Rochester School Superintendent Bolgen Vargas is recommending that Charlotte High School be closed in the 2017-18 school year.
It’s a case of officials wanting to be proactive about what the future holds for that school.
Under a proposal just announced by the superintendent, Charlotte High School would be phased out over the next two years.
There are now about 400 students there, and in a letter to students and families Vargas notes that Charlotte has been on a priority list for the state for the last three years because of low academic achievement. He says he would rather start the process now for an orderly transition, instead of waiting for the state to take action.
School Board President Van White agrees with that strategy, especially since he says the district was caught short earlier this year by the state education department requiring a plan for East High School in a short period of time.
"We should have enough planning time, we should create the planning time ourselves, so that if a school was in jeopardy like Charlotte or East, that we would get ahead of the game"
As part of this plan, the Leadership Academy, which is an all-boys school and is also located at Charlotte, would expand into more of that building.
The plan will be voted on by the school board in March. There is a meeting for the community, next Tuesday at 6pm at Charlotte high school where Vargas will listen to concerns and take questions.
