Superintendent Says Consolidation Is “On The Table” After Passage Of Referendum

By Tim Arnett
WABASH,Indiana – During Tuesday night’s public meeting on the Wabash City Schools referendum, Superintendent Jason Callahan discussed the proverbial elephant in the room: consolidation. Callahan fielded several questions on how the referendum, if passed, would be effected if MSD of Wabash County and Wabash City Schools consolidated in the future.

In his answers, he talked about declining student enrollment in the county and the problems it has created for all the local school districts. Callahan noted that 20 high schools in the state are projected to disappear in the next 10 years. He then stated that “We have to talk about consolidation. It is inevitable. We have to do it for our kids.” But, he said, it takes two to tango.

A concern Callahan has is a notion that one option is to vote down the referendum in order to force the two schools to consolidate. He noted that the upcoming referendum will likely have no impact on the MSD board’s desire to come to the table. And even if it did, Callahan added, it would take 24 months to get the contracts signed which puts the earliest possible time line to 2018. Thus, it could not happen fast enough to help the city schools make up December’s $319,000 projected deficit in the school’s general fund.

MiBash News reached out to MSD Superintendent Dr. Sandra Weaver on Wednesday for a reaction on Callahan’s frank talk on the issue Tuesday night.

Several MSD Board members have expressed at least some trepidation about consolidation in the past. On September 8th of last year, Weaver told MiBash News that teaching positions at MSD would be cut if the two school systems consolidated and a little more than one month later MSD School Board Member Todd Dazey stated, “I certainly don’t want to have to look at consolidation . . . to keep our financial ship afloat.”