FWCS Remonstrance - One Year Later
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 7/20/08 @ 10:07 am - Filed Under 2008 Local Elections, Featured
Kelly Sodurland has an article highlighting the one year anniversary of the successful remonstrance put forward by the Code Blue Schools organization against Fort Wayne Community Schools’ $500 million facility project. I think the important thing for voters to remember is that the board has decided to put politics ahead of progress:
After abiding by the state’s one-year waiting period, the board could introduce a new proposal, but administrators and board members say there are no concrete plans to do so soon.
For one thing, there have been no formal discussions on how to formulate a new plan.
Now why would that be? Many of the buildings do need serious repairs and yet the board, and the district, has done next to nothing to identify and address those looming needs. Of course it wouldn’t have anything to do with reminding the public, right before an election, about their previous grandiose facility plans would it? Nah, that’s just too cynical.
One year later, and Fort Wayne Community Schools officials say there are still $500 million worth of repairs and renovations needed.
One year later, and many people still aren’t willing to pay for those fixes to their public schools.
Who are the “many people”? I think most people don’t believe there ever was $500 million worth of needed repairs - that’s why they lost the remonstrance, even though the administration still doesn’t seem to understand that:
“It clouded, I think, our issues and our ability to explain the project, but that doesn’t mean we would have received more yellow signatures by any means. It just would have helped people focus more,” Friend said.
Some don’t buy the perfect-storm reasoning.
“They lost because they couldn’t justify what they were asking for,” said Evert Mol, who led the Code Blue Schools remonstrance. “When I hear that, the perception I get is they’re still thinking along the same track.”
Evert Mol hit the nail on the head here. The administration needs to do two simple things to win the public’s approval:
- Prioritize their short-term needs
- Develop a plan to get the capital projects fund back to a healthy position and use that for long-term pay-as-you-go planning
The board’s focus on goals for academic progress has been a refreshing change, albeit 4 years late, and I think the remonstrators had a big part in pushing that forward. School board races generally suffer from voter apathy but now there’s no excuse. All of you that signed the blue petition got a firsthand look at how significant the school board’s policies can be. No more excuses for voter apathy as the candidates up for election this year will be about as polar opposites as you’ll ever see in a school board race.
How you vote this year could change the outlook for FWCS over the next decade and obviously I think the status quo would be a disaster - we need change now more than ever…
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3 Responses to “FWCS Remonstrance - One Year Later”
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I think they understand what happened but they may think that asking for a lower figure now would be an admission they “misrepresented” (I’m using the PC term here) the situation. I really wouldn’t have been so upset about their “not a wish list” items if they had been up front about it, laid it out that way and not packed the public hearings with district employees to make it look like the whole community was backing them. I wouldn’t have voted for it but I think they would have done better with other taxpayers by being honest.
Telling us what they NEED should not depend on the curent economic climate. The voters will now decide if they can afford to pay for it in a ballot referendum. Telling us what they WANT is a different story. Getting that from taxpayers will depend on local economic conditions. If they fail to make the distinction again, they deserve to get neither.
Great Work Indiana.
The people in Indiana have won the property tax payers fight against 50% of our property taxes going to fund buildings ect.. in all public school corporation districts across the State.
It does not matter what public schools want anymore. The education process needs to be inside their budget. We have turned the page.
The $500 million plan was mostly about W. Robinson’s ego - her “legacy” to Fort Wayne.
One year later, the FWCS board has not come up with any plan for necessary repairs. One might even think they are hoping…wishing for a catastrophic event so they can say “I told you so” and get emergency funds. By now, the FWCS board should have a proposal to address the district’s most urgent needs. It makes one wonder if the board is even doing its job.