By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com
WABASH COUNTY, Ind. – The results are in, now it’s up to the boards in Wabash County’s three school districts to decide what to do with them.
About 75 people gathered in the Honeywell Center’s Legacy Hall on Wednesday afternoon to listen as Carol Lindquist discussed the results of a study commissioned earlier this year by the Community Foundation of Wabash County to look at shared interests of the three districts. The goal of the study is find potential of shared interests within the districts with the goal of increasing educational opportunities for current and future students. It also was designed to promote efficient use of the resources.
The study, Linquist explained, look at demographics, workforce development, included an academic audit, an analysis of financial strength and a facilities study.
Many of the results were similar to ones forecast by other sources. For example, Wabash County has a declining and aging population, and if that trend continues, there will be fewer school-age students in years to come. That, in turn, cuts down on the amount of funding the districts receive from the state.
“Money follows students,” she reminded the audience during a question and answer period.
In the end, the study gave four distinct recommendations:
Both MSD of Wabash County Superintendent Mike Keaffaber and Wabash City Schools Superintendent Jason Callahan discussed the study with The Paper of Wabash County following Wednesday afternoon’s session.
“The board will have to look at the information and see what they would like to talk to the Community Foundation to see if they want to proceed with any questions or recommendations as far as financial situations, or to do any more studies or have any more conversations,” Keaffaber said. “Really, it’s just up to the school board to talk about it.”
Callahan said, “We certainly want to take the information back to the board. This was the ‘Why?’ Talking with a lot of the public, I think they thought coming out of this was should we consolidate or should we not.
“This was more a question of why should we look at doing stuff differently? I think what you saw are there are a lot of challenges that would say, ‘Yes, we should continue to ask how can we do things differently?’ I think at this point that will be my recommendation to the school board; that we need to continue to ask those questions.”
Any action likely won’t take place anytime in the immediate future. As Keaffaber noted, the initial study took about four months to complete. He anticipates that by the time the boards fully study the information, it could take at least that long to determine the districts’ next steps.
A similar meeting took place Wednesday evening at the Honeywell Center’s Legacy Hall, while a third is scheduled for tonight in North Manchester.
For more, see the Sept. 27 issue of The Paper of Wabash County.