Unfortunately this is just one more example of an ongoing trend that's been around for a while now. It's gotten much worse in recent years, but school budgets have been tight for years and there are very few H.S.'s where radio communications would be part of the core curriculum, so it has to be an "extra activity" and those are being eliminated left and right. Technically the station has the ability to be fiscally self-sufficient but that's pretty rare at the H.S. level...especially since it can raise all sorts of issues in terms of fundraising for the station vs. fundraising for other school events vs. locals paying school taxes.
I'm not going to pretend that I know the Indianapolis market, much less WEEM's history and overall situation, but in that vacuum of knowledge I would suggest you need to make a determination and fast: Does the school desire to keep the station but simply cannot afford to? Or does the school desire to attempt to sell the station, even for relatively small money (I doubt WEEM is worth more than a six-figure number, and possibly as low as five figures) to eliminate an expense and at least get SOME revenue out of it?
If the latter, then you are basically hosed. You could try and organize an alumni donation campaign but you'll make enemies on the school board for defying them. Alternatively, you could try and organize a local group that meets the ownership criteria for a NCE license to take WEEM off the school board's hands. Basically they get the station for free in exchange for allowing some access for students to continue. But this is NOT an easy endeavour; maybe there's such a group already in place in your community but I'd be surprised. So that means you need to organize one, and possibly register a new non-profit business with the state (which can take months) and start a sustainable fundraising campaign (which also can take months, if not years) and you'd likely have to build new offices and studios from scratch, too. (again, takes months) If you can convince the school board to keep funding WEEM for another year, maybe this can work...see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WLIU
If the former, then you need to act fast to reduce your expenses. I would argue that the fastest way to do that
and still preserve SOME access to the airways for your students is an LMA. Probably with a public radio outlet, if you can find one that feels your signal is desirable enough AND has the money. Maybe WFIU? They seem to almost-but-not-really reach the Indianapolis market. Not that WEEM gets into Indianapolis all that well I'll bet, but if WFIU's overall operation is big enough then the extra expense (that's a huge number for you) is small enough to them that any improvement in signal coverage, even a small one, is worth it.
I know LMA's (Local Management Agreements) are not everyone's cup of tea. And you will likely be giving up a lot of control. But it might beat the alternative, ya know?
