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School named after Good

Published 2/2/2010 in Local News

By MONICA SPRINGER

mspringer@gctelegram.com

The future middle school that will be moving into the current high school at 1412 N. Main St. will be named Horace Good Middle School, the Garden City USD 457 Board of Education decided Monday night.

The board voted unanimously to name the building after Good, a former USD 457 superintendent.

The future middle school was the last building affected by the district's facilities upgrade project that needed to be named.

The board decided to consider two names for the school, which included Good and Clifford R. Hope Sr., a Garden City High School graduate who won a landslide election into the U.S. House of Representatives in 1926, in keeping with the recommendations that the Facilities Naming Committee made last year.

Board members said Hope was a prominent man in the community, but that he already had a post office and the auditorium at the current GCHS named after him.

And having a building and an auditorium named after him might cause some confusion when giving people directions to buildings, board members said.

Mike Utz, board president, and Jeff Crist sat in on the naming committee's discussions last year.

Utz said the decision was a hard one, and that there were about 15 names the committee considered for the buildings affected by the bond projects.

"Every one of these individuals was deserving," Utz said.

Good was the superintendent of Garden City schools from 1969 to 1984. He lives in Garden City with his wife, Eleanor. She said she and her husband were pleased when they got a phone call from USD 457 Superintendent Rick Atha on Monday night, informing them that the building will be named Horace Good Middle School. The name will take effect when the new high school opens up and the middle school students move into the current high school, which is expected to be the start of the 2012-13 school year.

Born in 1919, Good grew up and graduated high school in Pennsylvania and graduated from Appalachian State University in North Carolina. He taught English and geography in several locations before moving to Denver.

He obtained his doctorate in education administration from the University of Denver in 1966. He served as the deputy superintendent in Commerce City, Colo., for 18 years before coming to Garden City.

During his tenure in USD 457, the school district grew from 500 to 8,000 students, a new junior high school was built and named Kenneth Henderson Junior High, Gertrude Walker Elementary School was built, a fire-razed Garfield Elementary School was rebuilt, and Florence Wilson Elementary School was built and opened.

In November 2008, voters approved a $97.5 million facilities upgrade project that calls for a new, $92.5 million high school to be built, turning Garfield Elementary School into an early childhood center, converting Abe Hubert Middle School into an elementary school, converting the current GCHS building into a middle school, and moving New Outlook Academy into J.D. Adams Hall, which sits adjacent to the current high school.

At a previous meeting, the board decided to name the new high school Garden City High School, retain the name J.D. Adams Hall on the current facility, rename Garfield Elementary School as Garfield Early Childhood Center, and keep the name Abe Hubert on the current facility at 1205 A St., which will become Abe Hubert Elementary School.

Program budgeting

The board set a special meeting for 5 p.m. March 1 at the GCHS Courtyard to begin the district's program budgeting process.

The process will be different this year, said Kathleen Whitley, USD 457's financial officer.

The 15 district programs that the process determine funding for include health services, transportation, high school instruction, middle school instruction, counseling, special education, elementary instruction, building administration, district-wide administration, supplemental services, plant facilities, activities, curriculum/assessment, technology and media services.

Last year, each of the 15 programs presented a 100-percent budget, a 98-percent budget and a 96-percent budget. And in past years, program budgeting committee members have been asked to listen to each program's budget proposals at the different levels of funding and prioritize how much money they feel each program should receive. In the past, the committee's recommendations have then been sent to the school board for approval.

This year, however, Whitley said each district program will present only a 98-percent budget. That means that each of the 15 programs will present a budget with a 2-percent cut.

The reason for the change is due to the bleak budget the state of Kansas is facing this year, as well as the possibility for more cuts in state aid to public education, Whitley said.

Atha said there will likely be cuts in personnel through the program budgeting process and encouraged board members to attend the meeting to see who will be affected.

"I regret to tell you that it's not a pretty picture," Atha told board members on Monday night.

After hearing from each program on how it would handle a 2-percent cut, a committee will be formed to look at where to make more cuts if the school district has to cut more than 2 percent of its budget.

That committee likely will meet in late March or April, Atha said, and will consist of administrators, community members, certified and classified staff and board members.

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