday he’s sure some solution can be found, adding it should be possible to seal the manholes and at the same time allow proper venting for the system and access to the pipes. “We’ll have our people meet them at the school and take a look at the situation,” Baines said. “At the very least we can provide some resources for them, tell them who to call.” “We plan to try and improve the building this summer, too,” Davis said. “But it behooves us to have a plan in case the fire marshal, the health department or the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) says we can’t use some portion or all of the building.” What he said really concerns him is the air coming up out of the broken sewer lines. “We can deal with what we can see, it’s what we can’t see that worries me, the germs, bacteria and viruses that could be coming up. It makes me sick just to look at it.” He also said the first priority is the safety of the children. “If we can’t make LHS safe, we have to come up with another plan,” he said. Staff Writer Connie Esh may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . |
