It’s been a tremendous blessing that the management of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center was entrusted to the local school district as stipulated by the will of benefactor Thomas H. Bowlus in 1961.
True, it’s been an added responsibility for school board members, who also serve as Bowlus trustees, but for the community the arrangement has all but guaranteed the Center’s well-being over these past 50-plus years.
But like all dreams, reality is shaking us awake.
For the last several years the school district has paid an annual fee of $143,000 to use the Bowlus Center for classrooms and offices and their associated costs of utilities and maintenance.
Successive years of state cuts to education are forcing USD 257 officials to question whether they can afford the privilege of continuing classes at the Bowlus at the expense of saying no to other needs.
A drop in enrollment also has freed up space in district buildings, which school officials see could be repurposed for music and the like. No, the conditions aren’t as conducive for the arts as the Bowlus, school officials admit, but when your schools are antiques, their maintenance needs continue to mount.
Both issues have prompted school officials to prepare a petition to see whether there’s any wiggle room in the trust.
The assumed threat is that if the school district does not use the Center for the instruction of the fine arts it becomes the property of the University of Kansas.
NO MATTER how the court rules, it’s time for the broader community to assume funding for the Bowlus and to look at it not so much as a schoolhouse but as a municipal auditorium.
There’s not a facility in southeast Kansas the caliber of the Bowlus Center.
For comparison’s sake, Chanute’s Municipal Auditorium was built in 1925 and it’s safe to say looks it. The same goes for the 1920s-era civic auditorium in Parsons.
The Bowlus, on the other hand, continues to be a state-of-the-art facility because of continued investments not only by the school district but also the fundraising efforts of the Friends of the Bowlus, individual bequests, investments and smaller amounts from the City of Iola and Allen County.
Susan Raines, Bowlus director, estimates it costs $350,000 a year to operate the Center. Iola commits 1 mill of property tax, which generates about $30,000, and another $20,000 from its Convention and Tourism budget.
When city and county leaders met with school board officials earlier this summer, county commissioners upped their previous commitment to the Bowlus from $32,000 to $100,000 — but only for one year.
