Splitting school district worth a careful look Nothing wrong with those people in Plover looking at breaking away from the Stevens Point Area School District. But it's good that they're taking their time, because it's a complicated issue, financially and educationally. At the heart of it is a feeling among some people that the community needs a second public high school, and that it should be in Plover. More than a few think Stevens Point Area Senior High School is too big, and some of those people are educators. It's an issue that never quite goes away because there doesn't seem to be a clear consensus, even in Plover. Questions come to mind. Would it be sensible to build another high school and leave SPASH partly empty? On the other hand, do we want to let SPASH get still bigger and close the door indefinitely on a second high school? Of course a second high school could be built without creating a new district. That way, if one of the schools became overcrowded and the other had excess capacity, the problem could be remedied just by shifting attendance boundaries. How would you do that if the schools were in separate districts? Anyway, that's an idea that's been kicked around before and never got off the ground. Has its time come? Stay tuned. So let the study proceed. Look at the pluses and minuses. Ask whether splitting the district would divide the community in other ways, keeping in mind that Stevens Point and Plover have really been one town for years, if you ignore those invisible and often meaningless municipal boundary lines. Small town chauvinism shouldn't influence the decision on either side. Splitting the district could be traumatic but it doesn't have to start a civil war. Wausau and Schofield seem to be on speaking terms. What we really need to know is, which arrangement is better educationally, and which can we afford? Splitting the district means dividing the assets and liabilities. Check the math and then check it again. And remember that the ultimate winners and losers are the generations to come. - George Rogers