Signatures are being collected to put Warsaw School Board term limits on the ballot.

But with the deadline being noon Friday to have the required 500 certified signatures to Kosciusko Clerk Ann Torpy in order for the matter to be placed on the May primary ballot, voters may have to wait until the November general election to have their say.

One of the people collecting signatures – Barry Ostrom, Warsaw – didn’t want to say how many he had collected by Monday and didn’t know who all was collecting signatures, but he was sure the 500 signatures would be gathered within the 120-day  deadline for remonstrators to put the matter up for a vote.

“I really don’t know how other people are doing. I know how we are doing, and I don’t even know who else is doing it,” he said. “I guess I wouldn’t want to put down how many we’ve got right now. But my understanding is we’re not going to have trouble getting 500.”

The School Board voted 6-1 on Dec. 13 to increase term limits of its school board members from two four-year terms to four four-year terms. Notice of the resolution was published Dec. 15. Voters have 120 days from the date of that publication to file a petition objecting to the plan or proposing their own.

If 500 signatures are certified after Friday, the term limits proposal would be placed on the fall election ballot as a referendum. The Indiana School Board would approve the final outcome.

Letters to the editor in the Times-Union indicated a group of school district patrons were planning to oppose the decision by circulating petitions.

“People that I talked to, and people that are interested in the subject that I give the referendum to, are more interested in the fact that they think we as voters in the school corporation should make the decision whether to extend it or leave it the same,” Ostrom said.

He said no one he’s talked to about the issue said anything bad to say about the school system and have all been very positive.



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“They’ve had some good leadership, done an excellent job,” he said. “When it comes to this one issue, most people really feel that the community should be the one to make the decision whether to go four years or stay the same.”

Whatever the outcome of that election  he said he thinks most people are comfortable with whatever way it goes.

“I’ve had people that say they’ll vote for four (terms), but we need to vote on it,” he said.

Personally, Ostrom said he supports keeping term limits at two.

In fact, he would prefer all elected officials have term limits.

Monica Boyer, Warsaw, would also like the voters to have a say on the term limits and has put information out through social media about the issue.

She said, “I think there’s two ways and they sound like they’re competing with each other, but I believe that everybody always has a term limit. If we’re unhappy with them, we can vote them out. However, I do see a need for the petition and I do believe the community’s voice is very important in this, so I am hoping they get the 500 signatures so that the community will have a voice.”

Boyer said though she put information out about the petition through social media, she wasn’t sure how many signatures had been collected as of Monday night. In the feedback she got, she said there was concern that 16 years for a board member was a lot “and that the community needs to be the one to make that call, not the school board.”

She said the current school board is “amazing,” but her concern is what will future boards be like.

“I’m not necessarily concerned about it for this board, but down the road you could have issues,” Boyer said.

At the end of the board’s Feb. 13 work session, Vice President Matt Dick announced he and board member Dan Metzger would not seek a third term if the measure was passed. Both Dick’s and Metzger’s second four-year term ends Dec. 31. Metzger was the sole board member who voted against the term limit increase Dec. 13.

Dick also said his family members had  “come under fire” by a small group of people.”

Ostrom called that type of behavior  unfortunate.

“That’s pretty low. Personally, I know Matt and his wife is a family relation. I just don’t understand (the personal attacks),” Ostrom said.

Dick also said he didn't want to see the community divided over the issue.

Ostrom said, “I don’t think very many people look at it as a division. It’s a good thing. They started the process. I guess this is part of the process. Do I think they should have communicated that a little better that this is just a part of the process? ... I don’t think that they communicated that anywhere that this is part of the process.”

At the Dec. 13 meeting, Timothy S. Shelly, attorney with Warrick & Boyn LLP, attorneys at law, which represents the school board, said 3½ years ago he asked the board to consider extending its members’ term limits. He said there were 289 school districts in Indiana, and approximately 10 of them have some type of term limit.

Shelly also said no other school board has a two-term limit such as Warsaw’s. That part isn’t true. Twin Lakes School Corporation in Monticello limits its board members to two consecutive four-year terms, according to its bylaws published on the school district’s website at tlschools.com.

Ostrom said, “If we’re one of only a few school corporations that have term limits, and our school board has done a great job, when you look at other school corporations that are in financial problems and the state has taken them over, maybe we’re doing it right where other school systems aren’t doing it right.”