CHAMPAIGN — The Champaign school board's discussion of whether to replace Central High School with a new building focused Monday on whether one, two or three high schools would be best for the district.

The board considered the pros and cons of four options, including having one high school with grades 10 through 12 and a separate 9th-grade center.

Some community members at the meeting said they were vehemently opposed to one high school. Laurie Andrews taught at one of the state's largest high schools.

"I think it's very easy for students to slip through the cracks," said Andrews, who has a second-grader in the district. "It's hard for teachers to get to know students. It's hard for students to get to know each other. Discipline problems multiply."

Parent Chuck Jackson said hearing that the academic achievement of disadvantaged students often suffers in larger high schools took the one-high-school option off the table for him.

"Those are the people who are going to get hurt by one school," he said, adding he's also concerned by the possibility of loss of community and parental involvement if the district went to one high school. "All those are the things that support our most vulnerable population."

But Mark Briggs, parent of a junior at Centennial High School and two Centennial graduates, believes one high school is the only choice. He says combining the two high schools would increase the academic and extracurricular offerings, allowing the district to offer more courses and additional sports and theater and music groups.

"One high school will be great for this community," he said.

Several board members said they favored two high schools, citing fewer opportunities for students to play sports or participate in other extracurricular activities with one high school, more difficulty in building relationships between teachers and students in a very large school, and more difficulty in dealing with discipline problems in a school where teachers won't know a large portion of the students.

Board member Tommy Lockman said the likelihood that Champaign would not be a member of the Big 12 conference with just one high school was a "huge problem," noting sports teams would have to travel much farther to compete against Chicago-area schools.

For board member Stig Lanesskog, "The diversity of our community is our greatest strength. How can we use our high schools to best leverage that strength ... and allow students to learn from each other?"

Lanesskog believes doing so requires two, rather than one, high school.

Central Principal Joe Williams said he favors two high schools, with a new Central building.

"Everything about Central is outstanding, except for the building," he said.

Centennial Principal Greg Johnson urged the district to look at research showing how students achieve at schools with different enrollment sizes, particularly low-income students.

Anyone wanting to provide input can email the school board at u4boe@champaignschools.org.