Gary Legislators: Reduce And Change The School Board To Help Kids

Kyle Stokes / StateImpact Indiana

The Gary Community Schools Corporation is shrinking because of financial problems leading to school closures.

State representatives Charlie Brown D-Gary, Vernon Smith D-Gary and Senator Earline Rogers D-Gary are trying to gain support for legislation that would reduce the Gary School Board from seven elected members who represent districts of the city to five at-large members, three elected and two appointed by the mayor.

Brown says the current system of electing the school board is no longer working because the district is shrinking, schools are closing and consolidating, enrollment is declining and a number of financial problems are plaguing the district. He says past school boards with district representatives struggled to make decisions on closures, because everyone wanted to protect the schools in their districts. 

“Why should we continue with the district concept if there are limited number or no schools operating in the district?” Brown said.

Under the current proposal, every school board member would represent the entire school corporation, and of the five, the mayor would appoint two members.

“The main reason for this hybrid board is that all the time we may not get the expertise we need on the board through the elective process,” Brown said. “So that may be an encouragement for the mayor to appoint maybe an accountant or someone with a business background that would strengthen the resolve of the board.”

Brown says the proposal is still a concept, and he, Smith and Rogers are presenting it to Gary residents before possibly drafting a bill to go before the state legislature this session.