By Emma Rausch
emma@thepaperofwabash.com
The Southwood and Northfield school systems will be merging in 2017 following the MSD of Wabash County School Board’s unanimous vote on Tuesday night, July 12.
The Norse and the Knights’ high schools will officially reconfigure into one system in the 2017-2018 school year.
While there are many aspects of the plan that have not been decided or discussed yet, such as transportation for the students, Board member John Gouveia explained, but the merger plan will include the following:
• The Northfield High School building will become the new senior high school site for grades ninth through 12th grade.
• The Southwood High School facility will become the junior high school site for grades five through eight.
• Metro North and Southwood elementary schools will remain as kindergarten through fourth grade education facilities.
• Sharp Creek Elementary School will close as an elementary school, but it may be repurposed in the future as an alternative learning base, administration building or another opportunity, according to Gouveia.
• ”The school names, mascots and cultures will be named appropriately by the administration and approved at a later time by the board of education,” Gouveia said.
The Board has discussed reconfiguring the systems for at least a year, according to Mike Keaffaber, MSD interim superintendent.
However, despite a year’s worth of discussions, the Board decided not to include the reconfiguration on Tuesday’s agenda and instead opted to announce it under “Items from the Board,” where it was not listed by name.
The Paper of Wabash County is conferring with the Hoosier State Press Association to determine if Tuesday’s vote was legal under the Indiana Open Door Law, Editor Joseph Slacian and General Manager Mike Rees announced.
“There are many things involved in this vote that don’t add up,” Slacian said, “none-the-least of which is a board member admitting this has been discussed numerous times in executive session.”
None of the executive session board agendas obtained by The Paper for the past year indicate discussion of reconfiguring the district.
“Because of our deadline, we plan to further investigate this situation and hope to have further information in the July 27 edition,” Slacian said.
Leading up to the vote
Plans for the future of MSD of Wabash County have been discussed for years and, starting last year, the Board began official discussion of reconfiguring the two high schools, according to Keaffaber.
However, according to the Board’s minutes from Jan. 13, 2015, to June 16, 2016, no mention of the merger was made during the school board’s regular meetings, which are open to the public.
Leading up to the July 12 meeting, the Board chose not to include the item on the agenda even though all board members unanimously agreed to the final plan after it was announced during “Items from the Board.”
“That has been done before in our board meetings and things have been brought up and I’m not 100 percent sure why it was done that way,” Keaffaber told The Paper of Wabash County in a follow up interview. “When it was discussed, one of our issues is we didn’t have a June meeting and that caused some confusion as far as a lot of different things, because we had some special meetings in June and we ended up we were not able to have that June (meeting) … because … we did not have a quorum.”
On Tuesday, Gouveia explained it was not the Board’s intention to keep the plans secretive.
“There is no reason it was hidden to be secretive,” he said. “This is something that I made comment to at the last meeting that I intended to bring as an action item from a board member, not a specific agenda.”
Minutes from the last regular board meeting on June 16 do not state that Gouveia spoke to interim superintendent Keaffaber about the action item.
However, within the past month, the Board had three executive session meetings on June 8, June 14 and July 7. The minutes for those meetings are not open for the public. However, the Board announced prior to the meetings that they would only be speaking on “Personnel” matters.
According to Indiana code, when governing bodies, such as MSD of Wabash County, advertise an executive session, “memoranda and minutes must identify the subject matter considered by specific reference to the enumerated instance or instances for which public notice was given.”
No other subject matter may be spoken on during the session, the code continued.
Leaked
A week prior to the reconfiguration announcement and vote on Tuesday, word leaked to the public, who responded by crying foul.
Teachers, principals and members of the public packed into the boardroom Tuesday to ask, ‘Why keep this hidden?’
“I don’t know why things are so secretive,” audience member Rosa Sparling said. “This really does mystify me. … I think as a community we should be a lot more open and communicate a lot more.
“We (the public) kind of feel like we’ve been stabbed in the back, our hearts and guts ripped out.”
Amy Stearley, Metro North Elementary second grade teacher, voiced her concern that MSD teachers were not told about the decision.
“I felt like us educators, the last time this happened, were kept in the dark until the very last minute and all of the decisions had been made,” she said. “We were not part of the decision making process. We were not asked for any input. We were not really allowed to be a part of the problem solving. We were just told this is how it’s going to be.”
Teachers connect daily with students and are the go-to contact for parents, Stearley continued. They could have assisted with answering questions and concerns, she said, but “instead of becoming an asset to this whole process, we’ve been left out of it.”
Stearley learned about the reconfiguration plans from her eye doctor, she told the board. Sparling said students had informed her.
It was not the Board’s intention to keep it secretive, according to Gouveia.
It’s extremely difficult to let a lot of people in on large decisions, added Ryan Rosen, former board member.
“That’s not being disrespectful. It’s extremely, extremely hard,” he said. “It’s by no means disrespect to keep teachers and public out of the decision making process. Sometimes it’s just a lot easier if less people know and for some reason (the information) always seems to leak, which always makes it difficult.”
This decision was not made easily, according to Sandra Weaver, past MSD superintendent who attended Tuesday’s meeting.
“I came this evening to be in support of this group because I know how tough this is,” she said, “and you (Stearley) bring up a very good point about communication and one of the toughest things … is communications because you say that you feel like you’ve been left out.
“It’s never easy to say who you communicate with first and these are hard times for us. … This board has grappled with ‘What is the best answer?’”
Some members of the public wished to hear the Board’s reasons and thoughts before commenting.
“I’m here on a lot of rumors and hearsay and I didn’t want to come in with accusations because it is all hearsay,” audience member D.J. Marshall asked. “So I guess my question, after we hear you speak to us about this, can we ask questions back?”
The Board agreed to open the floor for public comment after the vote. However, MSD School Board meetings are for informational purposes open only, Gouveia explained.
“Our meetings are business meetings that are held in public. They are not quote ‘public meetings,’ which means when we hear public comment we are under no obligation by law or rule to answer you,” he said. “However, in the eight plus years that I’ve served on here, we have gone to lengths to always engage the public and answer questions the best we can.”
The Board’s reaction
Gouveia was emotional as he made the official motion to accept the reconfiguration plans on Tuesday night.
He cited declining enrollment and maximizing the educational benefits for students as key factors which brought the board to the their decision.
“Not all decisions are easy,” Gouveia said, “but I was elected as were my peers to represent the constituency of the Metropolitan School District of Wabash County and in doing so have the trust to take the fiscal resources and make sure they are deploring the maximum benefit to the students of MSD of Wabash County.
“We had to bat around a few things in the wake of declining enrollment. How do we do that and maximize the educational opportunities that we provide our students? You look around this county in particular, MSD by far serves the students the best with the number of our AP courses, dual credit courses and particularly the opportunities that we afford our second semester juniors and seniors to attend off-campus college classes.
“We have faced challenges that other districts in our state have yet to start to tackle,” he continued, “and those around us that want to tackle them, do it on the backs of our taxpayers. I, for one, will not allow that. I don’t have all the answers tonight (but) there will be answers coming.”
After the vote, the other board members joined Gouveia and expressed how difficult the decision was to shut down a school and merge the two high schools.
“I hope the public understands that this isn’t a knee-jerk reaction,” Board member Troy Baer said. “We’ve been looking at all kinds of alternatives for a long time, a lot of executive sessions, and when you devote yourself academically and fiscally with an informed decision, I think it makes all the sense in the world to explore that.”
It’s also important to note the academic component to this move, according to Todd Dazey, board member.
“As we’ve been aware for the last year or so, last I believe we said between Northfield and Southwood high schools there were 51 class periods that met daily with less than 10 students per class,” he explained. “That’s a really inefficient way of doing business. … (It’s) better to equip ourselves for the 21st century and for that reason alone, I am in fair of this motion.”
MSD of Wabash County had to become more efficient and do things the right way, according to Matt Driscoll, board president.
“Do I like this? No. I wish we could continue the way it is,” Driscoll said. “I don’t know how many years I’ve been on here, but short after I got on (the Board) we had a guy come in because we’re were going to have to … make classrooms at Sharp Creek because there wasn’t enough room for the kids.
“Wabash changed so drastically in that 18 years, it’s amazing. … And our population has declined and we have to do something fiscal because we have tax payers that expect a good education … for these kids.”
Afterthought
Following the vote, several audience members voiced positive positions on the merger.
“I, for one, as a parent of five children that are all going to be involved in this school system … I’m cautiously optimistic and honestly a little excited about this for the future of my children and the education that I hope that they can get,” David Pefley said.
Audience member Heather Hunsberger added that the meeting on Tuesday had been very helpful in understanding the Board’s decision.
“I think it’s very important that the public know your hearts and what’s going on in figures,” Hunsberger said.
She also suggested opening the decision about school names, mascots and culture to the public.
“I think that getting the community excited about the new school and giving it a new identity, I think that’s going to be one of the best ways to help the kids feel like they’re making a new community and a fresh start and these kids aren’t just going to somebody else’s turf,” Hunsberger explained.
Stearley thanked the Board for their explanations during the meeting.
Parents should think about their children before pulling them from MSD because of the merger, she said following the vote.
“The hardest thing about change is getting used to it and there’s always a lot of emotion in the beginning,” she said, “but people do tend to get used to it. I know there are a lot of high emotions running right now, but I hope that parents do what’s best for your kids, but one of the things that’s best for your kids is allow them to retain their close-knit friendships.
“I really feel like we’re (hearing) a lot of people out there saying they’re going to rip their children out of school without really thinking long term what the best thing is for their child.”
It is going to be difficult for the students to transition, she continued.
“But at least they’re going to go with their friends and they’re going to graduate with those kids that they have gone through school with,” Stearley said, “and I think in the long run, that is more important than one season on a team and so I hope that now that this has been (announced) … now people have a year to get used to the idea and I hope that you all will be sensitive to all the emotions out there.”