The Daily Journal of Johnson County
A state agency won't overturn its ruling that has stopped Clark-Pleasant schools from building a new middle school.
The commissioner of the Department of Local Government Finance cited two reasons for not changing her mind, which would have allowed the district to proceed with the $60 million plan: a court ruling that says that state agencies can't change their rulings unless a legal error existed, and because the school district didn't provide any compelling information that should prompt a reversal.
Now the school district's only options are to appeal the ruling in the Indiana Tax Court in front of a judge or start the process over again, spokeswoman Mary Jane Michalak said.
School officials could appeal again to the finance department if they wanted to, but the state would be able to reverse the commissioner's decision only if it is shown the commissioner made a legal error in her ruling, Michalak said.
Indiana Department of Local Government Finance Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave said she was pleased that the school district had invited those opposed to the project to discuss it, but the meeting should have happened in February, when she sent a letter asking for school officials and those opposed to the building plan to meet to try to reach a consensus.
After the school district refused, she denied the project, citing the cost to taxpayers, already high property taxes and a slowdown in enrollment growth and the housing market.
Superintendent J.T. Coopman was not available for comment late Tuesday afternoon.
In appealing her decision, the school board and Coopman reconvened a task force that had initially come up with options for dealing with the district's growth, and last week the task force supported a recommendation by Coopman and architects to trim $7 million from the project by dropping the planned renovations to the high school and existing middle school ($3 million each) and cutting $1 million from the new middle school.
However, the rest of the project would be completed later, Coopman said.
The task force also left school board members with the option to cut $3.5 million more from the proposed middle school project to make a more compelling case.
The hope was that the change would be enough to prompt Musgrave to change her mind.
The school board was set to approve the task force's recommendation on Tuesday night, but the district already had sent paperwork to the state indicating that the project would be cut by $7 million.
Plans were to amend the first petition with updated recommendations from the task force and send in the petition to the state again, Coopman said.
Musgrave, in her letter, refers to the school district now being willing to meet with the remonstrators and the task force.
The task force group and the group of remonstrators are not the same, however. Tad and Vicki Bohlsen led the remonstrance and were members of the task force.
The school district's attorney told Musgrave that the Bohlsens had been invited to participate in the task force meeting last week, so that's why Musgrave considered the task force meeting also as an attempt to meet with the remonstrators, Michalak said.
Coopman had put limits on what the task force could consider. The Bohlsens believe they have data that shows the school district should build a 300-student elementary school first, add a second intermediate school and add to the high school by 2010 for about $35 million.
But Coopman's directive to the task force was to figure out how to tweak the project that the school board approved. Members weren't allowed to make any new proposals, such as building an elementary or other school first.
The school district has proposed a $60 million building plan that calls for a new 1,600-student middle school, renovating the existing middle school into a ninth-grade center and renovating the high school.
A group, organized by the Bohlsens, opposed the school's plan through a petition drive but lost.
Then Musgrave denied the project, citing its cost and the school district's refusal to compromise with remonstrators.
The state also cited the school district's tax rate, which is the highest in Johnson County, and the decline of growth in enrollment and the housing market.
The school district's enrollment has grown by about 500 students a year in the past several years but is predicted to grow by about 350 to 400 annually for the next several years.
School officials have argued that even though they have the highest tax rate, they are one of the fastest growing districts in the state.
Since that denial, the school district has taken two routes in an effort to get the school built: revising the plan and hoping the state commissioner will reconsider her decision and seeking to get her decision overturned in the Indiana Tax Court.
The district has not filed any court documents with the tax court. The deadline is Friday.
Musgrave's initial denial of the project in April was the third she has made since being appointed to her post by Gov. Mitch Daniels in July.