News

Two School Board candidates rip commissioners for ignoring HHS recommendation

By Bill Moss, Published: August 28, 2016

Two Republican School Board candidates say the Henderson County Board of Commissioners overstepped its authority when it overruled the School Board’s recommendation on the future of Hendersonville High School.

“Why are we going to ask the School Board its opinion on that situation if we’re not going to take that recommendation?” Blair Craven, a challenger who would be the only Hendersonville High School graduate on the School Board. “They should have left this in the School Board’s hands. School boards are elected officials. They can make that decision, and I believe they made the right decision. The commissioners overstepped their bounds a little bit.
“Now the School Board is going to have to clean up the mess it looks like over the next four to five years in building the school, deciding what to do with Stillwell, the track and everything else that’s going on at Hendersonville High School. When they asked the School Board’s opinion they should have gone with that opinion.”
Michael Absher, who is running for the School Board for a third time, said commissioners after ignoring the School Board recommendation threw the hot potato back in its lap.
“I think that the School Board makes the decision. I think that the county commissioners should honor that decision,” he said. “Speaking about the Hendersonville High School mess, I don’t think it’s right for throwing the School Board under the bus at the end of the meeting basically saying, ‘Oh, we’re just going to put it back in the School Board’s hands what to do with the Stillwell building’ after the recommendation was already presented to them what the majority (of the School Board) wanted.”
Candidate Burt Harris broke with Craven and Absher, saying whoever writes the check gets to make the call.
“I have a somewhat contrary view,” he said. “The commissioners have the money. The commissioners have the responsibility to spend the money. It’s not the system that I would like to see. Most places have a school tax. You have less county tax and you pay a local school tax. The commissioners have the money and they have the right to at least voice their opinion.”
Unlike Absher, Harris saw the commissioners’ decision on the historic core building as a potentially positive outcome.
“I do see a little window of hope in this,” he said. “I know I heard them say that the future of Stillwell building would be left up to the School Board. I believe the School Board could accommodate the wishes of the Alumni Association of Hendersonville High School by designating part of that building for academic classroom space.”
Incumbent Josh Houston, who voted in the 4-3 minority in favor of a new school, the option the commissioners chose, said: “The quick answer to this is the School Board has no taxing authority. The county does. County commissioners can raise or lower property taxes and put a referendum for a sales tax. There needs to be a team effort. I think there was a legitimate attempt at that. We were faced with build a new school that will last twice as long for less money, no mobile homes, no modular villages, no time out of class.”
The candidates made the comments at a School Board forum sponsored by the Henderson County Republican Party. The forum excluded four candidates who are registered as unaffiliated — incumbents Ervin Bazzle, Mary Louise Corn and Rick Wood and challenger Jared Bellmund.