Otwell parents open to conversation to save elementary school
About 75 community members showed up for the regular Pike County School Board meeting Monday night; only one spoke up about the closing of the Otwell Elementary School.
The activity comes in response to the June announcement that Otwell Elementary School would be closed after the 2015-16 school year.
The announcement was accompanied by a reduction in force (RIF) notification by Superintendent Suzanne Blake that will eliminate seven teaching positions. She announced Monday night that one of the teachers was moved to another position in the school system, so the action only affects six teachers.
The vote to approve the RIF action Monday night was 4 to 1, with one nay vote coming from board member Chris McKinney.
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Otwell resident Josh Byrd asked the board during the public input part of the meeting to keep their options open and work with the committee established in June to keep the school open past the end of next May.
“We want to see our school stay open,” Byrd told the board. “We love our kids, we love our community. We want the respect from them that things are going to be right and give us the chance to have the opportunity for our kids to go to our school.”
One option that he asked them to consider was to place a vocational school in the facility along with the elementary school.
No action was taken on his request.
Byrd says his group has been looking at grants to pay for repairs to the HVAC at Otwell. But that’s only one fix to a multi-faceted problem.
Another route the volunteer group is researching is converting the school into a charter school.
School Superintendent Suzanne Blake says that the school corporation is open to talking about the issue of closing the school.
“I understand. The citizens up there are very concerned about their school — it’s dear to their heart. But the referendum didn’t pass in May [to raise revenue for the school system] and we’ve been looking at cost cutting measures; we’re reducing staff,” she said. “Two years ago we did a three percent cut on salaries. We have to do some things to get our school system turned around.”
Blake said that she had been hopeful that with the passage of the referendum to increase taxes, the school corporation could be on solid financial footing in three years, without having to make the drastic cuts.
But, she says now, without the passage of the referendum, the closing of Otwell Elementary and the other financial actions the board is taking will get them there in five.
Blake says that the personnel moves hurt not only the school, but the community also since it is one of the largest employers in the county aside from the IPL power plant.
School Board president David Waltz was encouraged about the aggressiveness of the Otwell community in trying to set up meetings with board members to address the issue.
One unnamed teacher in attendance said she was more concerned for her own children who attend Otwell. She wondered where they will end up going to school and how the longer commute will affect them. She was not one of those that was cut in last night’s meeting, but stands to lose her job when the school closes its doors if she cannot be moved to one of the other elementary schools.
During the meeting, Blake gave an update on the school corporation’s finances. She said that their general fund contains $1,127,687.88, which included the $4 million loan taken out at the beginning of the year to cover expenses. She reported that without that loan, the school corporation would already be in the red.
The rainy day fund contains $1,400,000.00.
Also in the meeting, Blake announced six resignations from the school staff from various positions. The action was approved.
