ANDERSON, Ind.­ — Faculty, staff, parents and students in favor for retaining two high schools with grades 7-12 in Anderson Community Schools will gather for a forum next week before the school board decides on whether the city will have one or two high schools.

“A couple of (school board members) sound like they’re pretty entrenched and sound like they want to have just one high school,” said Doug Owens, a counselor at Highland High School. “I don’t think it’s a done deal, but from discussions and things I’ve heard, they’re trying to give that impression.”

Owens is spokesman for a group that favors two high schools. The group has scheduled a “parent/community open forum” in the Highland High School Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

“You can’t go forward with a decision of this magnitude without hearing from the people and what’s in the best interest of the community,” he said.

The school board next meets on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 6 p.m. in the administration offices at 29th and Meridian streets. Board members have signaled that a decision on consolidation could be made at that meeting.

The options for school closings were presented to the board in October as the school system grappled with projections of a multimillion-dollar budget deficit and persistently declining enrollment.

Neither the Anderson High School nor Highland High School building would close under options the school board is considering. Rather, the buildings would either become home to students in grades 7-12, or one school would become a middle school for grades 7-9, the other a high school with grades 10-12.

It’s unclear which building — Anderson or Highland — would continue as a high school if the school board opts for a single high school.

“It has nothing to do with either building. This is about a community and a school system that will be adversely affected,” Owens said.

He said those who support two high schools with grades 7-12 oppose a single high school in the city for reasons such as:

* Loss of extracurricular and athletic opportunities for students.

* Travel time and transportation costs.

* A possible exodus of students from the system.

Owens said an unscientific straw poll of Highland students found that 84 percent of them said they favored two schools, and a similar number said they would consider leaving ACS if the system had just one high school. He said 65 percent of students said they had already discussed with their parents plans to transfer from ACS if there was just one high school.

Those in favor of a single high school point to greater savings and raise concerns about students in grades 7-12 sharing the same school building.