Discussions on combating declining enrollment to continue
By Emma Rausch
emma@thepaperofwabash.com
The MSD of Wabash County School Board has no plans to reconfigure its district in 2017, Superintendent Mike Keaffaber announced at the board’s meeting Tuesday, Aug. 23.
During the public recognition section of the meeting, Keaffaber first thanked all the parents and other members of the community for attending the board’s public forums on Aug. 15 and Aug. 17.
“I thought it was very beneficial to hear from the public and to hear from our parents and the community,” Keaffaber said, “and another thing I’d like to mention, you know there’s been a lot of discussion, some things in the newspaper and maybe basically just some discussion here, but at present we feel like the current school board has listened to the community input (and still) considering options.
“So at this time there are no plans to reorganize in the 2017-2018 school year.”
At this point, there’s no way, according to Matt Driscoll, Board President.
“With all that we’ve gotten that can’t be done,” Driscoll continued. “It will have to be evaluated. We’ll have to go through everything and, like (Keaffaber) said, everything’s on the table.”
The board initially approved to reconfigure Northfield and Southwood schools into one and close Sharp Creek Elementary School in July. It rescinded its motion on Aug. 9, however, after learning that it had violated Indiana’s Open Door Law.
Now the board is moving forward together with the community.
Members of the public filled every chair at Tuesday night’s meeting and it did not go unnoticed by the board.
“If nothing else came out of our debacle … we at least got our district talking about kids and education and I actually see a full (board) room,” Board member John Gouveia said, “and that’s nice to see to know that we have concern with our district. So thank you all for coming.”