Board still not getting it (1/22/05)

I realize that by writing this letter I am setting myself up again. I have been told I don’t know the facts; I was misinformed and I just don’t appreciate the amount of time and hard work that the Jay School Board has put into the comprehensive plan that they have put together for the Jay School Corporation.

Nothing is further from the truth.

This board was elected by the citizens of Jay County to be the policy makers of the Jay School Corporation and I do respect the office which they hold. Does this mean that they cannot be scrutinized? I think not. For any public official or board, perception needs to be at the top of the list when dealing with public, and I personally believe a better job could have been done.

If you read the legal notice in the paper concerning the Dec. 20 1028 hearing at Jay County High School, you might have got the idea, as I did, that this would be an open discussion by both sides but no vote would be taken by the board at this time. As it turns out, I was not the only one with that idea. I have talked to many that had the same idea — even one or two of the board members.

In my opinion there was no way a vote to proceed could have been taken in lieu of what was expressed by the people who spoke at the hearing unless the board’s mind was already made up.

At the Nov. 22 board meeting when the board voted to initiate a 1028 hearing the board president made the comment, when he voted, that there has been too much time and effort put into this plan for him to allow public opinion to sway his vote. He voted yes. This was said after the audience applauded a motion to table the idea for a while so the public could be better informed.

If you were at the Dec. 20 meeting you heard Mr. (Brad) DeRome say the school is presently around $35 million in debt. Because of time and space I will not go into the reasoning that makes it legal to say we are only $12.2 million in debt even though we are obligated for the remaining balance.

You also heard this $26.6 million is a cap and the board feels the final bids will come in well under that figure, and it might. But even though the bids are lower that does not mean the total cost of the project will not meet or exceed the cap. Contractors are not stupid. If you are willing to spend a certain amount of money and you let that amount be known, rest assured, before the project is completed, you will spend the maximum amount or more. We have all seen it happen over and over again.

This board needs to slow down. Many of their arguments for the project just (in my opinion) don’t hold water. (Editor’s note: The project has been slowed down by a 120-day moratorium on school bonding projects issued earlier this week by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels).

Let’s look at the argument put forth by the board, and particularly Mr. (Bryan) Alexander, that making all of the improvements to the high school along with the other projects that have been done in the past will bring more industry and keep more of our young people in the county.

According to the argument, a prospective client comes to the county and they want to see a nice school system, a library, hospital, community center and any other facilities the community may have. I believe this is true, but this is only half the story. The other half of the story is, “what is going to be my labor cost and what tax abatements can you give me? I believe you could have a state of the art school system, library, hospital and community center, but if you cannot provide cheap labor and tax abatements they will go right on down the road. How many years have we had many of these facilities, but our school enrollment has continued to go down?

If nice facilities bring in more business and bring our graduates back to Jay County to live, we should be looking to build because we are out of room and that is definitely not the case. I believe there is a hole in the bucket, and taxpayer dollars will not stop the leak.

During the time that many of us in the support staff of the Jay School Corporation worked to get a fair compensation package we were told the money just was not there; we don’t have the tax base like other counties and school corporations. You must understand life is not fair and we must cut costs somewhere. But suddenly all that has changed. As I wrote before, the taxpayers in Jay County are smart enough to know the difference between needs and wants and sometimes, as in our personal lives, neither can be met or at least we may have to settle for what will keep us up and running.

No, life is not fair. Several in the support staff got caught when the board cut off our years of service compensation, froze our wages and increased our insurance payments to where some are working just to pay insurance. Others can no longer afford the insurance and if they do, in a short pay period, may owe the school. Meanwhile at least one administrator is given compensation because she does not take school insurance but other school employees are not given this opportunity.

There is much this board and administration must take into consideration before proceeding with this project, not the least of which is putting this county in debt over $50 million.

Ralph Guingrich

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