I just wanted to share a drawing that my sister-in-law’s dad, Dick Colbeck, drew for my dad. The drawing is of my dad and the family cabin near Beecher City.  Colbeck is retired from Caterpillar and a member of Decatur’s Barn Colony Artist and has been featured in the Herald & Review several times for his artwork.  So, if you would like to hire a great artist who pays attention to detail, contact Dick!

(Click on the image to see full view.)

Last night’s high school task force meeting narrowed done some more choices for either renovating, building new or looking at other options for Decatur’s high school.  At the last meeting I leaned heavily in favor of using the Stephen Decatur site for the one new high school in Decatur and that isn’t off the table.  Many others have been suggesting the same option throughout the task force process.

However, last night I leaned in favor of keeping two high schools open in Decatur.  Many in our group, including myself, felt that if Decatur were to only have one high school, it would reflect poorly on the community and could hamper growth in the future.  We decided that Eisenhower should be torn down and rebuilt, because remodeling it would be just as much or even more costly and end up with a result not as a good, if we were to just build new.  We also wanted to make sure that MacArthur High School received major upgrades to be on par with a new Eisenhower building.  We didn’t want any disparity in the quality of the two high school facilities.

Still, a plus with the Stephen Decatur option is it’s cheaper; students wouldn’t be displaced during its construction; the school district could sell the Eisenhower property and the former Southeast Grade School property to St. Mary’s Hospital, who has shown interest in the property in the past – at least according to those I spoke to last night.  That money could be used to help pay for the renovations at the Stephen Decatur and MacArthur site.

Personally, I think the best option is the sell the Eisenhower property and convert Stephen Decatur back into a high school, completely remodel MacArthur and keep it as a high school as well and build a new middle school.  Yep, big money!  But I think in the end that would put Decatur on par with many of our competing local districts and serve the needs of the city for several decades to come.  I really feel that one high school for a city the size of Decatur would reflect negatively on our city’s image and restrict growth.  And sooner or later we’d have to build another high school somewhere down the line anyway.

There’s many options on the table and I’m sure the larger community is going to have many suggestions too, including doing nothing which isn’t without its own cost too, so who knows what is going to happen.  However, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of interest in a single new high school in a brand new location.  The Stephen Decatur option beat that out last night in the voting.

The next task force meeting is September 24th. I won’t be able to attend because that’s the same day as our neighborhood meeting but I’d encourage anyone who’s interested in Decatur Public Schools to go down and look at the plans.