WL school board: ‘Put our axes down and stop grinding’

What the first meeting of 2025 for a new school board showed about some old, hard feelings.

(Photo: Dave Bangert)

For the West Lafayette school board, in its first meeting of the year Monday, it was a new room in a relocated central office, now just behind West Lafayette Elementary School. There was a new electronic system to manage vote tallies on screens around the renovated space. And there were two new board members, with the addition of David Purpura and George Lyle, sworn in along with returning members Yue Yin and Amy Austin, all elected to four-year terms in November’s election.

But the vibe? That was more of the same heading into 2025.

No tempers flared Monday evening. But familiar tensions simmered and not-so-subtle recriminations persisted as board members wrangled for nearly an hour to name a president, vice president and secretary – even before landing on a ripe agenda item labeled, “Board Training vs. Communication Agreement.”