Albion students are a step closer to knowing where they’ll be going to high school this fall.
Albion High School is closing for budget reasons. The district will continue to provide K through 8 education.
The Marshall school board voted last night to open its high school to Albion’s students. Albion’s school board will vote on the cooperative agreement next week.
Under the Cooperative Education Program Agreement, Albion agrees to pay for their students’ transportation costs and Marshall agrees to accept the students’ academic credits. The Marshall school district will also receive the students’ state per pupil funding.
Albion officials estimate about 150 students are affected by the closing of the high school.
Randy Davis is the Marshall schools superintendent.
He expects up to 130 Albion students will opt to go to Marshall. But Davis admits he’s not sure how many will choose Marshall over other nearby schools of choice. And that will affect how many teachers and support staff the Marshall school district will hire for this fall.
“The question is when do we pull the trigger on that….When do we move forward to post those positions…. And when do we feel comfortable with the numbers,” says Davis, “We’re working closely with Albion…and they with us….in trying to estimate that.”
Marshall High School hold an open house for 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th graders from Albion next week. Enrollment starts later in June.
School officials are hoping for help from the state and federal governments to cover the costs of merging the two student bodies.
