Planners reject dorms at Henderson International School

By Jeremy Twitchell (contact)

Friday, Oct. 17, 2008 | 12:25 p.m.

After hearing more than an hour's worth of objections from neighbors of the Henderson International School, the Henderson Planning Commission last night unanimously rejected the school's plan to create a dormitory for international high school students.

Commissioners agreed with the argument that the dorm could be a good idea in the right location, but that the school's campus on Summit Grove Drive and Sandy Ridge Avenue was not the right location.

"I would have never approved this 13 or 14 years ago with a dormitory on it," said Commissioner George Bochanis, who was on the board when it approved the original Warren Walker School on the site in 1995.

Representatives of Meritas, the international organization of preparatory schools that now owns Henderson International, said they plan to appeal the Planning Commission's decision to the City Council.

"I'm disappointed by the commission's response, although I understand that they are only doing what they think is best for the city," Meritas Senior Vice President William Spruce said. "I do think that the boarding process represents a great opportunity for the school and for the city of Henderson."

Henderson International submitted a request to remodel 14 vacant classrooms on the second floor of the school's main building and turn them into a 30-room dormitory that would house 60 foreign students and provide living quarters for supervisors.

Planning commissioners said Henderson International's was the first application for a boarding school that the city has seen. Commissioners said they wanted to act carefully, because the city has no requirements in place for a boarding school permit — meaning that certain basic services like health care and laundry facilities could potentially be overlooked.

Henderson International Head of School Jon McGill said the school had planned for all of those needs, but commissioners said that without an enforceable set of guidelines in place for a boarding school, they would not grant the necessary permit.

"Frankly, we want to be very cautious about how we proceed, because this will set a precedent," Chairman Dan Shaw said. "… I have no issue with a boarding school. I think it's very good in a private school setting. But I want to make sure that we do this appropriately."

The 24 residents who lined up to speak against the proposal expressed a number of concerns, the chief one being how the addition of 60 students living at the site would affect their neighborhood. Though school representatives said the students would be under constant supervision and would not be allowed to leave the campus without teacher supervision, residents said that guarantee wasn't good enough.

"When the kids in these dorms realize that there aren't enough eyes to watch them, they are inevitably going to act out, and as an adjacent homeowner, that greatly concerns me," resident Rob Turney said.

Three residents spoke in favor of the proposal, each of whom has a child at the school. They said that based on their experience with the school, students would have neither the time nor the inclination to get into trouble.

"These schools are run great … these are not juvenile delinquents that they're going to be bringing in," Dan Laliberte said. "I think it brings something into Henderson that Henderson doesn't have, and I think that fact needs to be considered as well."

The proposal also faces a question of whether Henderson International would need to obtain a state license in order to operate a boarding facility. The issue had not been determined as of the Planning Commission meeting, and Spruce said the school will continue to investigate that as it prepares for its appeal before the City Council.

He also pledged to continue to work with neighbors to address their concerns. A number of concerns residents raised regarding past incidents at the school took place before Meritas took it over two years ago, Spruce said, and Meritas has been working to address them.

"Unfortunately, there are some negative, I would say, legacy issues that arose prior to our arrival and that have been festering with the neighbors," he said. "Obviously, we're going to continue to work with them to address those."