The Indiana Area School Board will have several big items on their agenda tonight.
Among the items up for approval is the formal suspension of the PlanCon applications for the Ben Franklin and East Pike Elementary Schools. The two schools were at the center of a project that generated a lot of controversy within the district. The plans were to tear down and rebuild Ben Franklin and expand East Pike, while close Eisenhower and Horace Mann elementary schools within Indiana Borough. Many citizens banded together to urge the board to stop the project, with some feeling the project was too expensive for the district to handle at this time, while others did not want to see the closure of the two borough-based elementary schools. Earlier this month, the board said they would not move forward with the Ben Franklin project, but they were considering a different version of the project that would house 600 students rather than near 900 students. Also earlier this month, the White Township Planning Commission gave their formal rejection to the final site plan for the project.
The board also has before them tonight approval of the district’s budget and tax structure. The budget comes to $55,622,368, and it includes a real estate tax increase of .45 mils. This means the average homeowner would pay $79 more.
The board will also approve advertising for a paving project at East Pike and the hiring of a junior high phys. Ed. Teacher, a part time English as a second language teacher, a special education teacher and an elementary teacher.
