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Really good educators, and we have many in Ohio County schools, constantly look for ways to improve how they teach children. Most of the time, classroom-level techniques are the focus.
A concern about enrollment at elementary and middle school buildings raises the possibility of more big- picture thinking.
Enrollment in the lower-grade schools varies dramatically. The smallest elementary school, Bethlehem, has just 123 students. The largest, Elm Grove, has 363. The smallest middle school, Wheeling, has 181 students, while the largest, Triadelphia, has 443.
The disparities have prompted officials to begin looking at whether adjustments in what areas are served by individual schools should be made.
Obviously, the idea is to make the most efficient use possible of school buildings and personnel, without making life tougher on students with unnecessarily long bus rides. Merely distributing enrollment as evenly as possible is not an option.
But the discussion opens up bigger possibilities than merely ensuring the system is run as efficiently as possible. Effectiveness also may be part of any change school officials plan.
Talk about both qualities may prompt some to wonder whether consolidation is on school officials' minds. Perhaps so, perhaps not. In some cases, economies of scale make bigger schools better. But we also know that in some ways, smaller is more effective.
Board of education members and school administrators should look at the enrollment issue as an opportunity to improve quality. If some consolidation seems to be a way of doing that, they should not shy away from proposing it -- but they should not fall into the trap others before them have, of combining schools solely for the sake of doing so.
School officials may come up with some ideas that will require persuading parents and other taxpayers proposed changes will be good for Ohio County children. But if those ideas clearly are improvements, there should be no problem in convincing the public to support them. Everyone, after all, wants what is best for the children.