SELLERSBURG — A petition that will keep West Clark Community Schools from moving forward on a multi-million dollar bond issuance has led its board of trustees to look into dissolving the corporation.
Doug Coffman, a member of the district’s board of trustees, asked board attorney Mike Gillenwater to investigate the steps required to ending school corporation. The request came after petitions gained enough signatures to keep the board from moving forward on $62.9 million bond issuance without a community vote, brought up at the board’s meeting on Thursday.
In an interview Tuesday, Coffman said he thought the campaign to get signatures was reminiscent of divisiveness felt in the district in the 1990s when the board discussed consolidation.
“There’s been so much misinformation and incorrect information, people lying to others about what the Silver Creek campus will get out of this [project],” Coffman said. “It brings out all these emotions we used to have. If we can’t get along, let’s not get along and get a divorce.”
Gillenwater will bring information to the board on dissolution as soon as he gets it, which may be a month or more, but Chad Schenck, superintendent, said the move would be “uncharted territory.” He said he’s not sure what it would take, whether it’s strictly a board decision, something the state has to weigh in on or if it has to go to a vote in the community.
“There may be others on the board who want to hear exactly what’s involved in that,” Schenck said. “If you look at others that tried this, I don’t know of other districts that have and had success. I think it’s something that has been mentioned by community members across all three communities. I think there are people who are interested.”
Joe Basham, board member, said he doesn’t think dissolution is necessarily a good idea. He said he understands where Coffman’s coming from, as the most senior member of the board, but the impact to taxpayers could be huge, driving them up for each of the three communities they serve.
He said, though, he’s disappointed that there’s so much division between Borden, Henryville and Silver Creek communities that he understands Coffman’s frustration.
“I think it’s the response to the petition that was signed,” Basham said. “I’m from Henryville and I think some of my residents up there have forgotten about all the people in Sellersburg that donated time and money after the tornado went though. What I always try to preach is that we are all one corporation, and sometimes we forget that. It’s kind of a hard pill to swallow to see people sign a petition when they might not be fully informed.”
Part of that comes from Coffman’s assertion that the opposition may have used dishonest tactics in getting signatures.
“There was a rumor that from this building program, that Silver Creek was going to get two Olympic-sized swimming pools. There’s another rumor that we were going to get a turf football field,” Coffman said. We’re trying to take care of kids to make sure they’re educated in a safe environment. We don’t want any of that stuff, yet that’s the type of stuff that was told to people to get them to sign that petition.”
The board will also have to decide whether to move forward with the referendum and a special election in May, keeping the project at the same dollar amount or lowering it, or coming up with a new resolution and increasing the dollar amount for the project. But Schenck said that would take substantially more time.
Basham said his big concern is that the longer they wait to start the project, the higher the construction costs rise. He said every year they put off, they could go up as much as 3 to 5 percent, driving down what they can accomplish for the same dollar amount.
Schenck said the board hasn’t made a decision on which way to go, but it should probably get to that point before the end of the year.