Editor’s note: Monday’s meeting was postponed due to weather. The meeting is set for Tuesday night, and a web update will be available.
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The monthly coffee with Burlington Area School District Superintendent Peter Smet is usually a low-key affair with a few people trickling in to ask a question or two.
On Jan. 7, it was anything but that.
With a majority of the School Board and numerous community members dropping in, the potential upcoming referendum for the school district turned out to be a hot topic.
The conversation Saturday – and outside conversation between the School Board and community members – led to three rough draft questions being brought forward for discussion at Monday night’s special meeting of the School Board.
The deadline is tight for the school district to approve a referendum question, or questions, in this case. County clerks need resolutions regarding referendums by Jan. 24 – at least 70 days before the election.
In order for that to happen, the board will have to approve those questions by Jan. 21. The board set up another meet for this coming Monday at 7:30 p.m.
The meeting is later than normal to accommodate a board member coming back from out of state.
Smet said the district purposely cleared all meetings for January to make sure the board had enough time to get referendum questions determined so they could appear on the April ballot.
No referendum questions were approved at Monday night’s meeting. Instead, School Board President Jim Bousman said he was looking for a consensus going into the Jan. 16 meeting.
“We had quite the turnout,” Bousman said of Saturday’s event. “We took that opportunity to advance the discussion a little more.”
What came of that were three potential referendum questions, all of which will move forward for a vote this coming Monday.
The resolutions that could go to referendum are:
- The first question would be for general obligation bonds not to exceed $68.3 million for the public purpose of paying the cost of a school building and improvement program consisting of a new middle school on the Karcher Middle School site.
In the meeting, board members discussed whether the space for Montessori classes should be included in the wording, given some of the pushback from the community. The point of including the Montessori program at the middle school would be to allow for fifth and sixth grade students to participate in middle school activities and electives.
- The second question would be for a yet-to-be determined amount for the construction and equipping of additional gymnasium and athletic space, and the third for a yet-to-be determined amount for a new auditorium.
Both amounts will be set by the time the referendum questions go to the country clerk.
The additional athletic space drew an impassioned plea by Burlington High School wrestling coach Jade Gribble Monday. He pointed out that BHS is the only Southern Lakes Conference school without dedicated wrestling space, which means his athletes spend 30 minutes of every practice unrolling and setting mats, and then cleaning and rolling them up.
Their space also needs to be closed up any time there is a basketball game.
“We’re not a destination district,” Gribble said, adding that students in the wrestling program are ones the community would like to have communicating and socializing with younger generations.
Board member Bill Campbell said it was clear the district had to do something, because “being a destination district is a real issue.”
The Montessori issue was also debated. Bousman conceded that having it as high-profile as it has been might have hurt public perception, as some may not understand that there is a thriving public Montessori program within BASD and the district is looking to provide dedicated space for it.
The question of educating the public – both on the Montessori issue and everything else involved with a potential referendum – is something the board agreed needed to be done as quickly and completely as possible. The comments from a survey done by School Perceptions Inc. showed as much.
“In those comments are the pitfalls we need to solve,” Bousman said.
Burlington High School Principal Eric Burling also suggested using videos to explain what is going into the referendum, as so much information has been distributed in print formats so far.
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