No vote from Maize board on student placement plans

Maize school board members were expected to make a decision Monday night regarding the district’s student placement process.

Would they draw geographic attendance boundaries, establish a feeder-pattern system or keep the current system for student placement?

As it turned out, there was no vote. The consensus among the school board members is that, for now, the district should keep the current system and research more details on what needs to happen next.

The board discussed student placement for nearly 40 minutes but not before board member Amber Casement posed a question: “Are you willing to vote on an idea? We have so many what if’s. I think we need things answered before we vote. I think we need a more definitive plan before we go forward.”

Board member April Barnard voiced frustration that board members weren’t willing to make a decision.

“I find it ironic that here for the past three months this is what I have been saying,” she said. “I’ve been told at every meeting ‘No, we don’t want to invest all that time and money and research if that is not the route we are going to go.’ ... Why aren’t we moving forward? I am frustrated, because I came here with the hope tonight of moving forward.”

Several residents in the school district who attended the meeting were relieved with the board’s consensus.

“I think it was the right nondecision,” said Michael Casement, a Maize resident who encouraged the school board not to draw boundaries. “They did not have enough information to make a vote that will be something that will affect the school district for decades.”

This story was originally published July 14, 2014 at 9:33 PM with the headline "No vote from Maize board on student placement plans."