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WILKES-BARRE — If opponents succeed in thwarting the current plan to merge Meyers and Coughlin, Wilkes-Barre Area will remain in a rarefied and shrinking group of districts statewide that have three or more high schools. According to state data, only 10 of 500 school districts fit that category. Take out Pennsylvania’s two mega-districts — Philadelphia and Pittsburgh — and it’s down to eight.

Even if Coughlin and Meyers are merged, Wilkes-Barre Area would still be part of a small minority: Only 22 districts statewide have two high schools. Most have one. Look hard enough and you’ll find variations of none.

Galeton Area School District in very-rural Potter County, for example, has a single k-12 school. St. Clair Area in Schuylkill County has one K-8 building and farms out secondary education to neighboring Pottsville Area School District.

Not that having a single high school on paper translates into a single building. Strictly speaking, Hazleton Area School District — which merged three high schools into one in 1993 — has since split that consolidated school into three buildings. The central school still houses grades 10 through 12, but ninth grade moved next door to a refurbished elementary building. And some students, while still officially remaining enrolled in the central high school, attend classes in a Butler Township facility dubbed the Academy of Science.

In June the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board voted to close Meyers and Coughlin, merging grades nine through 12 into a new building at the Coughlin site, while expanding Kistler Elementary to house seventh and eighth grade Meyers students. The board had previously authorized renovation of the closed Mackin Elementary School building to re-purpose it as a high school facility, at least temporarily. Total costs are estimated to top $100 million. The district’s third high school, GAR, would remain in operation.

Critics quickly organized to either save the venerable Meyers building or, at the least, to keep a high school in south Wilkes-Barre, retaining a “neighborhood school” system. Many have cited research they argue proves large high school consolidation has failed students academically, and that students perform better in smaller school settings.

It’s easy to find such research, though some reports raise questions about how much of the negative impact of big schools stems from demographics or other issues beyond enrollment size. But there’s little doubt what state data says about multiple high schools in real life: They are sparse.

There’s one important caveat: The state typically considers any school with a graduating 12th grade a high school, but schools can meet that description by having any mix of grades. Many, often dubbed junior/senior high schools, house seven through 12, as is the case at GAR and Meyers. Others, Like Hazleton Area, may have half as many grades.

That said, here are some facts gleaned from state data :

• Excluding Philadelphia and Pittsburgh because of their disproportionate sizes, in 2013 eight districts had three or more high schools. Three of those eight had total district enrollments less than Wilkes-Barre Area’s 6,934: Penncrest, Armstrong and Warren County School Districts.

• Of the 486 districts with one or two high schools, 32 had total enrollment higher than Wilkes-Barre Area.

• As a rough gauge of academic success in Wilkes-Barre’s three school system, SAT scores were averaged for all districts regardless of number of high schools. Of the 493 districts with SAT scores available from the state, 455 scored higher than Wilkes-Barre Area’s three high schools. Nine of those had higher enrollment and had two high schools; 19 had higher enrollment and one high school.

• Currently, Coughlin has the fifth highest enrolment among Luzerne County high schools but ranks 10th in SAT scores. Meyers ranks ninth in enrollment and 11th in SATs, while GAR ranks 11th — the third smallest high school in the county — — yet had the worst SAT scores.

• To put it another way, three high schools with larger enrollments than Coughlin posted better SAT scores; eight schools with higher enrollment than Meyers posted better SAT scores, and 10 schools with higher enrollment than GAR posted better SAT scores.

Meyer’s High School is surrounded by fences and all exits and enterances have a safety shelter over them. 8/21/2015 Aimee Dilger|Times Leader
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL082215threeschools.jpg.optimal.jpgMeyer’s High School is surrounded by fences and all exits and enterances have a safety shelter over them. 8/21/2015 Aimee Dilger|Times Leader

By Mark Guydish

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Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish