Whitko Decision
May 24, 2018 at 4:26 p.m.
By -
On Monday, the Whitko Community School Board made a very foolish and very unwise decision to build an addition at the Larwill campus, under the guise of tech/career school.
There were a couple of things brought up that I found especially disgusting. First of all, the architect for this project kept stressing that the rooms in the new addition would be "slightly larger" than the existing rooms in the D wing at the high school. When Mr. Clason gave his reasons why this addition was necessary, he kept stating that the current classroom size, in the high school's D wing, is not adequate. If they are so concerned about the current classroom size, then why is the plan for new construction going to virtually duplicate the size of the existing rooms already used for art, ag, welding and metals? The answer is simple. Keep the addition size small enough to be under the $5 million mark. In doing that, this building project won't have to be brought to referendum, and face the very real possibility of being shot down.
Kudos to board member Mr. Long, who argued that all the facts and numbers were not known yet and wanted to see hard numbers before this vote was to take place. He also brought up the fact that only a few short months ago, Mr. Clason was insistent that the HVAC system in the middle school had to be replaced whether the building was to be used or not, at a cost of $5 million dollars. Notably, when questioned about that tonight, Mr. Clason indicated that magically the HVAC system is just fine and is large enough to heat and cool the new addition too. Forgive me, but was he lying about the HVAC system earlier or now?
It has also been made public that the sixth-graders at Pierceton will have to be bused to Larwill to take music, choir and band classes because there isn't a room available for them to take these classes at PES. This is another ridiculous truth. Instead of busing them and exposing them to poor road and weather conditions and lost classroom instructional time, why not use the gym, library, cafeteria or even the portable that PES will have to hold these classes. Additionally, does this mean another building project at PES to be able to properly house these classes in the future?
When will this unnecessary building frenzy end? Nothing is being done to address the problem that started this mess, enrollment decline. This corporation had a golden opportunity to begin rebuilding enrollment by letting the bond drop in 2019 so the property tax rate would be sliced in half. That would have allowed our school district to have one of the lowest rates in the area instead of the highest. In addition, the board could have voted to use the Larwill campus to house an actual career/tech school instead of putting 7-12 there. A career/tech center and low property taxes would have been a catalyst for drawing new families to our school district.
This $5 million addition is only the start, and it doesn't even include a secure entrance like the high school has. There will be tens of millions of dollars more spent at Larwill before this is all done, assuming Whitko can hang on long enough to see it to fruition. Simply foolish.
Annette Arnold
South Whitley, via emai
On Monday, the Whitko Community School Board made a very foolish and very unwise decision to build an addition at the Larwill campus, under the guise of tech/career school.
There were a couple of things brought up that I found especially disgusting. First of all, the architect for this project kept stressing that the rooms in the new addition would be "slightly larger" than the existing rooms in the D wing at the high school. When Mr. Clason gave his reasons why this addition was necessary, he kept stating that the current classroom size, in the high school's D wing, is not adequate. If they are so concerned about the current classroom size, then why is the plan for new construction going to virtually duplicate the size of the existing rooms already used for art, ag, welding and metals? The answer is simple. Keep the addition size small enough to be under the $5 million mark. In doing that, this building project won't have to be brought to referendum, and face the very real possibility of being shot down.
Kudos to board member Mr. Long, who argued that all the facts and numbers were not known yet and wanted to see hard numbers before this vote was to take place. He also brought up the fact that only a few short months ago, Mr. Clason was insistent that the HVAC system in the middle school had to be replaced whether the building was to be used or not, at a cost of $5 million dollars. Notably, when questioned about that tonight, Mr. Clason indicated that magically the HVAC system is just fine and is large enough to heat and cool the new addition too. Forgive me, but was he lying about the HVAC system earlier or now?
It has also been made public that the sixth-graders at Pierceton will have to be bused to Larwill to take music, choir and band classes because there isn't a room available for them to take these classes at PES. This is another ridiculous truth. Instead of busing them and exposing them to poor road and weather conditions and lost classroom instructional time, why not use the gym, library, cafeteria or even the portable that PES will have to hold these classes. Additionally, does this mean another building project at PES to be able to properly house these classes in the future?
When will this unnecessary building frenzy end? Nothing is being done to address the problem that started this mess, enrollment decline. This corporation had a golden opportunity to begin rebuilding enrollment by letting the bond drop in 2019 so the property tax rate would be sliced in half. That would have allowed our school district to have one of the lowest rates in the area instead of the highest. In addition, the board could have voted to use the Larwill campus to house an actual career/tech school instead of putting 7-12 there. A career/tech center and low property taxes would have been a catalyst for drawing new families to our school district.
This $5 million addition is only the start, and it doesn't even include a secure entrance like the high school has. There will be tens of millions of dollars more spent at Larwill before this is all done, assuming Whitko can hang on long enough to see it to fruition. Simply foolish.
Annette Arnold
South Whitley, via emai
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