Multi-district use of Schiffer still an option

When planning started for the John C. Schiffer Collaborative School five or six years ago, the intent was for the alternative high school to serve all three Sheridan County school districts and the Johnson County district.

In an interview this week with Sheridan Media, Scott Stults, who’s an assistant superintendent at Sheridan County School District 2, said that is still an option. But that option is less certain than when planning initially started.

At the time, Stults said, Sheridan County School District 2 was the only one of the districts that had an alternative high school.

Since then, however, Sheridan County School District 1 and the Johnson County school district have both created alternative high schools of their own, raising a question of whether those two districts still want to send students to the alternative school in Sheridan.

And while Sheridan County School District 3, which serves the Arvada-Clearmont area, doesn’t have an alternative high school, the district’s small student numbers and distance from Sheridan are issues.

Among the factors that make the Schiffer school attractive, however, is the proximity to Sheridan College. The school building in fact is being built on land adjacent to the college and that the Sheridan school district received in a land exchange with the college.

In the meantime, the Schiffer school for the past three years has been conducted in buildings on the college campus, and Stults said the proximity to the college during that time has allowed the alternative high school students to have more accessible opportunities to take college classes.

In the meantime, Stults said, the option remains for the other three districts to send their alternative high school students to Schiffer when the school building is completed.

Stults said construction is on track for completion in August, and the school will be ready to serve students starting in fall 2021.