Stinesville Elementary School will close at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
The board of the Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corp. voted 4-1 Monday night to move forward with a $45.4 million construction project — a plan that does not include keeping Stinesville Elementary School open.
“I’m so sorry it came to this,” board president Jimmie Durnil told the crowd of more than 150 people in the Edgewood High School auditorium, just after he cast the one dissenting vote “in respect for the Stinesville community, what I’ve heard from you tonight and the last couple of weeks.”
At least 14 people spoke in a halfhour public comment segment the board added to the night’s agenda. Some of them have been part of the “Save Stinesville Steering Committee” community group that has mobilized over the past month to brainstorm solutions to the school’s challenges —namely, that Stinesville Elementary’s enrollment has been steadily decreasing for several years, driving up the per-pupil cost in an old building that, the district says, would cost $8 million to repair.
Four of those speakers were Stinesville Elementary students, who asked the board to delay the vote and give the community more time to think of alternatives.
“I’m not saying the other schools aren’t important. They are,” said Kaley Nicholson, who has been at Stinesville since the second grade. “They just don’t need all the stuff you’re wanting to do. Only do what needs to be done,” and allot some money for Stinesville, she said.
“My grandfather walked those very same hallways as me,” said Lauren Crosby, another SES student, for whom Stinesville is practically a family tradition: Both her parents, as well as her aunts and uncles, also attended the school.