The School Town of Munster Board of Trustees has yet to decide whether it’s going to purchase the Center for Visual and Performing Arts, but that decision could happen next month.
The board does understand the property at 1040 Ridge Road’s importance to the town and the region as well as the emotions tied to it but it’s not a done deal by any stretch, STM Superintendent Bret Heller told a packed house at Monday night’s school board meeting. Heller said STM met with town representatives last week and had “initial conversations” over whether it might want to have a hand in running the building.
Still, whether the decision comes next month or after, Heller said it’s “just as probable that we do not purchase this building as we purchase this building.”
“It is quite possible we make the decision in the next few weeks that this is not in the best interests of the School Town of Munster or the community at large,” he said. “Our goal from the beginning was whether this property could meet our needs as a district while also finding a way to maintain as many of the elements that are important to our community within the property, [but] our primary concern first and foremost is what is best for the School Town of Munster but also what is best for our community as a whole.
“We were very concerned about the prospect of commercial developers or somebody else coming into that property and doing whatever they wanted with it and it being completely removed from the community.”
If STM does purchase the building, the $62 million mortgage bond it will use to pay for it and other large improvement projects – including a full revamp of Munster High School’s fine arts wing – won’t cost Munster residents a dime on their property taxes, STM Financial Director Bill Melby said. After straightening up the district’s financial woes, STM has kept its tax levy under 1.40 cents per $100 assessed valuation and has managed its money well enough to get a better bond rating.
As a result, the bonds, which the board approved to accept 4-0, will be tax neutral, he said.
While being able to make those renovations at no cost to the taxpayers is great, some residents remain concerned about how the purchase will affect further attempts to ask for referendums in the future.
“We fought like tigers to get the referendum in place, and I am scared to death what’s going to happen if you purchase this building,” said Tracie Martin, a member of Save the CVPA. “The people you have to persuade are suspicious of you, and this is going to make them more suspicious.
“I like the board that we have, but if you get into this art business, if there are layoffs, if there’s an economic impact down the line, it’s going to hurt you. I think your intentions are honorable, but you need to find someone who can steward that facility as an arts organization. You guys are getting involved in a business you don’t need to focus on.”
Resident Barb Whitaker put a fine point on Martin’s sentiment.
“If this district can afford this building, you don’t need any more taxes from me,” she said.
STM Board Trustee John Castro at the April 1 Munster Town Council meeting refuted rumors that STM’s enrollment will rise or fall significantly – which would affect the amount of money the schools would receive from the state – in the coming years in a statement he read on the issue.
Another audience member, Catherine Dilworth, said younger people are leaving the area because arts and culture are being taken away.
“You’re giving me no reason to stay here; we leave and go to places that have stuff for us to do,” she said. “We don’t trust you, so please try to (earn that trust back).”
STM is mainly looking at purchasing the building and 7 acres on which it sits so that it can move its administration to a better facility; the current administration building, built in 1980, has “components that don’t work when they’re supposed to and components that work when they’re not supposed to,” and topped the list of buildings in the system that need a major overhaul at the very least, the Post-Tribune reported previously.
STM, if it makes the purchase, would use a portion of the $62 million mortgage bond to pay the $5.5 million – less than half of its 2023 Lake County assessment of $10.7 million — for which the newly branded Powers Health’s not-for-profit arm Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana is offering it.
It then would pay to have the up to 10,000 square feet remodeled to add in the administrative offices as well as security measures needed for school buildings, the Post-Tribune reported previously.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
