Will Camden go for a "super" high school?

In a couple of weeks, city residents will get a chance to sound off on a proposal to bring the district's magnet high schools under a new, shared roof on the future Camden High School campus.

In an education plan submitted by the Camden school board and now under consideration by the state Department of Education, city school officials are looking at the possibility of moving two - or even all three - of the magnets into Camden High when its $100 million renovation is complete.

The specialized magnets - Brimm Medical Arts, Creative Arts, and MetEast, which offers job training and internships - now are housed in separate buildings. They would become small learning communities within Camden High, or schools within a school. Current Camden High students would remain at the school.

Camden Board Vice President Susan Dunbar-Bey said the goal would be for the magnets to maintain separate identities but benefit from the new building's state-of-the-art facilities.

Students at the magnets now attend gym at the Camden Boys and Girls Club, according to district spokesman Bart Leff. The new high school will have athletic facilities, as well as enhanced technology and science resources.

"If each of the magnet schools retain their own principals, their own staff, I don't see the problem," said Dunbar-Bey, a Camden High alumna.

Depending on the size of the renovated school, all the magnets might not fit, she said. According to the state School Development Authority, the new Camden High will have room for 1,350 students.

The combined enrollment of Camden High and the three magnets was a little more than 1,480 students in June. The design of the school will be completed after the state approves an education plan.

Some have expressed concern about the magnets' identities and worry that their prestige will be eroded. There also are concerns about safety at Camden High, a school with known security and student-behavior issues.

"I'm worried about safety for all our students," Dunbar-Bey responded. "All of our students should feel secure."

To that end, she said, "we will be working in the middle schools to change the culture."

Camden school officials are looking at the possibility of turning all of the district's middle schools into magnet schools devoted to specific areas of interest or educational philosophies.

School board support of the proposals is not uniform. Locating the high school magnet programs in Camden High "hasn't been discussed at all with students or teachers at Brimm, Arts, or MetEast," said board member Jose Delgado, who was critical of the idea at last week's board meeting.

Contact staff writer Rita Giordano at 856-779-3841 or rgiordano@phillynews.com.