Tuesday’s vote by the Vigo County Council to block the use of county funds to modernize the aged local school facilities should be taken for what it is — another delay.
The heart of the problem remains as it has been for more than a decade. Multiple Vigo County School Corp. school buildings, especially the three high school facilities, have outlived their structural life expectancies. Several need extensive renovation. A few need replaced.
And, because the tough choice of funding 21st-century-equipped schools has been dodged again and again, Vigo County is not attracting enough new residents and employers to offset its family-age population decline. Thus, the VCSC’s enrollment has dropped from 20,000 in the 1970s to around 13,500 now.
So, the VCSC has proposed a plan to not only modernize its facilities, but also consolidate its roster of schools from a total of 23 to 16.
Tuesday’s 4-3 vote basically affirmed that a slim majority of the County Council does not want the county’s legislative body to be directly involved in remedying the school facilities problem. While some members’ votes reflected reasoned objections to the unusual interjection of the County Council into school-district matters, the lead-up to Tuesday’s decision also included political posturing on social media, which spawned exaggerations and outright misinformation on those platforms.
Untruths, rumors and the conflation of unrelated issues for social-media appeal do not benefit the community.
Sadly, such an atmosphere prevailed in 2022, when a VCSC proposal for a $261-million renovation and rebuilding project for Terre Haute North, Terre Haute South and West Vigo high schools, and West Vigo Middle School, was voted down in a ballot referendum. Though imperfect, that plan looks wiser as the years pass. Terre Haute might already be drawing in more taxpaying families and companies.
That 2022 outcome all but assured the only responsible alternative would include consolidation. The VCSC has put forward a smart, more comprehensive plan. It would trim its number of schools from three high schools to two, consolidating North and South into a larger facility, and renovating West Vigo. The county would have four middle schools instead of five, and 10 elementaries instead of 15. Some buildings would be repurposed.
The proposal gained apparent momentum from a unique possible source of funding apart from another ballot referendum. Earlier this year, the Indiana Legislature approved a measure authored by state Sen. Greg Goode, R-Terre Haute, allowing a county-city-VCSC collaboration that could tap into existing county funds for school facilities and possibly avoid a property-tax increase, or at least reduce the amount necessary.
Through that legislation, the Vigo County commissioners requested the County Council’s approval of $100,000 for the startup costs of an independent oversight committee to make recommendations on the school facilities project. That $100,000 would pay for outside legal counsel with expertise in municipal and school financing, and that money would come from the county’s casino gaming-tax account, Commissioner Chris Switzer said.
County Council member Steve Ellis introduced an ordinance to block the use of county funds for any Vigo school uses, without voters first approving such an expenditure through a ballot referendum. A 4-3 majority approved Ellis’ ordinance on Tuesday. Then on Friday, Council President David Thompson — one of three members who voted against Ellis’ blocking ordinance — declared Ellis’ measure invalid for procedural reasons.
All of which brings the community to today.
School buildings constructed in cost-cutting fashion during the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations are worn out, especially North and South high schools. Avoiding the hard but necessary investment in modernizing a school district — whose marquee facilities are the three aged high schools — will mean yet another class of kids will miss the opportunity for a 21st-century-caliber education in their hometowns. Kicking that can even farther down the road might give a few candidates populist favor in upcoming elections, but that choice will look shortsighted years from now.
Whether it takes a referendum, or an innovative funding collaboration, or both, Vigo County young people and their teachers deserve modern schools. It is time to get it done.
© 2025 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.