New school campaign parades the facts

Even though she could have reg­is­tered to vote years ear­lier, it was not until the issue of replac­ing McCormick mid­dle school became so dire that it finally happened.

The levy cam­paign com­mit­tee to replace McCormick Mid­dle School had its kick­off party at the Eagles Sun­day, and recent Kent State grad­u­ate and Welling­ton High School alum Car­o­line Hardoby took a step toward bet­ter­ing a school sys­tem that she no longer attends but still cares about by reg­is­ter­ing to vote.

The kick­off party included free snacks and refresh­ments, voter reg­is­tra­tion, info on the Aug. 5 Bas­ket Bingo event at the high school with the doors open­ing at 11:30 a.m., sign-up for the Aug. 11 hot dog sale at Vil­lage Mar­ket from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and vol­un­teer sign up for the fair booth.

Along the walls, signs read, “The cost would be less than $9 per month on a home with a tax value of $100,000,” “Inad­e­quate Heat & Ven­ti­la­tion,” “Exposed steam pip­ing exposed wiring, and exposed asbestos insulation.”

The kick­off was also full of influ­en­tial vil­lage res­i­dents, as school prin­ci­pals, a super­in­ten­dent, school board mem­bers, vil­lage coun­cil mem­bers, event orga­niz­ers, and most impor­tantly, par­ents, attended the event.

The levy kick­off was the sec­ond main event of the sum­mer bond drive, as the Cheese Her­itage Fes­ti­val included a replace McCormick float and booth.

“A lot of out-of-towners came by and were con­cerned about McCormick and a lot from around here said, ‘No thanks, I don’t need any info, you already have my yes vote.,’” said Car­rie Stan­nard from Cit­i­zens for Welling­ton Schools.

If the bond gets passed, the issue of the build­ing still remains.

Money will be avail­able to abate the asbestos (and tear down the build­ing if need be), but the pos­si­bil­ity of any­one turn­ing McCormick into a func­tional build­ing will be near impos­si­ble, as the struc­ture has dete­ri­o­rated severely and when the asbestos gets ripped out, the dam­age will not be fixed.

A sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion hap­pened to the Belle­vue City Schools, where new build­ings were to be built but no one was sure what to do with the old ones.

“The Belle­vue City School Dis­trict sold land to the city of Belle­vue, but no school build­ings will be on the prop­erty. The build­ings are being demol­ished prior to the land trans­fer. The city plans to use the prop­erty for parks. It was a sim­ple prop­erty trans­ac­tion in which we sold the prop­erty to the city of Belle­vue for $1 with the stip­u­la­tion that the prop­erty would be used for com­mu­nity parks” said Belle­vue school super­in­ten­dent Kim Schubert.

McCormick could be sold to the vil­lage, as they would have the first oppor­tu­nity per a legal agree­ment, but the school board will ask the neigh­bors what they want done before any­thing would be finalized.

by ADAM FOX

Enter­prise reporter

Posted by Adam Fox on Aug 2 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.