The town will stand together

To the editor:

Jay School Corporation indicated in its Jan. 23 Budget and Finance Report that its approach would be proportional and collaborative and “involve all employee groups, and the community in developing principles to guide the process, included them in submitting possible reductions, and allow for everyone to provide feedback in the prioritization process.”

A group has met weekly since it became apparent Pennville was to be excluded from this process and the school targeted for closing. The group was surprised to hear the school administration indicate in the Pennville community meeting Feb. 7 that a plan had been discussed with community leaders to utilize the school building as a community center and implied that these “leaders” were on board to move the fire department, town hall and library to the Pennville Elementary building if closed. The group was further surprised to read in The Commercial Review on Feb. 22 that Jay Schools superintendent Jeremy “Gulley has also had ‘very preliminary’ discussions with Jay County Development Corporation to explore having the Pennville building re-purposed as a community center.”

Many of the leaders in the community are together at our weekly “Save our Schools” meeting and as the topic of the school corporation’s proposed use for the building would come up, these leaders expressed they had “heard” Gulley’s suggestions, but had not been contacted. Many were concerned whether this was the right move for town departments, whether it was affordable since these departments are in functioning buildings on the main arteries in town and whether it makes sense since we already have two community buildings.

Because of the implications by the school corporation that “leaders” in Pennville were on board to re-purpose the Pennville school and the sense that all the town leaders had not been contacted, phone calls were made last week to all Pennville Town Board members and the township trustee, librarian and fire chief. We found Gulley has personally approached only one of these leaders. In fact, several leaders flatly oppose the idea and those that might support it do so only if it makes fiscal sense for the town and a working group representing the community determines that it makes sense to do so.

It seems there is, at the very least, a manipulation of truth coming out of another Jay Schools administration. Further, the “collaborative processes” of the current administration seems to be to decide what “bitter pill” they feel is best for our community and then to get us to swallow it. The citizens of Pennville and Penn Township should be the ones to decide what use of the school building is best for the town if the school is closed and adequate time should be given for that process.

Because of the administration’s continued march toward closing our school and skewing facts to suit their purposes, our group has taken several steps this week. A committee was formed to explore starting a charter school and an educational consultant  contacted for that purpose. Legal counsel has been contacted and will be retained to ensure that the interests of our community will be protected and the school building is made available to us for that purpose if necessary. We have found funding to repair long-neglected mechanical and structural systems at the school. The Southern Wells school district has been contacted and a Fiat stop will be available for those students in our township that wish to attend that district; we will work as a community and a group to find a means of transportation from Pennville to Fiat.

As a community we will stand together to determine what is in our best interests and are willing to do what is necessary to protect our students, community and businesses. We urge other communities to do the same lest they become the school corporation’s next “bitter pill.”

Sincerely,

Carolynn R. Geesaman, Amy Bell, Emily Peterson, Nathan Springer, Wendy Springer, April Pennington, Michael Armstrong, Jimmy Pennington, Tammy Hanlin and Joseph Vinson