This week’s variance decision by the county’s Board of Adjustment may not be the final word on the St. Louis County School District’s proposed New South School, but it has become increasingly clear that the school district faces an uphill fight to implement the restructuring plan crafted by its consultant, Johnson Controls.

The board of adjustment’s decision to deny the request for a variance, without prejudice, gives the school district the opportunity to come back at a later point with a revised plan that meets the county’s zoning ordinance— but whether they can do that or not at this location remains to be seen. The school district’s troubles at the board of adjustment, and at the planning commission last week, when the school district narrowly survived a motion to deny a conditional use permit outright, suggest that it may well be time to fundamentally re-examine the direction the school district is taking.

One thing seems certain. If the proposed south school is running into this much opposition, the prospect of approval at the north school site is virtually non-existent and school board members acknowledged as much this week.

The north school faces many more hurdles, including the unanimous opposition of the local town board and more restrictive zoning than what was faced in the south. The north site faces real challenges, as well, in obtaining a state permit for wastewater discharge, since the project will require discharge into nearby Flint Creek, a stream that has little to no flow during much of the winter, or during dry periods.

No doubt, school officials are disappointed, and with reason. The school board, whether you agree with them or not, has invested an enormous amount of time and energy in this project. They have also invested a substantial amount of our money in land acquisition, project design, and engineering. They invested more money over the past couple weeks, foolishly putting both projects out for bid on the recommendation of their consultants.

We have little doubt that the school board has acted in what it believes is the best interests of the school district. Unfortunately, it has done so based on highly questionable information and data provided by a consultant that had too much to gain from pushing a project forward quickly, rather than taking the time to do it right. The school district has already paid out more than $4 million to Johnson Controls to get these projects this far, and it increasingly appears that money may have been for naught.

That’s nothing to cheer about, even for those who oppose the school district’s restructuring plan. Frankly, it’s just a mess.

At this point, the school district needs to be looking for alternatives, and for ways to staunch the bleeding. It has scheduled a hearing on its environmental assessment worksheet and on a conditional use permit for the north school for August, but after the decisions of the past week, that all looks like an exercise in futility. The board of adjustment wouldn’t support the project in the south, which needed a variance to permit 17 percent lot coverage in a district that allows only 10 percent. In the north, the zone district allows just two percent lot coverage. From the discussion at the board of adjustment this week, they’d be lucky to get a single vote for a variance in the north.

Rather than wasting more time and more taxpayers’ money in a frantic bid to push an unpopular plan forward, it’s time that the school board pause to reconsider. After this week’s decisions, it should be apparent to just about everyone that neither of these school projects is likely to get off the ground during this construction season. Even had they received a variance for the south school, it still would have been months before work could have begun, because the conditional use permit required that all other permits be in place. A wastewater permit is still months away for the south school, and may not even be allowable for the north site.

That means the school district has time to sit down with opponents, who also have invested much time and energy, and explore alternatives to the current plan. Cities and townships in the district’s north half are already organizing to do just that on their own, but the effort would have more chance of success were the school district to get involved in a good faith manner.

The school board put its faith and trust in a consultant that made big promises, but which now appears unlikely to deliver on those promises. Draining more time and resources pursuing this same troubled approach would be unwise. The school district does have real financial issues to resolve, but it doesn’t face the dire circumstances it advertised during last fall’s referendum campaign. The school district has time to adjust, but only if it acts quickly and starts making smarter decisions than it has made to date.