Changes to greet Austintown district

By JON MOFFETT

Vindicator Staff Writer

AUSTINTOWN — There are many changes on the horizon for the Austintown School District.

Three of the school board members have expiring terms, and only one — board president Richard Zimmermann — is seeking re-election.

Six others hope to claim the remaining two seats, now held by Traci Morse and Joyce Pogany, who will not seek another term.

Those running to fill the seats are: Bill Klein, 19; Kathy Mock, 56; Dave Schnurrenberger, 61; Tom Stellers, 69; Nancy Wickham, 38; and Chris Zeigler, 38. All but Klein attended interviews with The Vindicator to discuss district issues.

Those elected Nov. 3 will face a looming $50 million question.

As well as voting for the school board members, township residents will also vote on a bond issue for a proposed 2.9-mill expansion project to demolish the elementary schools and construct two new facilities to house kindergarten through grade five. If the issue passes, the state would pay for $23 million of the total project, which is about $50 million.

“It doesn’t seem fiscally responsible to turn away from [$23 million] for bringing our school buildings up to date,” Stellers said. “All of our elementary schools are 50-plus years old and are due for considerable upgrades or remodeling.”

Schnurrenberger said: “I believe it provides our students with an environment to learn and has 21st-century tools, a building that provides a safe, handicap-accessible [atmosphere] and gives [the district] the ability to save about $500,000 in maintenance costs over the next few years.”

Candidates stressed the importance of passing the bond issue in November because the money is secured for only one year before the state pulls its share of the funding and takes it elsewhere.

“If we don’t move on this opportunity, someone else is going to take the money – our tax money – and use it,” Mock said. “That money is not going to stay there forever.”

The improvements are certainly needed, the candidates said. Many of the buildings, including all four operating elementary schools, are without air conditioning and face other maintenance issues.

“The elementary schools are all outdated, and they need work done to them,” Wickham said. “If there was the option of renovating each of them individually and leaving all these campuses where they’re at, as opposed to taking advantage of the deal we have now, it would just cost us a lot more. The numbers are close, but we would be paying 100 percent the other way.”

Maybe the biggest hurdle for the issue is a lack of understanding by the community. Zimmermann said he’s heard little negative response on the issue but has come across people who don’t know much about it.

“There are ways to be informed if you want to be informed. People don’t, unfortunately,” he said.

Zeigler said, “I think the parents have just as much responsibility to get their own information as they have to take in information that is presented to them.”

Communication was stressed by a handful of the candidates. But Mock said the bond issue is a good example of the hang-up between the board and the community.

“Maybe it wasn’t communicated in the right way,” she said. “... I think people want you to be up-front with them and tell them exactly what’s what, and I think that has been a problem.”

Wickham took it a step further and said on her campaign Web site that a recent poll question asked voters if they felt issues had been adequately explained. She said about 70 percent voted no.

But Zeigler said it’s the responsibility of both sides to have all the necessary information presented and understood.

“It’s not that [information] is not there; you just sometimes have to look for it,” he said.

“[The district] has to make an effort to get it to people, but you don’t have to knock on everybody’s door.”

jmoffett@vindy.com