School bond issues fail at polls

By Carolyn Cole/The Mustang News

Two Mustang School District bond issues failed to gain enough support from voters to pass Tuesday just days after some residents protested the elimination of a nativity scene from an elementary school play.

Fifty-four percent of voters, or 1,300, voted for the first proposition, which contained funding to build a new elementary school as well as other building and maintenance projects. Forty-six percent, or 1,099 voted against.

Fifty-five percent of voters, or 1,353, voted for the second proposition, which would have addressed school transportation needs. Forty-five percent, or 1,103, voted to defeat the issue.

Both propositions needed 60 percent of voters to approve the measures to pass.

“I’m disappointed the bond issues failed,” Superintendent Karl Springer said. “I’m heartened that so many voted in support of our children. Throughout this whole process I have been very thankful and impressed with the Mustang community.”

Next he said the administration will meet to look at some emergency remedies the district can begin implementing this summer to address serving the district’s growing student population. He said he expects the school board will meet to discuss what to do next and if it should run another bond issue election in the future.

“The needs are pretty overwhelming,” Springer said. “We’ll have to do some real careful planning to make sure we meet those needs in a timely manner.

The bonds were expected to increase property owners’ taxes by 3.5 percent for the first two years. An owner of a $100,000 home would have paid $43 more a year in property taxes.

The first proposition mostly addressed elementary school construction costs but also included other building and maintenance costs in the district:

• Constructing, equipping and furnishing a new elementary school at $7.46 million.
• Repairing and replacing roofing  at Mustang Mid-High School at $825,000.
• Getting and installing HVAC controls and equipment at Mustang High School and Mustang Mid-High School at $300,000.
• Constructing, remodeling, renovating and equipping the vocational agriculture facility at Mustang High School at $750,000.
• Purchasing maintenance vehicles and equipment at $30,000.
• Constructing, equipping and furnishing a new soccer facility and softball locker facility at $935,000.

The second proposition sought $500,000 for school transportation equipment, including, but not limited to, passenger buses and a vocational agricultural truck.

Springer said last month at least 1,700 homes are in some stage of construction around the district and the growing student population needed this elementary school.

He said he expects an increase of 350 students in fall 2005, putting the school population at about 7,800. Mustang schools had 7,193 students enrolled last school year and has 7,447 students this year.

Also the district may face having to implement full day kindergarten in two or three years, depending on  what is mandated by the state Legislature this spring.

Residents protest nativity elimination

By Carolyn Cole/The Mustang News

With tears of frustration, conviction and passion, Mustang area residents joined together at Monday night’s school board meeting asking for greater communication and unity.

The meeting drew about 40 people to express and listen to concerns about what had grown from a nativity scene’s omission in Lakehoma Elementary’s fifth grade play last week.

The uproar began early last week when a school administration decision removed the scene from the production fueling e-mails and phone calls throughout the community. It culminated Dec. 9 in a live nativity scene protest that gathered about 40 participants across the street from the high school while the play was being performed.

“I had an opinion, a legal opinion,” Superintendent Karl Springer said at Monday’s school board meeting. “I had a second opinion from the Oklahoma State School Boards Association that told me what the right thing was. That again, it’s a fundamental issue with me. We are governed by the majority, but we are ruled by laws.”

Brenda Johnson, a parent with a fourth-grader attending the school, said her children came home asking her why, but she said she didn’t have an answer.

“It’s heartbreaking for many of us that this whole thing has occurred the way it occurred,” she said. “I think that there was a real lack of communication.”

Shelly Lewallen, a parent of a fifth-grader who performed in the program, said she was among the first to e-mail the information to  people. She said although she’s glad she spoke out, she never thought it would lead to possible lawsuits or endanger the bond issues’ passage.

“I just wanted equal treatment,” she said, crying. “I mean from what I read and what my daughter talked about, they were having Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and Mexican fiesta and I just wanted the nativity scene… and we have the bond issue tomorrow (Tuesday) and people are saying they will vote against it, but I have two little kids that are still going to school and they need it to pass.”

Former school board member Susan Price said she couldn’t understand how the issue boiled over so quickly.

“We plan for fire drills, we plan for weather things, we have plans for everything,” she said. “Five days before this program came about, a whole slew of children who had been practicing this program for months, all of a sudden, just like that, were told, nope you can’t do it.”

She added, “Those kids need somehow to be able to understand why that was just taken away from them.”

Joyce Gleave, retired Mustang Elementary teacher, asked everyone to be strong enough to own up to their mistakes.

“I always taught my kids, so OK their turkey is green, don’t make the same mistake twice,” she said. “Learn by your mistakes OK. You’re not perfect, I’m not perfect, they’re not perfect, OK. Darling, when you make a mistake, think about it and don’t be, oh I won’t ever change. If you make a mistake, if I make a mistake, if my babies make a mistake, we should figure out what the right answer is and how to fix it and go from there. We’ll move together OK, but these are my kids. They need to be your kids. You’ve got to love them. When you tear up the school system like this you are tearing up my kids.”

Price said since the district hired Springer, it has implemented abstinence and character education programs in addition to adding prayer to the beginning of school board meetings and strengthening its relationship with the Mustang Ministerial Alliance. However, she said when the board, which she served on, asked Springer during his job interview what he would do in this sort of situation, she said he told them he would hold firm on faith issues.

“You looked us straight in the face and said, and I quote, ‘This community is a Christian-based community. You have churches everywhere in it. I will do that.’ That’s where I have issues,” Price said.

Mustang resident Tim Pope said the community is not alone in facing these type of issues.

“I’m conflicted here,” he said. “I could say that it’s just a horrible mistake and hope to wake up tomorrow and this terrible nightmare will all be gone. On the other hand, I see the continued intrusion of the secular devices in our education system and our government system that desires to strip all remnants of all religious activity and expression completely away.”

But most attendees said they didn’t want a battle line drawn in Mustang.

“People call me, ‘Are you going to sue, are you going to sue?’ That’s not why we (spoke) in the first place,” Lewallen said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for all of this to happen.”

However, she said she’s not apologizing for speaking up.

“I don’t regret it,” she said, “I don’t, I’m proud that I did it … I wanted my daughter to know she can stand up for what she believes in.”

School Board response

Mustang school board members thanked everyone for coming and speaking from their heart.

“You all did show up, you  didn’t stand back and say well that’s the way it is,” Maxine Morris said. “You had a Christian mind about you and wanted to do what is right and so I appreciate all of the support you have given us one way or the other. Because I know what you all did, you felt it was right. And what we did, the administration did, they thought it was right too. We’ll get together and we won’t give up Christ at all.”

Dona Zanotti added she understands where the parents are coming from.

“I have two children in the district who asked the same questions, ‘Mom what are you going to do?’”

She added, “I think it is an opportunity, we must not polarize on this issue.”

Curtis Brewer said he observed from the comments that the community has quite a bit of common ground to work from.

“We all have the same beliefs,” he said, “because this is about the kids and we want to make sure we continue to develop those kids and also that we have the facilities in place and a school system in place to continue their education.”

“We came here divided, but we need to leave here united,” Brewer said. “I ask that everyone here pull together and try to resolve this, because there is an answer, but it’s going to take all of us to put it together.”

Where to go from here?

Both the Mustang Ministerial Alliance and Mustang School District officials have discussed forming a community action group to address issues of faith and education after the holidays.

“I want with every fiber of my being to reach out and talk to the faith community and work with them, to be able to do the right thing,” Springer said. “This decision was the hardest decision I have ever made as a Christian. It is absolutely, unbelievably painful to have to take that kind of an action.”

Brent Olsson, a lawyer associated with an Alliance Defense Fund, said he has been talking with parent Jamie Bolton about filing a suit, but they plan to wait and see if the district takes action to change any of its policies.

Bolton said she doesn’t want this issue to lead to a suit but she wants “equal representation” of Christianity in the district.