NEW ALBANY — I submit an open letter to Dr. Bruce Hibbard and the New Albany Floyd County School Corporation’s Board of Trustees.
I have read the school corporation’s expenditure reduction plan, and offer my concerns for consideration.
First, I note the lightening speed to which this process has been presented to the public. On Wednesday, Feb. 24, the corporation alerted the media they would reveal the details of their Expenditure Reduction Plan on March 4, conduct a public hearing, a.k.a. a formality, on March 8 and vote on the plan on March 11. Interestingly, the deadline to file for school board candidacy for the May primary was Feb. 19. Is the implementation of the plan all sewn up, to include preventing angry parents from running for available school board seats?
The plan also states that Silver Street and Pine View Elementary Schools will be immediately listed for sale. I would like to stress to the school board that New Albany doesn’t need another apartment building owned by either an absentee landlord or well-known local slum lords who don’t care about our city. If the plan is approved, the corporation should work with the community, city government, and the Historic Preservation Commission to creatively reuse both school properties in ways that would benefit New Albany. For example, the Boys and Girls Club on Ekin Avenue would be an ideal organization that could acquire Silver Street’s property to continue providing enriching and beneficial services to our children and neighborhoods.
Shuttered schools create an atmosphere of blight, and decrease property values by an average of 25 percent. The school board may not feel their responsibility should go as far as being vigilant over property reuse. The people of New Albany are owed more than a “cut and run” plan. One board member has stated she “likes to feel she represents all the children of Floyd County.”
I remind the entire elected school board they share a collective public duty to work toward responsible reuse of the Silver Street and Pine View properties.
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