On Aug. 9, patrons in the Watson Chapel School District will go to the polls to decide if they want to lay some additional real estate and personal property taxes on themselves in order to pay for a new high school.
No doubt, the district needs a new school. Mainly they need a new junior high, which is where the problem is. That structure has outlived its life expectancy, according to district officials. If the millage is passed, those students would eventually attend class at what is now the high school, and the district would build a new high school.
And the money part is attractive. The state would kick in three-fourths of the cost of building a school. To put that in numbers, the total cost of the entire facilities project stands at around $23 million, and the state would provide 75% of that. That arrangement certainly sweetens the deal.
Our question, and this is unknowable until the votes are counted, is whether the district has positioned itself well enough to get a millage passed. When Jerry Guess left as Watson Chapel superintendent a little more than a year ago, he said he was doing so because the district needed a superintendent who could work to get a millage passed and then have the wherewithal to make the building projects a reality. Guess said that he wasn’t the person for that and that he felt a responsibility to step away and let a new person take the reins.
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So in comes Andrew Curry. And out went Andrew Curry. At the one-year mark, the new superintendent, the one who seemed to be the person for long haul, dissolved in a heap of controversy that left him without a job and the district looking for another right person.
Now, after doing some interviewing, the district has hired an interim person, Tom Wilson. Wilson has some good credentials, but still, he’s a fill-in and likely not the head person that will eventually fill the seat.
The point is that getting a millage increase passed is a sales job. School board members, administrators, teachers, parents and even students themselves all have to get behind the idea of how badly a millage increase is needed. They all have to speak with one voice and speak loud enough that patrons understand the necessity.
The list of failed millage votes is long because that sales job is a difficult task, especially at a time when gasoline is four-something a gallon and inflation is soaring. And leading the charge is Interim Superintendent Wilson, who just got to town and who will likely be gone just as fast when a permanent person is found.
Maybe the idea of building a new school will resonate with voters. Maybe the shooting that happened at the junior high last year will highlight the need for a school with better security. Maybe the need for a nicer campus in order to attract more students to a district that is losing enrollment will add to the urgency of getting a millage passed. And maybe mostly the ones who show up to vote will be those who are really behind the increase.
But voters are tough customers when it comes to tax increases, and they may just not be ready to pony up more money at a time when the district, at least from some perspectives, is in disarray.
At any rate, voters, as always, it’s up to you.