Burke County superintendent outlines plan to move Halliburton Academy into secured wing at Dron High School
Loading...
Summary
Superintendent Mike Swan proposed shifting Halliburton Academy into a secured wing at Dron High School to cut costs and expand student supports; administrators said the change could save about $400,000 annually, while parents pressed for more stakeholder engagement and assurances on capacity, security and student experience.
Superintendent Mike Swan of Burke County Public Schools outlined a plan to relocate Halliburton Academy into a secured wing at Dron High School at a special‑call meeting, saying the move would preserve Halliburton’s separate identity while reducing costs.
Swan said the district expects about 30 high‑school students and one middle‑school student to enroll at Halliburton in August and that the district currently spends about $37,620 per student at Halliburton versus $9,000 per student at a traditional school. “The relocation would save the district a minimum of $400,000 annually,” Swan said, adding that the savings are equivalent to roughly 9.8 teaching positions the district could use to sustain programs and smaller class sizes elsewhere in the county.
Swan and Vern McKissick, the consultant from McKissick Architecture who presented capacity findings, said a five‑year facility study shows Dron High School has practical capacity to house Halliburton in a separated wing without combining students’ core academic classes. McKissick stated the building’s DPI‑calculated utilization and a district “practical capacity” measure indicate available seats and room to reassign some existing instructional uses.
Administrators described security plans for the wing: a maglock system tied into the fire alarm panel, badge access for staff, a buzzer/intercom and hallway cameras. Swan said the maglock would release on any fire alarm and that the district met with the fire inspector during planning. He also said Halliburton would retain its own principal, school number, colors, mascot, cafeteria and graduation events, and that its day‑treatment program would remain at the current Halliburton site.
Parents and community members pressed administrators on several topics during the public Q&A. One parent asked how Dron would accommodate a hypothetical return of more than 100 Halliburton students; Swan and the consultant pointed to the study results and noted differences between DPI reporting and local, disaggregated office‑referral data. Swan explained that DPI’s summary pulls a student’s discipline into the school where they ended the year, which can obscure where incidents originated.
Community members also questioned whether Halliburton students would be stigmatized by escorted transitions and separate dining or restroom facilities. A Halliburton staff member said escorts and supervision already occur in other high schools and described the Halliburton environment as calm and relationship‑focused. “We keep a very close eye on our students,” a Halliburton staffer said, noting that escorts are intended to be discreet and that students would use restrooms in the secured wing.
Police‑call data tied to the Halliburton address drew dispute: a resident said local logs show roughly 200 calls over two years, but district and county officers said the number of true law enforcement interventions at the school is much lower and that many logged calls relate to unrelated activity at the address (traffic stops, after‑hours incidents). The district said it does not hold police records and that requests for law‑enforcement logs must go to local agencies.
Several parents urged a formal board vote rather than leaving the relocation as an administrative action. At the meeting’s close, attendees asked the board to record its opinion in a vote; administrators reiterated that the proposal came from leadership discussions tied to ongoing budget shortfalls and planning and that they had considered other sites but found Dron’s mix of seats and transportation costs practical.
No final board vote on the relocation was taken at the meeting; the board approved the meeting agenda at the start of the session and adjourned after public comment. Administrators said unanswered questions would be added to the Halliburton Q&A document and followed up.
Next steps: district staff said they will post the meeting recording, respond to outstanding questions in the Q&A document, and continue allotment and curriculum planning to address course availability if the relocation proceeds.
