Resident urges trolley stop on California Road and raises concerns about potential elementary closures
Summary
Ralph Spellbring, a resident of East Jackson, asked the board to add a trolley stop sign at a California Road signal and warned that local school closures could result from funding pressures, citing historical referendums and tax shifts as context.
Ralph Spellbring introduced himself as a resident of the East Jackson area and used his public-comment time to raise several requests and observations.
He asked the board to consider placing a trolley stop sign at the stoplight on California Road to improve pedestrian and transit access. He also urged the district to keep Bristol Elementary in Washington Township and Cleveland School in Cleveland Township and suggested that, in his view, Eastwood and Mary Feeser might be candidates for closure as funding and boundary decisions evolve.
Spellbring framed his remarks with a brief history of school-finance ballot measures in Michigan and Indiana, saying that past referendums and tax changes shifted the balance of school funding from local property taxes to larger state revenue sources. He used those historical examples to underscore that school-finance decisions are difficult and often determined by state legislatures rather than local referendums, and to illustrate how local funding variability can affect school operations.
The board thanked him for his comments; no formal actions resulted directly from the public comment during this meeting.
