Legislation aimed at school consolidation has local administrators concerned at what could be next.
A bill being considered by state senators, Senate Bill 307, essentially gives school corporations permission to consolidate should the school boards of each see fit to do so.
Voters could also decide one way another, as long as 20 percent of the registered voters residing in each district agree to consolidate or band together to fight a consolidation effort led by school administrators.
But all of those allowances already exist in state law, which leaves local superintendents wondering what state legislators are up to.
“I've checked into this thoroughly,” said North Knox superintendent Darrel Bobe. “And it's gaining steam. But there is nothing in this bill that we can't currently do.
“So my question is, 'Why do we need it?'”
The bill, Bobe said, is full of “mays,” but he is worried all those “mays” could be changed to “shalls,” a simple word swap that would force consolidation for schools of fewer than 2,000 students.
Both North Knox and South Knox would fall into that category.
“I just want to know what the deal is behind this,” Bobe said. “And no one seems to be able to tell me. No one can tell me why it's important
“My belief is that it's a foot in the door. I know it. These lawmakers know it.”
While the Indiana General Assembly hasn't passed a school district reorganization bill since 1959, discussion of consolidation began again with a provision in the 2005 state budget bill calling for studying school corporation central office consolidation.
The Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform, dubbed the “Kernan-Shepard Report,” recommended in 2007 that school districts be reorganized “to achieve a minimum student population of 2,000.”
Subsequent legislation to mandate such consolidations has failed in sessions since, including two Senate bills in 2009.
Nationally, an increasing number of states have introduced or passed bills to at least spur study into consolidating schools.
Legislators in favor of consolidation argue that it will result in significant cost savings.
Local administrators, however, aren't so sure.
Greg Parsley, superintendent for the Vincennes Community School Corp., said while the consolidation of the three public school corporations in Knox County would result in the need for just one superintendent, it wouldn't require less leadership. In fact, it would likely require more given the number of students and the distance between buildings.
“Because of the vast size of this county, you're going to have to create several assistant superintendents or directors, something like that,” he said. “You're going to have issues from transportation to curriculum and so forth that will need to be handled and not just by one superintendent.
“It just won't be as efficient.”
Parsley said he, too, has been keeping a watchful eye on the most recent school consolidation legislation, and he worries that legislators focus too much on the school corporations in and around Indianapolis.
Smaller, more rural school corporations, he said, have a unique identity tied to their schools, that would be lost to consolidation.
“The identity of our communities, especially here in Knox County, our school corporations are the focal points. I think lawmakers sit up there, look at Indianapolis — 'the donut' — and forget about the others,” he said. “Those schools aren't the identities of their communities, not in the same way they are here.”
Parsley argues that talk of consolidation also belittles all of the things school corporations are already doing to save money.
“There is already so much we're doing to bring down costs,” he said, touting the three corporation's special education co-op as a prime example. “My feelings are and have been all along that schools are doing everything they can to reduce costs.
“So I do worry that once this seed is planted, it could grow into something much larger” Parsley said. “But, then again, we've been down this road before and nothing materialized out of it.”