School critic invited to return to schools after being banned

FORT WAYNE – A vocal critic of Fort Wayne’s school system has received an apology from the superintendent, days after being told he was no longer welcome in the district’s schools as a volunteer.\nEvert Mol was invited Friday to return as a volunteer hours before he and two other residents requested petitions to start a remonstrance against the district’s new $500 million building project.\nMol said Fort Wayne Community Schools Superintendent Wendy Robinson called him Friday morning to apologize after he had been told by principals at Elmhurst High School and Indian Village Elementary School that he was no longer allowed to volunteer in the buildings.\nThe principals said they were told by administrators to ban him from the buildings.\n“(Robinson) said it was all just a mistake, and she took full responsibility and said we would be welcomed back into the buildings,” Mol said.\nDistrict spokeswoman Debbie Morgan declined to say where the instructions to keep Mol out of the schools came from.\n“We take responsibly for what happens. We don’t want to point fingers,” Morgan said.\nMol, a retired Exxon Mobil employee, visits the two schools two to three times a week to work with math classes, volunteering as a substitute teacher or helping kindergarten students learn the alphabet and learn to count.\nHe and his wife, Susan, also volunteer at Indian Village after school with Project READS, a program focusing on literacy development of underachieving students and their parents.\nFriday was the first day property owners could request petitions to begin the remonstrance process against the district’s $500 million building project.\nUnder the plan, at least five school buildings would be closed, while heating, air conditioning, plumbing and other systems at other schools would be upgraded, and classroom space added. Work is expected to begin this year and be complete by 2014.\nCritics argue the buildings shouldn’t be improved until standardized test scores go up.\nMol and former school board member Kurt Walborn requested a petition Friday from the Allen County Auditors Office to try to delay the plan, in its current form, by at least a year.\nOpponents of the district’s building plan have 30 days to collect 100 signatures and present them to the auditor.\nNeither Mol nor Walborn believes it will be difficult to gather those signatures.\n“I haven’t talked to anyone on my street that said they wouldn’t sign it,” Mol said.