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Time to take a stand — for or against |
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Monday, June 09 2008 |
By CHRIS MEYERS
Staff writer
They have the volunteers, the petitions and the drive to succeed.
Now the tricky part is to convince residents whether to sign for or against the Columbia City High School building project.
With Saturday being the first day for petition carriers to try to get signatures, members of Parents for Community and Education and Code Blue Whitley County took to the streets over the weekend to gather support for their respective causes.
About 80 PACE members came to the Whitley County Clerk’s office Friday to pick up their yellow petitions in favor of the project. Members of Code Blue also picked up their blue petitions throughout the day Friday.
Since then, both groups have been making rounds through the Whitley County Consolidated Schools district with each group hoping they get the higher signature count.
“Our people have been calling on others in the communities and starting their walking lists,” Bob Brittain, president of PACE, said today.
PACE members have a list of several points they want to make about the school’s current condition and how the project’s success would mean a better learning environment for students.
“We’re talking about having 600 students in portable classrooms every day,” Brittain said as an example of one of the points being made.
Having hallways converted into classrooms and using storage rooms for office space are among other issues being mentioned.
To members of PACE, one significant reason to get the project going now is so the district’s overall debt can be paid sooner.
“If we start now, all debt will be eliminated by 2029,” Brittain said.
On the other side of the fence, members of Code Blue also hit the streets this weekend for their cause of getting the project halted for this year.
If the remonstrance is successful, the project would have be put on hold for a minimum of one year.
For Brittain, getting the project passed is of major importance because according to him, if the project is delayed and put on a referendum, the property tax caps would not apply to the rise in taxes to help pay for the project.
If however, the project passes this year, the one and two percent caps instituted by HB 1001 will apply.
Under that legislation, any school project over a certain dollar amount would have to be put on a ballot rather than being decided upon by a board vote and remonstrance.
All the more reason to Code Blue members to get the project delayed so the public can have a chance to vote on it.
“Our main focus is to get through this and let the dust settle,” Mark Roach of Code Blue said today.
He said at a recent gathering of the group that he would have preferred a private vote in hopes of not having animosity between those in favor and opposed to the project, as occurred in Fort Wayne Community Schools district after a remonstrance.
“I’m afraid that emotions are high, but I hope they don’t boil over,” Roach said today.
Brittain also shares those sentiments, saying that he and others at PACE believe this issue is about presenting the facts and letting the residents decide.
“It isn’t about arguing over who’s right and who’s wrong,” he said.
As with PACE, members of Code Blue have set up a plan to canvass the WCCS area on foot.
“We have precinct captains and every precinct will be represented,” Roach said.
The main obstacle has been that not everyone is home during the day or on weekends when petitioners are seeking signatures.
Roach said Code Blue will meet in the next week or two to see how things are going and what problems, if any, need to be addressed.
For WCCS Board of School Trustees president Don Armstrong, the process has offered a chance to get information to the public.
“I have really enjoyed talking with people and if they have other opinions than mine, that’s fine,” he said.
“This is the result of three years of study. It wasn’t a knee-jerk decision,” he said of the school project. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, June 10 2008 )
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