By Aubrey Woods | The Tribune
BROWNSTOWN — It has been 60 years since any adjustments have been made to the makeup of the Brownstown Central Community School Corp. board of school trustees.
In an effort to address that issue, the present board recently held a public work session to review the present system in which members are appointed to the board by varying elected governing bodies, including the Brownstown Town Council and township boards.
As part of that system, Owen, Pershing and Salt Creek townships share seats on a rotating basis, which leaves one township without representation for a period of six years. At the present time, the residents of Owen Township have no representation on the board and won’t have until 2026.
Board President Scott Shade said during the work session Monday evening at the administration building that data show there is obviously a representation problem.
“The question is ‘What’s the resolution to making that fair?’” he said.
The issue of representation was raised in 2019, but the advent of COVID-19 in March 2020 put the issue on the backburner as the board took on issues related to the pandemic.
The 2020 census shows Brownstown has a population of 2,733, and Brownstown Township has a population of 2,931. The population of the other townships in the school district are Driftwood 964, Grassy Fork 697, Owen 1,588, Pershing 1,354 and Salt Creek 299.
At this time, the town council appoints two members, while Brownstown, Driftwood and Grassy Fork townships always have a seat appointed by their elected township boards. Owen, Pershing and Salt Creek share the two remaining seats on a rotating basis.
The board discussed six options — three for an appointed board and three for an elected board.
Those options are:
Appointed board
1) Rotating every one of the seven seats.
2) Board seats would be set by population based on the 2020 census. This option combines the population of rural townships to provide for a more balanced representation based upon population. In this case, Driftwood/Grassy Fork would have one seat, Brownstown would have two, Brownstown Township would have two, Pershing/Salt Creek townships would have one and Owen Township would have one.
3) Owen Township would assume one of the two Brownstown seats.
Elected board
1) Board candidates must live in a specific geographic area and would only be elected by the voters in that area. None of the specific geographic areas could have a population greater than 15% of the smallest area.
2) Board candidates must live in a specific area but would be elected by all of the voters in the school district. With this option, Brownstown and Brownstown Township would each have two seats, Owen Township would have one and Driftwood and Grassy Fork townships and Pershing/Salt Creek townships would each have one.
3) Board candidates would have to live within the boundaries of the school district and would be elected by all of the voters within the school district.
After the presentation of the options by Superintendent Tim Taylor, Assistant Superintendent Jade Peters and school board attorney Jessica Billingsley of Indianapolis, the two dozen people on hand were allowed 3 minutes to speak.
Dave Hall of Norman said he was elected to the Owen Township board in 2010 and just two people were involved in the selection of the township’s board selection at that time.
“There is absolutely no requirement to reach out to anyone or interview people,” he said. “You can just choose who you want. Reappoint that person for eternity and never advertised to anyone.”
Hall’s wife, Bradie Hall, was appointed to the school board at that time.
Hall said he is a big fan of the electoral process.
“People should have a voice,” he said. “They don’t have that now.”
Hall said he liked the second option in the elected board process because as a school board member, they would be representing the school district, not their township or the town.
Russell Fritz of Freetown asked if the six options were the only ones under consideration.
“No, I think this is just a starting point,” Shade said.
Fritz said he didn’t care whether the board was elected or appointed, but he felt if any tax revenue from a township was going to the school, there should be representation.
“For that reason, I think Pershing (Township) should have a representative on the board,” Fritz said.
Dan Blann of Owen Township said he once was in favor of an elected board but has since changed his mind.
He said despite being one of the few appointed boards in the state, he thinks maybe Brownstown has it right.
“Do we have some representation problems?” he said. “Absolutely. I think everybody on this board understands we have some representation problems.”
Blann said he understood Hall’s point about the faults of the appointment process.
“I understand that sometimes, they are lax,” he said. “But I look at this board and see a lot of success stories. We have a lot of good board members, so the process hasn’t necessarily failed. It has been a sound process.”
Melissa Gray, who lives in Pershing Township, said there are a lot of issues involved. She said she was leaning toward an elected board and believes the appointment system needs to be fixed if the board decides to stay with that process.
“We vote on our township board members, but after that, it’s just a buddy system,” she said. “There are no term limits.”
Trustee Mary Lou Burcham said she is serving on the board because she wants to and not for the money.
She said while she was not saying an elected board wouldn’t work, her biggest fear is that if there was an elected board, it would turn into a political arena.
“You have to come in thinking ‘I am going to be a team player,’” Burcham said. “You might not always agree with all the people on your board, but you work through those problems together.”
Shade also said the board needs to look at implementing a system of reevaluating board representation every 10 years after the census data become available.
“There is no tool to reevaluate it,” he said.
Board member Brian Wheeler said he also felt the board should take a look at term limits.
Billingsley said once the board initiated the process of changing the representation system, it could take anywhere from eight to 18 months. The Indiana State Board of Education would have to approve any plan.
After the meeting, Taylor said Brownstown is one of about a dozen school boards in the state that is comprised of appointed members.