Take school talk slow

The Oberlin school community has begun the discussion necessary to achieve consensus on whether to build new a building or buildings. But that conversation started out on a wrong foot with perhaps too much talk about "when" and not so much about "why."

The "why" of the discussion is contained in an assessment of the four school buildings, conducted by the Ohio School Facilities Commission in 2007. It demonstrated the deficiencies in each of the buildings and determined the cost to renovate them to modern educational standards would exceed two-thirds of the cost to build new.

That two-thirds ceiling is important, because the state does not like to co-fund renovations in excess of that ceiling. Through some dogged questioning by school board member Barry Richard, we learned the schools could apply to have that limitation waived.

Jeff Tuckerman and Stephen Roka, representing the commission, hurried past discussing that assessment and spent what we felt was an inordinate amount of time explaining how the schools could move quickly to get started right away and get a bond issue on the November ballot. This talk alarmed those in attendance, so board members had to reassure the public they had no intention of seeking a bond issue in November.

Perhaps this is how the commission presents its case to school districts. And it might have worked in the first few years of the state co-funding program, when they were helping those districts judged least wealthy, the economy was booming, and 66 percent of school district bond issues were passing.

But as the OSFC worked its way down the equity list to those districts that would have to pay a larger local share, and the economy soured, the passage rate plummeted. Roka said only about half the bond issues pass now.

Not surprisingly the residents in attendance at the meeting told the schools now is not the right time to build. We could not agree more.

But now is the time to talk about the "why," about how many buildings, about perhaps saving a building, like Langston Middle School, which started out as Oberlin High School. Now is the time to get people talking and agreeing on these and other points.

The time to talk about bond issues is after we can agree on these items. We have several years before Oberlin's turn comes around for state co-funding; we can have that full discussion and still participate in the Expedited Local Partnership Program should the economy improve sufficiently.

Let's not rush this discussion. Our children and grandchildren will live with the decisions we ultimately make.