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February 3, 2010

Anonymous The Tribune-Democrat Wed Feb 03, 2010, 03:58 PM EST

We applaud the Westmont Hilltop School District for holding a public meeting concerning possible future building renovations.

This is a decision that must be made with public involvement, because it is the public’s money that would be spent.

And this is a decision that frankly is bigger than this one school district – which has raised taxes every year since 1988.

Discussions should involve municipalities, businesses and even neighboring school districts.

The Westmont district is more dependent on property taxes than other local schools because it has a low number of business properties.

That means residents in Westmont – including those who have no children – get to pay higher property tax bills. Likewise, Westmont gets fewer state dollars per student than other schools in the region.

An L. Robert Kimball & Associates study showed that the Westmont middle school is especially outdated and the elementary school is in “fair” shape.

So, while something may need to be done soon, the real question is this:

What’s the best course of action?

Before one dime is spent on a project – and the earliest that could happen is 2014 – all possible scenarios must be considered to make sure the best decision is made for students and taxpayers.

This is the perfect time to raise the possibility of consolidation with a neighboring district. Perhaps it is not necessary to incur the expense of a building project just for Westmont.

This is also the time to revive talk of breathing more revenue into the Westmont region.

Last summer, a proposal to rezone a stretch of Goucher Street to allow for commercial development was shouted down by some residents.

But if people in the school district don’t want to see their taxes keep going up, the best remedy is to expand the commercial tax base.

Naturally, no school district wants to house its youngsters in buildings that are unsafe or don’t allow for the optimum educational opportunities.

We agree.

But we see the issue of schools projects at Westmont Hilltop as just the tip of the iceberg for that community – and a prime example of the type of questions that should be asked by our region at large.

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