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Parents, teachers and students urge board to slow plan to turn McCain High into district "innovation center"
Summary
At a packed March 18 meeting, dozens of McCain students, parents and staff urged the Red Clay board to pause or slow a plan to convert Thomas McCain High School into an innovation center, raising concerns about special-education access, midday transportation, ADA retrofits, and the rapid 2027 timeline the district is pursuing.
The Red Clay Consolidated School District on March 18 heard more than an hour of public comment urging the board to slow or halt plans to convert Thomas McCain High School into a district "innovation center," a reconfiguration the district proposes to launch in fall 2027 after the board accelerated an earlier 2028 recommendation.
Parents, teachers and students said the proposal, as currently presented, threatens students with disabilities, will disrupt long-standing school communities and lacks key details about costs and logistics. "My students in my classroom were physically harmed nearly every day," said Melissa Ford, a fourth-grade teacher at Richie, recounting frequent assaults on students and staff and describing medical leave that followed. "When incidents are miscoded, the data may look better on paper, but it does not change what happens in the classrooms," said Eric Ford, a Brandywine Springs fifth-grade teacher and RCA building representative who described a grievance the district settled.
Why it matters: The plan would move some programs (including the Meadowwood special-education program) to different campuses and change attendance zones.…
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