It appears Johnson Controls officials are set to move forward with construction of the New North School, near Cook, despite the temporary moratorium on major construction put in place by the Field Town Board.

JCI’s project manager John Henry told the school board on Monday that they plan to roll the bulldozers within the next two weeks, setting up a likely showdown over the issue.

If so, animosity over the school district’s controversial plan will only grow. A mail-in survey of Field Township residents showed overwhelming support for the town board’s position and a strong preference by residents for renovation of existing schools in Cook and Orr, rather than construction of a new school to serve both communities. We expect a second mail-in survey, this one in Leiding Township, will yield similar results when tallied sometime this coming week.

The school district needs consensus, because it will be school officials who will deal with the long-term consequences of running bulldozers over public opinion. The district’s only operating levy runs out at the end of the year, and it’s going to need a new one if the school board hopes to have any chance of fulfilling half the promises they made during the referendum campaign.

That’s a concern that’s been raised more than once by Keith Aho, the chair of the Field Town Board. Aho also heads up the Community Coalition Joint Powers Board, which has sought for months to engage the school district in a serious discussion of alternatives. They even hired a consultant who developed a number of worthwhile proposals. While the school board showed some initial willingness to talk to the JPB, they officially broke off the talks last December.

That was a mistake, and it will be an even bigger one if the district moves towards further confrontation later this month.

For one, the township may well have legal authority for the actions it has taken. To date, the district’s legal counsel seems to believe that the township can’t act after the fact— that the township can’t impose a moratorium that impacts a project for which permits have been approved.

But there is precedent for exactly that, using the same law upon which the township is now acting. At this point, no one knows how a judge might rule, and it will cost plenty to find out. In either case, the township officials never took the action earlier because they believed that county planners would operate in good faith and enforce the ordinance that township officials helped craft.

That belief was bolstered when the Board of Adjustment denied a lot coverage variance for the south school project, even though the zoning in the south was much less restrictive on lot coverage than it is in Field Township. When the variance in the north was later approved, township officials were justifiably stunned. They had agreed to a county-run planning and zoning authority because they had faith the county would enforce their ordinance. When they failed to do so, township officials had reason to consider their options.

That’s what the temporary moratorium is all about. It gives the township time to determine if the local ordinance, laid out in the Voyageur Plan, needs clarification, and if the township needs to assume authority for its own planning and zoning given the county’s failure to enforce the rules.

The school district could use the time to talk seriously to residents in the north. Those discussions could include changes in the district’s plan (which could require a new vote), or even a division of the school district. There’s no reason to believe that the two separate halves of ISD 2142 couldn’t operate just fine as independent districts. That could allow residents in the north to develop a new plan— one that actually is politically and socially acceptable.

Even if the moratorium runs until October, as is currently scheduled, the school district could presumably still get its north school built in time for the start of the 2012-13 school year. After all, JCI officials are promising completion of the south school in less than ten months from the start of construction.

JCI officials, of course, want the bulldozers to roll now because they are looking for the quickest payoff. If the school district suffers over the long run, it won’t matter because JCI will be down the road wreaking havoc on the next school district.

It’s a situation where the interests of ISD 2142 and JCI don’t necessarily mesh. Unfortunately, right now, on virtually every issue, it’s JCI that’s calling the shots. And the district is paying the price in more ways than one. It’s time for the district to start thinking of its own best interests, not JCI’s. A cooling off period, and the start of a sincere dialogue would be a good place to start.