Butler, Robbins leave behind legacy of service on Hobart School Board

With a combined 42 years on the Hobart School Board, Terry Butler and Karen Robbins cast their final votes Dec. 19.

Both members retired after presiding over a sea of physical and academic changes from the construction of two new schools to the pioneering of an AI platform.

“All in all, it’s been a great ride,” said Butler, who joined the board in 2000 when Indiana had its last Democratic governor, Frank O’Bannon, who died in office in 2003.

Superintendent Peggy Buffington said Robbins was her room mom when she began her teaching career at Foreman Elementary, which has since been replaced by Joan Martin Elementary.

“You always made the right choice — for students. It didn’t matter if it was controversial. You never faltered,” Buffington told Butler and Robbins during their final board meeting.

Their final votes were cast in favor of the renewal of a $22.5 million operating referendum. It will appear on the May ballot, if approved by the state.

Butler said his journey to running for school board began about 25 years ago when he attended a community meeting about whether students should wear school uniforms.

Butler, the former director of transportation at the School City of Hammond, didn’t like the idea and made his views known.

Someone approached him and suggested he run for school board and Butler was elected. He became a board member in 2000.

Robbins, an accountant, had served in many volunteer roles including serving on a school improvement committee to PTA officer.

“My kids had graduated, I had time and I thought ‘why not’,” she said. “It seemed like the next step.”

Nearly 18 years ago, Robbins was selected to fill a vacancy when a school board member resigned.

When Butler first joined the board, he said there were rumblings of the need for a new high school but money was scarce.

He said the district’s guidance counselors still filled out schedules by hand and the system needed to be computerized.

To shore up support for a new high school, Butler said elementary schools were updated so the focus could shift to a new school. Meanwhile, the state reformed its property tax assessment method to a fair market assessment.

The changes and community support paved the way for a bond issue to build the new high school.

Jack Leach, who retired in 2008, served as Hobart’s superintendent when Butler and Robbins joined the board. With Butler as president, the board elevated Buffington from assistant superintendent to succeed Leach.

“She was so far ahead of the other candidates, her abilities were so much better…” said Butler who praised Buffington’s technology vision and savvy.

By 2006, work had begun on the construction of the new $63 million high school on 10th Street. The school board included a swimming pool in its original plan for a new high school, but the state cut the pool out of the final plan in 2006.

Butler is still bitter over the move he blamed on GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels. “They said we had to cut $5 million so we lost the pool. That’s when the community came together, they were upset,” said Butler.

The new school opened in 2009 sans pool, but a 2017 successful $41.2 million capital projects referendum provided about $18 million for the construction of a 50-meter pool and natatorium on the high school’s southwest side.

Veterans Elementary was also constructed at the site of the former razed Mundell Elementary on Wisconsin Street.

Buffington pointed the board toward its technology course, Robbins said.

“We used to get these large paper packets,” she said of the school board’s information folders, then we sat in a session on the electronic school board and we did it.”

Audience members can watch board members vote by pressing a computer key and their vote is flashed on a screen in the meeting room.

Both Butler and Robbins harbor skepticism at state policy changes during their tenures on the board that shifted state money to charter and private voucher-funded schools.

“The whole problem is taking money from public schools and giving it to private schools,” said Butler.

“It upsets me that my tax dollars are going to these schools, there’s no accountability,” Robbins said of private schools funded by parents with state vouchers.

“We need to reverse the tide and get people to vote for people who value education,” she said of the General Assembly.

Robbins said she gained motivation to retire from the board after watching new board member Brad Keehn Jr. faithfully attend meetings and contribute to discussions. He’ll join the board next month along with newcomer David Kostbade.

“When you see someone like Brad in the audience, it’s good. “It’s time for the younger generation to take it,” Robbins said.

Butler and Robbins acknowledged they navigated a few controversies during their combined time on the board and boasted of accomplishments like one of the first all-day kindergarten programs, early learning and early college programs, and the embrace of technology.

Buffington said the closing of Ridge View stirred up concern among west side residents who later came to appreciate the new Veterans Elementary their children attended.

“It’s a beacon on the west side,” she said. “Those children love their school.”

She also cited the popularity of the new aquatic center that’s drawn swimmers from Illinois for competitions.

“I hope you walk away and know you were a major factor in this,” Buffington told Butler and Robbins.

Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.