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The Baldwin City school board tabled until October a decision on mill levy support for a community center when none of the three options before it could muster the required four votes on Monday.

That threshold was made harder to achieve from the absence of board member Ivan Huntoon and the decision of Greg Kruger to recuse himself from the vote because he also sits on the Baldwin City Recreation Commission board.

The options before the board were to approve a 2.75 mill levy increase for the BCRC, which would provide half the financing for a $5 million community center; deny the request from the BCRC board; or pass a nonbinding resolution of support but deferring a decision until after city voters decide on the Baldwin City Council’s half-cent sales tax proposal that would provide the other half of the funding. That referendum is scheduled for Feb. 7, 2017.

A vote to deny the recommendation won the support of board members Kelley Bethel-Smith, Sandy Chapman and Nicole Teller. The same three board members voted against two motions to pass a nonbinding resolution, which earned the support of board chair Nick Harris and Chad Christie.

There was no motion to approve the mill increase and no vocal support on the board to make such a move. Unable to make a decision, the board tabled the matter until its Oct. 17 meeting when Huntoon will be present.

The strong opposition of Bethell-Smith, Chapman and Tiller signaled it would be difficult to find four votes next month in favor of approving the mill levy increase. In discussion before the votes, the three board members voiced many of the same reservations district residents expressed during a 40-minute public hearing before the board’s deliberations. All three board members said they weren’t opposed to the community center, and pointed to the board’s unanimous decision of earlier this year to donate land north of the high school for the facility as proof of their support of the concept. However, they characterized the proposal as the “wrong plan and the wrong time.”

“I want to see it happen in the future, but I think this is not the right time,” Tiller said. “It’s too much to ask of the community.”

Chapman agreed about the bad timing and noted the school board last month voted to reduce the district’s 2016-2017 mill levy.

“We have made it a priority to watch our taxes and be frugal,” she said. “We have teachers who need more money and a laundry list of capital improvements that need to be made. I think it would be a great asset to the community, but I can’t vote on it at this time.”

Chapman and Tiller agreed with Bethell-Smith’s observations regarding the community center’s proposed financing. Bethell-Smith suggested the BCRC board explore grant opportunities and capital campaigns to reduce the burden on local taxpayers.

Monday’s lack of a decision should send a message to the BCRC board to change its plan, Chapman said, proposing the BCRC also consider the phased construction of the community center to make it more affordable.

The uncertain status of state school finance made all five board members uncomfortable with the mill levy increase. Harris said there were proposals floating around the Legislature that would require the school district raise its property tax levy from 5 to 7 mills should the Kansas Supreme Court rule in a decision expected next year that the state was not adequately funding K-12 education.

Harris suggested the nonbinding resolution of support, which it was agreed did not obligate the board to later approve the mill levy increase, would give the board more time to learn how school funding would shake out and hear from constituents.

Christie and Harris joined the other board members in expressing discomfort with the fact that passage of the mill levy increase wouldn’t automatically trigger a districtwide referendum on the increase. Such a vote would only be required if a protest petition of 5 percent of district voters in the last election was filed with the Douglas County Clerk within 30 days of published notice of the mill levy hike.

“This is a community center; there should be a community vote,” Harris said.

Board members also disliked the absence of board control of the mill levy once it was approved. There is not any means to eliminate the added authority short of a protest petition and referendum even should the city sales tax fail in February. Those arguments were also voiced during the public hearing, in which 19 district residents spoke. Many opposed to the mill levy hike asked the board to keep in mind its consequences on those with fixed incomes, and worried about the need for future mill levy increases to support the community center’s operational costs.

Several speakers from rural areas to the north of Baldwin City said they could access recreational facilities in Lawrence with no membership fees, while the BCRC is proposing $50 annual membership fees for the community center.

Speaking in favor the center, Erik Bailey, of Baldwin City, said it would be a big asset for middle school-aged youngsters who were too young to drive elsewhere to access recreational facilities.

In other business, the board:

• Approved a capital outlay fund project plan for 2016-2017. Its two big-ticket new projects would be the completion of weatherization to the exterior of Baldwin High School for an estimated $70,000 and drainage improvement west of Baldwin Junior High School and near the BHS shop and district bus barn for $80,000.

• Denied a request from a family in the West Franklin (Pamona) school district that the district seek to annex their property so that the family’s children could go to school in closer Baldwin City schools. The board suggested the family take the request to the West Franklin district.