KENDALLVILLE — It’s back to the drawing board for East Noble School Corporation officials and the Board of Trustees regarding a proposed $37.88 million middle school building project.
A majority of East Noble School Corporation voters on Tuesday voted “no” in answer to the referendum ballot question: “Shall East Noble School Corporation issue bonds or enter into a lease to finance the construction of a new East Noble Middle School and mechanical and roof improvements to East Noble High School, which is estimated to cost not more than $37,880,000 and is estimated to increase the property tax rate for debt service by a maximum of $0.3547 per $100 of assessed valuation over the 20 year life of the bonds?”
The vote tally was 2,457, or 51.01 percent, voting “no” and 2,360, or 48.99 percent, voting “yes,” for a total of 4,817 votes cast on the question. It was close; only a 97-vote difference.
The referendum was about the cost of the proposed project and its impact on property taxes for the debt service — not whether a new middle school should be built.
Both sides waged vigorous campaigns to win over voters with signs, letters and advertisements published in The News Sun, and through comments at public meetings. The opposition called itself Concerned East Noble Taxpayers.
Ron Frick, a member of the Concerned East Noble Taxpayers group and an outspoken critic of the project’s cost, impact on taxes and preferred location, said Tuesday night he is not against public education. He was against the project’s cost.
“It’s completely out of control,” he said. “I don’t understand where they got the figures.”
When asked if he believes a new middle school is needed, Frick said there needs to be more investigation on the type of facility that would be constructed and if sixth grade should be included with the seventh and eighth grades.
“I’m not anti-, anti-. From Day 1, it has been a learning process for me,” he said.
East Noble Superintendent Ann Linson said Tuesday night the result was disappointing but the referendum will not stop the work that needs to be done.
“The current facility does not meet the needs of the 21st-century learner nor is it in any shape to last another 20 years without a substantial monetary investment,” she said in an email.
The school board will continue to analyze what the best investment of taxpayers’ dollars is and what the community wants in a future facility, she added.
“I hope the next time a middle school project is pursued, the community gets more involved and at an earlier point of the planning process,” she said.
School officials and school board members argued the cost of the proposed grade 6-8 middle school and the tax rate were the maximum approved at a public hearing in June.
They pointed out the question on the ballot was misleading. According to school officials, the current tax rate of about 49 cents per $100 of assessed valuation will be retired in 2019, when the new tax rate for the debt service of about 35 cents for the proposed middle school would begin — 14 cents less than the current rate.
The opposition questioned the board’s proposal to include sixth grade with the seventh and eighth grades. Sixth-graders are currently in East Noble elementary schools.
Concerned East Noble Taxpayers also challenged the board’s preferred 59-acre site on the west side of S.R. 3 across from the South Main Street intersection. They pointed to a 20-inch, high-pressure gas line extending along the site’s southern boundary as a safety risk.
Jim Swartzlander, an East Noble Middle School music teacher and outspoken supporter of the project, said Tuesday night he was very proud of the school corporation administration and school board for the way they conducted themselves and studied the project for several months.
“I think what they put together was fiscally responsible,” he said. “I hope they regroup and try again.”