Wabash County – The commission of studies for advancement, including but not limited to consolidation, was not on the agenda for the Metropolitan School District of Wabash County’s school board meeting Tuesday night, a fact that drew concern from at least one member of the public.
Brian Hoffman expressed concern, and urged members of the board to have a sense of urgency as they figure out what’s best for the school district, whether that be consolidation or not.
He said that many members of the public have angst about the perceived uncertain future of the school district.
“I’m in the community all the time with my business, and for the first time, I’m really hearing a lot of negativity about what’s going to happen for the future of MSD,” Hoffman said. “I want to stress the urgency to come up with a plan after not (using) the Community Foundation study. I’m not for or against consolidation. But, there is a lot of talk of people trying to get groups of people together to leave (the district). … Every meeting this needs to be a topic. What is the plan? … I want to see what is the plan for my kids. … The community wants to see something moving forward quickly.”
School board member Todd Dazey informed Hoffman that the study for advancement issue is of paramount importance to the board, but that one member of the board, Gary Fadill, was out of town, and therefor progress on the issue had been temporarily postponed.
Dazey informed Hoffman that there will be a public work session on the matter on Feb. 6 at 5 p.m.
Board president Kevin Bowman asked Hoffman to be cautious with the rumor mill.
“Be careful with misinformation out there,” Bowman said. “We’re strong. We’re moving forward. We have great programs, people and leadership. It’s not a doomsday scenario.”
Dazey also said “We heard a report that Northfield was one of only 14 high schools in the state to have a graduation rate of 100% and Southwood’s was over 96%. In fact, Southwood’s rate, it was reported tonight, has averaged 97% for the past 4 years.” “We also heard a curriculum report about investigating Project Lead the Way. We also voted to approve EMCOR as our provider for a potential Solar Panel Energy Savings Project. We heard a financial report that we finished 2017 with a general fund balance of over $2.1 Million, an increase of $1.3 million over the start of 2017. And we voted to purchase 3 new buses,” Dazey said.