Grace Kirchner, Leader Correspondent
If the Clintonville School Board decides to try another referendum to address its elementary school needs, it probably won’t be for another year or more.
“There is no general election in the fall, so if the district wanted to do a referendum this fall, we would be putting up a pretty hefty bill, so that’s not likely,” business manager Lynette Edwards said. “We are looking at least a year out if not a year and a half. From what I understand from talking with other school districts, that’s not too long to plan and prepare.”
On April 4, voters rejected the district’s proposed $24.9 million referendum, 1,140-733. The proposal to raze Rexford-Longfellow Elementary School and build a new school was endorsed by a 31-member task force that spent months studying the issue.
“I think it’s really important that we keep the discussion going about the elementary school,” Edwards told the board.
Residents who addressed the board earlier this month said concerns focused on the decision to replace rather than renovate or repurpose the existing facility, communication issues with the public, the number of teachers and district employees on the committee, the proposal to pay interest-only for the first five years of the loan, and the plan to invest in facilities rather than teachers and student performance.
After the board Monday asked Steve Reinke, buildings and grounds manager, to prepare a list of the most immediate repairs needed, Edwards urged the board to continue looking at the big picture.
“I pause at the ideas that we’re just going to start piecemealing that building year by year and then go back and talk about the referendum, because then we’ve pretty much sealed the deal that we’re not going to build a new school, and we’ve married ourselves to keeping that facility,” Edwards said.
Edwards said she met with the staff members of the elementary school and assured them that we were not giving up addressing their needs.
“I’m not giving up on the referendum,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I don’t think we just throw out the work that we’ve already done, which was to bring the community together and start discussing a referendum, a new build or a remodel.”
Board President Ben Huber also said the district should refrain from making costly decisions about the school before another referendum.
“I think we have to have a referendum question … at some point because we are not going to be able to fund the entire renovation through simply fund balance,” he said. “We need a referendum approval, and we shouldn’t be making major decisions before the referendum goes through,” he added.
Edwards said other districts have followed a failed referendum with a survey, to learn why residents voted as they did.
Edwards said the survey “can’t be too soon. If we wait six months, it is too long.”
Huber agreed.
“Everyone in the community knows there is a need and we have to get it done,” he said.
The task force found that the 154,000-square-foot Rexford-Longfellow structure is larger than needed, needs tuck pointing, the windows and doors need to be repaired or replaced, a portion of the roof needs to be replaced, the heating system is aging, parts of the building do not meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards or fire codes, and the infrastructure does not support modern technology.
