By Greg Grisolano

ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com

A proposal to deannex the Joplin School District’s new South Middle School from the village of Leawood was defeated Tuesday night after about a dozen residents who live near the property made it clear they wanted it to remain in Leawood.

“We are not ‘yes men’ on this board,” Trustee John Mitchell said after the meeting of the village board. “All the people there were not for it, and we’re elected to serve the people.”

Mitchell was one of three trustees to vote against pursuing the matter. The motion failed 3 to 1 after a 90-minute public hearing Tuesday at the Newton County sheriff’s satellite office.

C.J. Huff, superintendent of schools in Joplin, had previously said the district was waiting on the board’s decision before pursuing several logistical moves that need to be addressed before the school opens — including issues with school resource (police) officers and obtaining ordinances that would lower speed limits in front of the school to 20 mph.

Issues

“Right now what we’ll be tackling is the school resource officer commissions (from the county sheriff’s department), ordinances with speed limits,” he said. “It changes our line of thought on what our steps will be, and that’s an adjustment we’ll be making in the next 24 hours so we can work through any of those issues.”

Newton County officials, including Sheriff Ken Copeland, had previously criticized the school district for “a lack of communication” regarding those issues.

Board Chairman Denny Desmond was the lone vote in favor of moving forward with the deannexation request from the school district. Board member David Smith abstained because of having a relationship with the school district.

Huff reiterated during the meeting that the district hoped to move forward with its plan to have the property annexed by Joplin in order to maintain continuity with Joplin police and fire departments, which serve most of the district’s buildings.

“The issue this evening is not about whether or not we feel like Newton County (sheriff’s department) can handle it or Redings Mill can handle it,” he said. “The issue we have is more internal. We have 19 schools, and we try to the best degree to have congruency to communicate with one another.

‘Seconds matter’

“Seconds matter in these types of situations. Certainly in day to day, Newton County and Redings Mill could handle it, but long term, I’m thinking if something were to happen, whether a tornado or fire, or some significant incident like we have had in the past, we’d certainly like to have that one point of contact.”

But several residents said they would prefer the district work out an alternate arrangement with the Newton County Sheriff’s Department and Redings Mill for services, after it was brought out during the hearing that similar arrangements have been made to accommodate schools in Duenweg, and the new East Middle School in Duquesne.

“(School) officials knew it was in the village when they bought (the property),” said Marsha Long, whose own property borders the school’s to the east. “I don’t understand why it needs to be in the city when the school in Duquesne is not, and it’s functioning very well.”

Huff said the reason the district did not try to annex the East Middle School or Duenweg school properties is because the land did not abut Joplin city limits.

“If that property was contiguous, we’d be having that same conversation (with Duquesne),” he said.

Why now?

One village resident questioned Huff on why the district was just now beginning to seek deannexation, instead of six months ago.

“Why wasn’t some of this planning done before now?” he said. “Some of the things that have been talked about tonight, the semester is half over and you’re going to do this. We know how government moves. It’s slower than the school district.”

Huff and Desmond both stated that village officials met with district officials in September of 2007, prior to Huff being hired, and discussed some of the same issues that came up at Tuesday night’s hearing.

“We had a discussion and it was left with the school district at that time, and then nothing else happened,” Desmond said. “There was never any session like this where we took the next step.”

Redings Mill fire Chief Andy Nimmo also addressed safety concerns during the public hearing.

Nimmo said during the meeting that a 911 call is sent to a call center, which dispatches it to the appropriate agency based on jurisdiction.

“I don’t want to say I’m offended by the ‘seconds count’ comment, but there’s not going to be a delay in response from the emergency services,” he said to Huff during the hearing. “We have a wonderful relationship we’ve built with Joplin and surrounding agencies. In today’s world, we know we can’t do it alone. We train together, we work together, we make policies together in fact.”

Huff said he was surprised by the trustees’ decision.

“Quite honestly, yes I’m surprised,” he said. “But I know that they have the best interests of Leawood Village at heart, and they certainly have a passion for the kids as well. I feel like I’ve done my job. My job is if I see an area of concern for the safety of the kids, I need to bring that forward and at least pose the question.”



Opening soon

Construction on the new South Middle School is expected to be completed by the end of November. Superintendent C.J. Huff said the district will work through the holidays to outfit the building with the necessary computer and telephone infrastructure to open by Jan. 1.