The girls' bathroom at Jefferson Attendance Center. The center sink recently fell off the wall. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
The second in a series of three school tours in Carmi was at the Jefferson Attendance Center on 4th Street in Carmi on Thursday evening. Attendance from the community was a fairly continuous flow. The Jefferson grade school was built in 1940, making it 79 years old.
A common complaint heard from teachers was flooding and leaks, uneven heating and cooling, noise from the pipes in the classrooms, and the sound of the walls crumbling and falling behind plaster. One room has a wasp's nest above it. The kitchen has sewer pipes near the ceiling and it was stated that maintenance workers must keep them well wrapped to avoid leaking over the food preparation area.
Sewer pipes over the kitchen area. Photos by Kathy Sands
School officials, an architect, and financial officials were on hand to answer questions from the public. A representative of Stifel gave interested taxpayers an explanation of how the County School Facility Sales Tax revenue for the proposed new building would be used, as well as what levies might be enacted on property tax bills. (Stifel is a multi-billion dollar international investment banking conglomerate headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. A Freedom of Information Act request by Illinois Policy, an independent organization generating public policy solutions in Illinois, revealed that Stifel and its subsidiary Stifel Nicolaus has factored highly in financing efforts to put school facility occupation tax referendums on county ballots all over the state at election time. According to records, the company was involved in 12 of the state's 14 referendum efforts in 2014, when White County passed its referendum.)
In sum, the school district is looking at three options at this time and is asking residents of the school district to give its input on which direction the district should go: minimal repair, repair to code, or build new. The last of the three schools to be toured is Lincoln Attendance Center at 113 10th Street. That tour was scheduled for Saturday morning from 9-12 noon.
Whatever decision the district makes about the schools, it's going to cost. Washington and Jefferson look to be in poor condition and needing much work. Some taxpayers wonder why the buildings have been allowed to deteriorate this badly, while others cite the prior lack of funding (before the 1% tax was approved) as the cause for the delay in repairs.
