School election results do not bode well for Minonk

      Editor: Dave Uphoff
The results of last week's election indicate that things are going to be different for the City of Minonk and for the Fieldcrest School District. Many area mayoral incumbents were voted out of office, including Minonk Mayor Mark Spencer. The campaign sign controversy tainted the mayoral election somewhat but it was the most vigorous and contested election that I can remember. Having a hotly contested election is usually a good sign as it indicates that people are concerned about the community and feel strongly about who they want to represent them.

I wish to thank Mayor Mark Spencer for his four years of accomplishments as mayor which were significant. Many things happened during his watch and I personally wish to thank him for promoting the construction of the Westside Park pavilion, a project that I pursued for many years. I also compliment him on his graceful acceptance of his defeat and his willingness to continue serving the community.

I also wish to congratulation Bill Koos on winning the mayoral election. He has been an energetic member of the Minonk City Council and has exhibited much enthusiasm in his role. I hope that he can combine his goals and ambitions with a cooperative and open mind. An effective mayor has to be able to get people to work together in harmony in order to accomplish his goals. One of the campaign charges against Mayor Spencer was the lack of development in the Caroline Development at the I-39 interchange. Now it is Mr. Koos's turn to get something going at the Caroline Development. With the advent of the proposed Minonk Raceway, this should not be too difficult of a task. The new raceway has opened up many new opportunities for the city to grow. It is more important now than ever for the Mayor and the City Council to work together in a cooperative manner to guide this growth.

The train wreck that I predicted would happen with the school board elections happened on schedule last Tuesday. With 8 people running from Minonk for 4 school board seats, Minonk successfully got no one elected to the school board due mainly to the dilution of votes spread among 8 candidates.

What really surprised me was that the 3 candidates from Wenona and Toluca received around 150 votes apiece from Minonk area voters! With 8 Minonk candidates running for 4 seats, why would anyone from Minonk vote for someone from the other communities. Do Minonk residents not want local representation?

If Minonk had run only 4 candidates, it could be assumed that the total votes for each of the 4 candidates could have doubled. If that were the case, then Minonk would have elected 3 members to the board - Tom Barth, Scott Hillenburg, and Jeff Gehringer.

In a nutshell, Minonk has won the racetrack but lost the control of its schools to our neighbors up north. What happens from this point is up for speculation but I feel that the school consolidation issues are only going to get worse. The previous school board members from Toluca and Wenona were opposed to combining the middle schools in Toluca and Wenona. Minonk board members Tim McNamara, Tom Barth, and Joe Kirkpatrick tried in vain to consolidate the middle schools but were outvoted by the Toluca-Wenona contingent. However, 2 months ago Tom Barth capitulated to the demands of Pat Schmillen that only the Fifth grade be consolidated and the consolidation of the other grades be postponed. He voted against full consolidation and supported the consolidation of the Fifth grade only. As a result of this, Barth was re-elected to the board mainly because of his support from the Toluca and Wenona voters. This tells me that the people in those communities still do not want consolidation.

I have received private emails from Minonk residents who are very upset with the election results and are fearful of what will happen to the Minonk schools now that we no longer have control over them. We can blame ourselves for not getting the vote out. Again, Toluca and Wenona outvoted Minonk on a percentage basis. Below is my observation of where we stand.

First of all, we have to realize that we have a very inefficient school district with too many buildings and busses spread over too many miles.

Secondly, the school district is saddled with an unfair TIF district in Wenona. In 2003 the City of Minonk provided $1,049,482 in taxes to Fieldcrest while the City of Wenona provided $210,411 even though Minonk is not even twice as large as Wenona

Thirdly, a tax referendum will need to be passed in order to avoid from being taken over by the state. However, it is quite likely that another referendum will be defeated because of the discord within the district.

I know people will chastise me for saying this but I am not going to sugar coat the situation.The communities of Minonk, Toluca, and Wenona have never gotten along and probably will not get along during my lifetime. I wish it were not that way, but it is hard to change a lifetime of animosity. This has been going on for years. Back in the 1940's MInonk and Toluca did not even play each other in sports because of the bad feelings between the communities.

What are the options for Minonk? According to Regional Superintendent Dave Marshall, the at-large election could be changed to election by district. This would require creating 7 districts within the school district, each having an equal population . One candidate would be elected from each district. Each district can have more than one candidate but only one can be elected. If there is no candidate for a district, someone must be appointed from that district by the school board. Changing to this type of election system would require the approval by the voters in a referendum. My opinion is that this would be too cumbersome of a process to get candidates from so many districts.

Another option is for Minonk-Dana-Rutland to pull out of the Fieldcrest school district. It is no secret that Minonk residents are still upset about the way the Fieldcrest consolidation has turned out. The prevalent feeling is that Minonk was solvent before the consolidation and by taking in schools that were on the verge of being insolvent we have become financially insolvent also. A fiscally irresponsible school board built a new school in Toluca and an unnecessary addition was added to the Minonk Grade School.

The only way that Minonk-Dana-Rutland can pull out of Fieldcrest is by annexing itself into another school district. The old MDR district cannot be reinstated according to Superintendent Marshall. The only district that would be feasible for Minonk to annex into would be Flanagan.
This also would be a cumbersome process in which signatures must be gathered for a petition and then the plan must be approved by the voters in the area which is being annexed into and the area doing the annexing.

In summary, the future of Minonk the city looks good but the future of our schools are in doubt. I do not know the solution to the problem. Whether the Fieldcrest School District can ever become a viable district will depend on whether the new school board members make decisions that are based on the best interests of the school district or based on the interests of the community they represent.

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April 11, 2005