Chalkbeat

Indiana school district referendum guide 2026: What to know about your district’s requested tax increase

2026-08-17T11:00:00+00:00

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This article was co-reported with WFYI.

A record number of school districts are asking voters to approve higher property tax rates this fall as recent tax reforms compound with the state’s existing property tax caps to bring financial stress to districts across Indiana.

Nearly all of the 38 school districts seeking referendums are doing so to cover operating expenses, such as transportation and teacher salaries. But the impact on taxpayers can vary based on a community’s assessed property values and whether the district already has a referendum in place.

Many districts attribute the need for a ballot question to Senate Enrolled Act 1 from 2025, which will bring property tax relief to homeowners by phasing in new property tax deductions and creating new property tax credits — changes that at one point were estimated to cost districts a collective $744 million.

But districts also face a multitude of other challenges, including rising operational costs, declining enrollment, and a competitive school choice landscape that, for the first time this year, will include private school vouchers for every family regardless of income. Districts are also now restricted in how often they can ask voters for a referendum to the November general election, which are held every even year.

Chalkbeat Indiana and WFYI have compiled a referendum guide to help you understand your district’s ballot question.

What to know about referendums at the polls

If voters in your school district have recently passed a referendum, the new ballot question is likely asking them to replace it with a higher tax rate — not charge the new rate on top of the existing one — to offset revenue the district expects to lose under property tax reform.

Yet some school districts are warning voters that the ballot question does not clearly explain that distinction.

State law requires ballot language to describe a referendum’s cost as if a district currently has none. In Westfield, for example, the ballot question lists an $873 annual increase for a $450,000 home, based on a maximum rate of $0.3941 per $100 of assessed value. But Westfield Washington Schools already collects a rate of $0.17 per $100 under a referendum voters approved in 2023.

If voters approve the measure in November, the new tax rate would replace the existing $0.17 rate rather than be added on top of it. As a result, the owner of a $450,000 home would pay closer to $494 more a year, not $873, according to the district.

Five districts are seeking a property tax increase for the first time: the Metropolitan School District of Shakamak, Mississinewa Community School Corporation, Shelbyville Central Schools, Tipton Community School Corporation, and Tri-Central Community Schools.

State law previously required that districts in four counties — Lake, Marion, Vanderburgh, and St. Joseph — share their operating referendum proceeds with charter schools enrolling students living within their boundaries. But beginning in 2028, all districts statewide must share with charter schools that enroll students within their borders.

This year, only districts in Marion and Lake counties have stated that they will share their potential revenue with charters, which is estimated at over $49 million for about 60 charter schools, according to documents districts submitted to the Department of Local Government Finance. Spending plans and amounts for charter schools were submitted by districts, although these plans may not include all of the charters eligible to receive money.

Statewide, the requested tax rates range from an extra $0.9912 per $100 of assessed value for the River Forest Community School Corporation to an additional $0.09 for the Clark-Pleasant Community School Corporation.

Search for details on your district’s ballot question below. Figures in district spending plans and charter school amounts are estimations.

The general election is on Nov. 3, and voters can register to vote, check their sample ballot, and check voting locations at https://indianavoters.in.gov/. Early voting starts on Oct. 6.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Weddle is WFYI’s education editor. Contact Eric at eweddle@wfyi.org or follow him on X at @ericweddle.

What do you think about your school district’s ballot request for a property tax increase?

2026-07-30T11:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

A record number of Indiana school districts are asking voters to approve property tax increases this November.

We want to know: How will this impact you?

Indiana’s school districts are facing financial strain on multiple fronts. Enrollment, which influences how much state revenue they receive, is declining. The costs of running a district, officials say, are increasing. And lawmakers last year passed property tax reform that is expected to cost districts millions of dollars in lost revenue.

Under state law, property taxes are capped at 1% of a home’s gross assessed value. But districts can seek out revenue beyond that by asking voters to approve a referendum on the ballot.

Those referendums ask voters to provide additional funds to schools for a specific need, such as operations, construction, or safety. The funding is on top of property taxes already allocated to schools along with state and federal funding.

Starting this year, districts may only ask voters for these increases during the state’s general election in November.

We want to hear from residents about what they think of school referendums and the impact it may have on their household budget. Your answers may help shape our future reporting on this year’s elections. Share your thoughts on questions below:

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Amelia Pak-Harvey covers schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Record-high number of Indiana school districts ask voters for property tax increases

2026-07-17T17:26:38+00:00

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A record number of Indiana school districts are asking voters to increase property taxes for various expenses this fall as reforms passed by state lawmakers last year take effect.

At least 38 districts are requesting to place a referendum question on the ballot in November for one of three reasons allowed by state law: to pay for operating expenses, capital needs, or security projects. The majority of districts are requesting an operating referendum, which covers everyday expenses such as transportation and curriculum.

The surge in ballot questions seeking property tax increases reflects the rising financial pressure on school districts due to recent changes in state law. Last year, lawmakers changed state law so that districts may only place referendum questions on the ballot during general elections, which fall in November of even-numbered years, instead of every year. Plus, lawmakers passed a sweeping property tax relief bill that by one estimate would cost school districts millions of dollars in lost revenue.

A final list of all ballot questions won’t be available until at least Aug. 1. But the number of districts listed on the department’s website just a few weeks before the Department of Local Government Finance finalizes the questions already represents a record for districts seeking tax increases in a single election and calendar year.

Half of the 38 districts are requesting to renew their operating referendums, even though their existing voter-approved tax increases do not expire this year. Five others are seeking an operating referendum for the first time, according to an analysis of historical referendums from the Indiana University Center for Evaluation and Education Policy. Many districts cite the recent property tax reform legislation as a major factor in asking voters for more funding.

Several expenses covered by operating dollars, including transportation and utilities, are growing far faster than the rate of inflation, said Indiana School Board Association Executive Director Terry Spradlin.

The 2025 changes, combined with the state’s 2008 property tax reforms — which capped property taxes for homeowners at 1% of gross assessed value —will end up costing school districts across the state about $5 billion in tax revenue over roughly two decades, he said.

“For the 38 districts pursuing the referendum, it’s not really for program expansions — new programs, new expenses,” said Spradlin, who expects about a dozen more districts to file ballot questions ahead of the deadline. “It’s really to maintain status quo.”

So far, just one district is requesting a capital referendum, and one is requesting a safety referendum.

Most Indiana districts have never sought a referendum

Although the number of ballot questions has reached a record high, it is not extraordinary given that two years’ worth of ballot questions are now being squeezed into one, experts say.

Historically, school districts that have successfully passed a referendum have a greater chance of winning another one, said Larry DeBoer, a professor emeritus at Purdue University who has extensively studied tax referendums.

And districts that have tried but failed to pass a ballot question still have a higher success rate on subsequent attempts than districts asking voters for the first time, he said. Of the 38 listed so far on the department’s website, seven have previously floated a referendum that voters have rejected.

“Even if you’ve lost before, your chances of winning this time are better,” DeBoer said. “And I suppose that’s experience.”

Some districts may be asking voters to renew a referendum years before an existing one expires so they have multiple opportunities to try and pass a ballot question, Spradlin said.

Others are seeking a referendum early because their current operating referendum no longer generates enough revenue due to property tax reforms, he said.

The property tax caps first implemented in 2008 — known as “circuit breakers” — have collectively cost school districts statewide over $4 billion in lost revenue since their inception, according to historical figures from the Legislative Services Agency. The latest tax reforms will cost school districts statewide roughly $744 million from 2026 through 2028, according to a state analysis last year.

Still, 88 of the 144 school corporations that have floated a referendum have succeeded in passing one, according to Spradlin.

“It might be (that) the publicity will cause voters to say, ‘I guess this is a normal thing now,’” DeBoer said. “But it’s still the case that more than half the school districts have never tried a referendum. On the whole, it’s not that common.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Corrections and clarifications: This story has been updated to reflect the number of school districts that have passed a referendum, per Terry Spradlin.

Why this Indianapolis-area district is changing the start and end times for school days

2026-06-15T17:14:27+00:00

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When students in Decatur Township head back to class this August, they’ll start and end their days at new times.

The changes, which come with benefits for students and staff such as more sleep for middle school students and time for teacher professional development, are also in part, due to financial pressures schools face.

Changing start and end times means going from six different schedules to three, allowing for fewer bus routes and more savings to the district. School leaders said they are still implementing changes, but expect “impactful savings” to the district’s roughly $6.7 million transportation budget for this calendar year.

The priority is always how to best support students, said Scott Collins, superintendent of the Metropolitan School District of Decatur Township. Additional benefits to the time changes are for high schoolers to end their day earlier and to align schedules for grade levels.

Yet, Collins also acknowledged that the money aspect can’t be untangled from those decisions.

Decatur Township schools are not alone in responding to less property tax funding due to changes at the state level and wanting to show fiscal responsibility to voters ahead of a potential tax increase, known as a referendum, vote in November.

School leaders in Decatur anticipate $3 million less in property taxes this year due to property tax reform. And additional state changes also mean the district is considering putting a tax measure on the ballot a year earlier than planned.

“We’re trying to save dollars now so we don’t have to ask for as much money in the future,” Collins said. “We want to be good stewards.”

And a big part of that for Decatur is busing – a key service that more than 70% of students in the district use daily during the school year. Plus, more than 1,100 of the district’s roughly 6,500 students use the bus each week for after-school activities like athletics, band, and clubs, Collins said. He added that buses are crucial for Decatur schools due to limited access to public transportation and limited ability to have walk zones for students.

Currently, the district uses a portion of its referendum dollars to pay for transportation costs, including salary and benefits for bus drivers, monitors, and mechanics. Without referendum funds, Collins said the district would have to consider additional busing changes such as walk zones and cutting after-school buses.

The district is considering a tax measure rate of roughly 27 cents per $100 of assessed value that would replace the current rate of roughly 29 cents starting in January if approved by voters.

In order to be on the ballot in November, the school board must approve and send the ballot question to the state Department of Local Government Finance no later than July 22.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

What different potential tax increases would mean for Indianapolis schools and homeowners

2026-06-03T20:03:13+00:00

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How much money should Indianapolis schools ask taxpayers for this November?

That’s one of the questions facing the new Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, and IPEC is having two public listening sessions to share information and gather feedback.

6-8 p.m., Thursday, June 4, in the media center of Arsenal Technical High School.
Noon to 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 10, at a location to be determined, likely in the northwest part of the area served by Indianapolis Public Schools.

IPEC members are expected to decide at their June 22 meeting if they want to ask voters to approve a tax increase known as a referendum. These local property tax increases are for specific needs and last for a limited period of time, unlike annual property taxes that fund schools and other services.

Here’s what to know about the options that IPEC is weighing:

What is the current referendum rate?

Voters approved an operating referendum for Indianapolis Public Schools in 2018. The current rate is 19 cents per $100 of assessed value, and the annual revenue to the district is about $49 million.

Charter schools that are part of the IPS Innovation Network receive some of that funding, but independent charters do not.

How is the process for this referendum different?

There have been multiple changes since 2018. The power to put a tax measure on the ballot went from the elected IPS board to the mayor-appointed IPEC. And all charter schools that enroll students living within the borders of the IPS district can opt into receiving money from the tax measure.

Officials at the May IPEC meeting said the charter school change means the number of students supported by referendum funds would essentially double and said the rate of 38 cents per $100 of assessed value is essentially parity in terms of funding to the 2018 tax measure.

What are the rate options?

At the May IPEC meeting, presenters suggested rates from 19 to 55 cents. IPEC can also decide not to seek a referendum, or pick a rate not presented.

Depending on the rate, IPS might have to make cuts in addition to the ones previously announced that could include school closures and consolidations, ending Innovation Network agreements, and cuts to instructional programs, transportation, or staffing.

Lower rates could also put IPS at risk of a state takeover and lead to families and employees leaving schools, while higher rates would provide stability during a transition period, IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson told IPEC.

Johnson said 27,000 students, including those at district schools and some charter schools, rely on IPS services that could be affected.

Below is a look at the various rates and their impact on schools, based on presentations to IPEC by Johnson and Andy Seibert, CEO of TogetherEd, as well as Susan Preble, the Indy Chamber’s vice president of state government affairs. The cost to taxpayers is the cost instead of the current referendum cost, not in addition to it.

What else does IPEC need to decide for the tax measure?

If it opts for a referendum, IPEC will also need to decide how long the tax measure should last and what the money should be used for. Typically, referendums are eight years, but Johnson and Seibert recommended four years to IPEC.

The funding would help with services for students with disabilities and English language learners; teacher and staff retention and compensation; student opportunities including work-based learning, postsecondary pathways; and maintaining current instructional models across schools, according to Johnson and Seibert’s presentation.

It’s possible state lawmakers could increase funding for students with disabilities and English language learners, but that won’t be determined until after the vote on the tax increase.

IPEC’s next meeting is 5 p.m. on Monday, June 22, in Room 221 of the Indianapolis City-County Building.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis Public Schools board approves cuts in 2026-27 budget, with more looming

2026-03-27T02:21:00+00:00

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With a financial shortfall looming, the Indianapolis Public Schools board approved a roughly $490 million operating budget for the 2026-27 school year on Thursday that includes $7 million in cuts to schools.

The vote came after criticism from parents and teachers over what they called a lack of transparency from the district, which communicated budget cuts in a video earlier this month after weeks of rumors.

Next year’s budget is a turning point for IPS as it confronts declining enrollment, recent property tax reforms, and a requirement to share property taxes with charter schools. Lawmakers recently created the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, which will assume the power to levy taxes and request referendums instead of IPS.

To cut costs, some schools will share “specials” teachers — those teaching art or P.E., for example. The district already implemented that strategy at some schools for this year, and which parents opposed.

IPS is also listing fewer prekindergarten sites for next school year. At least five schools that offer preK this year aren’t on the list for 2026-27.

In public comment on Tuesday, teachers affected by the cuts expressed frustration with the district’s communication and its decision to remove them from their schools and students.

Emily Schunke, who said she was displaced from her school as a specials teacher last year and will be left without a job at her current school next year, said that she felt reduced to a number after 15 years of service.

“My parents taught me if I was professional, had integrity, and was loyal to my employer they would take care of me,” she said. “IPS has proven my parents wrong.”

Jamie Thompson, a prekindergarten teacher at Clarence Farrington School 61 — one of the sites that have dropped prekindergarten for next year — said that she’s received no guidance from her principal or the district since being told in late February that she won’t have a job at her school next year.

“Having neared 40 years of experience and dedication to this district, I still find it hard to believe that my time and commitment can be ended with, ‘We don’t need you next year,’ claiming it’s in the students’ best interest,” she said.

The 2026-27 budget includes the last portion of the voter-approved tax increase passed in 2018, estimated at $24 million, according to district financial documents. If voters don’t approve another such referendum this November, the financial situation will worsen. IPS said it hasn’t modeled financial plans to consider if a November referendum doesn’t pass.

Even with the $7 million in cuts, IPS still anticipates ending the 2026-27 school year with a $5 million dollar deficit. If voters approve the referendum, it could be used to fill the projected hole, according to the district.

In a mid-March video announcing plans for those cuts, Superintendent Aleesia Johnson alluded to additional future reductions.

“As for district-level budget reductions, you can expect to hear more from me and my team about tradeoff conversations and the strategies we will deploy as we move through the next couple of months of this school year and beyond,” she said.

The district hasn’t announced any additional cuts.

Charter schools receive property tax, referendum dollars

Charter schools, which enroll about 40% of students living in IPS borders, will receive roughly $13 million in local property taxes in 2026-27, according to district estimates.

Charter schools that are part of the district’s Innovation Network are projected to receive $2 million for next school year from the 2018 operating referendum — part of an agreement the district approved in 2021 to give these schools $500 per pupil from that funding source.

Marion County charters enrolling students who live in IPS boundaries will receive a collective $11 million next school year through a state law passed in 2021.

Budget anticipates decrease in tax base

The budget assumes minimal growth in state funding while both enrollment and year-over-year property values decline.

Property tax reforms that lawmakers approved last year curb the growth in property values to bring relief to homeowners. But that change will also affect government revenue.

The budget accounts for state funding at $8,370 per pupil including the base amount given to every student and the Complexity Grant for students from low-income households or in foster care — a 1.3% increase over last year.

CFO Weston Young has said that state per-pupil funding hasn’t kept pace with inflation. Adjusting that funding for inflation would put the amount at about $10,000 per pupil, according to the district.

Transportation, other costs increase

Next year’s budget projects $42 million in transportation costs, up from the $41 million the district projected spending for this school year as of February. Administrative support costs will increase from the $30 million the district anticipated spending this year to $31 million for next year.

But the district said in a statement that the budget appropriation for administrative support doesn’t take into account future budget reductions.

The district estimates spending $112 million on general education costs that include the recently approved teacher and support staff raises, compared with the $110 million projected for this year, and $48 million on special education compared with $47 million projected this year.

The new Indianapolis Public Education Corporation must certify a referendum for the November ballot by August.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis Public Schools announces proposed $7 million cut to school budgets as deficit looms

2026-03-13T19:26:03+00:00

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Indianapolis Public Schools plans to cut $7 million from school budgets next school year as it faces an impending financial shortfall.

The cuts could impact anything from staffing to school supply budgets as the district projects ending the year with a $40 million cash deficit that will grow in the coming years without additional voter-approved funding. The school board will vote on the budget for next school year on March 26.

Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said in a video on Thursday that the proposed budget cuts would affect each school differently, as principals made “tough budget choices” for their schools over the past several weeks.

“Because every school is unique and factors like academic programming, enrollment, and student needs shape a school’s budget, there’s not a one-size-fits-all summary of changes happening across our schools for next year,” Johnson said.

Johnson didn’t list specific cuts in her announcement, and the IPS board won’t vote on the proposed reductions until March 26. But at least two schools have already notified parents about how they are planning to change staffing for next year.

The IPS website is also listing fewer schools for next school year that offer prekindergarten than offered it this year. Johnson did not mention cuts to pre-K services in her Thursday announcement. The district did not respond to requests for comments about whether there will be fewer pre-K sites next year.

The announcement comes as IPS faces increasing financial pressure from a variety of factors: Recent state property tax reform, and a requirement to share property taxes with charter schools, will result in less funding. The district will run out of money if voters don’t pass an operating referendum in November. And like districts nationwide, IPS is grappling with student enrollment declines that affect budgets, which are heavily reliant on per-pupil funding from the state.

Certain teachers to be shared across IPS schools

Before Johnson’s announcement Thursday, some schools announced that they would share teachers designated as “specials” or “studio” — those teaching art or music, for example — with another school next school year. The district adopted the move last year at some schools despite parents’ protests.

Principals at Butler Lab School 55 and Center for Inquiry School 27 told parents over the last few weeks that the specials split would affect their schools next year due to declining enrollment.

“While the minutes of the time your children are in Studio class would not be different from this year, it will be different in timing (days of the week),” Butler Lab 55 Principal Sarah Clark said in an email to families last month.

Clark said the school would also share its English as a New Language teacher with another school in the district, since the number of students identified as English language learners has decreased in the last two years.

The family and community engagement liaison, she said, would also become a part-time position.

Center For Inquiry School 27, meanwhile, would share its specials teachers with Sidener Academy for High Ability students, Principal Hilary Duvall said at a parent-teacher-student association meeting this week.

Johnson said that she will share district-level budget cuts at some point in the future.

“Please know that as we consider decisions to meet our budget, what will remain my number one priority is our students’ access to a high-quality and robust student experience,” she said.

List of IPS prekindergarten sites grows smaller

At least five schools that offer prekindergarten this year are not listed on the district’s website as offering prekindergarten for 2026-27.

The district’s prekindergarten population dropped from 836 last school year to 691 this school year, state enrollment records show. Expanding prekindergarten sites was a core tenet of the district’s Rebuilding Stronger reorganization proposal.

Only one site expanded under Rebuilding Stronger — Garfield School 31 — is not listed as a prekindergarten site for next year, according to an analysis of the district’s published list for next school year and the schools that currently offer prekindergarten.

The district began charging for prekindergarten this school year, citing changes to state funding for prekindergarten and legislative changes that have affected the district’s finances.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Future of IPS hinges on possible tax increase proposed by a new corporation, not the school board

2026-03-03T18:33:40+00:00

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The future of Indianapolis Public Schools could hinge on whether voters approve a tax increase proposed not by the district’s elected school board, but by a new corporation with appointed members.

The Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, or IPEC, is slated to take control of several aspects of the district’s finances as soon as April, under state legislation passed last month. That bill gives the corporation, not the IPS school board, the power to put a proposed tax increase on the ballot. The corporation’s members must first be appointed by the mayor.

IPS’s current operating referendum, which voters approved in 2018, expires this year. The district already projects ending this year with a $40 million cash deficit, and by next year will have entirely depleted its reserves, according to IPS documents.

In other words, without that voter-approved funding, the district will be out of money by 2027, producing consequences that could range from staff layoffs to school closures.

Although IPEC could decide not to put a tax referendum to voters, observers have not expressed fears about that possibility. Declining to propose one could also undermine the corporation’s other work related to operations for district and charter schools. In creating IPEC, lawmakers also outlined specific ballot language that IPEC must use for a referendum.

While some recent developments in the state’s fiscal climate could make voters less inclined to approve the referendum in November, others could make its path easier.

In a statement, IPS said that it is committed to “critical collaboration” with IPEC.

“We have a great sense of urgency to promote the stability for all students in the IPS boundary through this transitional period,” the district said.

Mayor Joe Hogsett has until March 31 to appoint IPEC’s nine members, who in turn will have four months to place a referendum question on the November ballot.

One factor that might aid a November tax referendum is that, for the first time, local charter schools that enroll students living within IPS borders can opt into receiving money from it. That shared interest could help IPS and the charter sector work together, which has often proven very difficult recently.

“IPS and the charter schools may be fighting it out, and IPS may not like having to turn the money over. But once the referendum is on the ballot, the charters and IPS go for it,” said Larry DeBoer, a professor emeritus at Purdue University who specializes in tax referendums. “Even if they don’t like each other, they’re on the same side.”

IPS finances struggle after years of extra support

Recent property tax relief is projected to leave IPS and government entities statewide with less property tax revenue than they would have otherwise collected.

That tax relief lawmakers passed last year will reduce the district’s local property tax base by 1.9% annually through 2031, according to the district. Although the referendum’s odds of success might benefit from charters’ support of it, charters would also benefit from revenue that in past years would have gone to IPS.

All that could lead IPEC to propose an operating referendum that is more expensive than the current one, which added roughly 19.6 cents in taxes per $100 of assessed value.

The last time voters approved a referendum to fund district schools with 72% of the vote, it produced better results than IPS expected.

IPS projected the current operating referendum, passed in 2018, to bring in $220 million over eight years. But changes in property values led the total anticipated amount to soar to roughly $323 million, a nearly 47% increase over the initial projection, IPS documents show.

The district credits that funding for increasing teacher salaries significantly. In 2017-18, the district’s minimum starting salary of $40,000 was among the lowest in Marion County. Today, IPS offers the highest out of all districts in the county. In 2021, the district also agreed to share some of the funding with charters in its Innovation Network.

Not all plans for referendums have turned out as smoothly.

In 2022, the district proposed another operating referendum. But amid pressure from charter parents and supporters to share that funding with all local charter schools — and facing opposition from the city’s chamber of commerce — the school board tabled the measure.

IPS officials said the proposal would have generated about $50 million in additional funds annually over eight years to help fund the expansion of specialized academic programs under its Rebuilding Stronger reorganization, and to support continued competitive staff compensation.

The district continued with its Rebuilding Stronger organization, closing six schools and expanding programs such as dual language and Montessori, without the tax increase. Officials said at the time that they would cut costs in central services and operations to implement the reorganization plan.

Tax hike could be tougher sell than in 2018

Several factors could make a referendum harder to pass.

Under a change to state law in 2025, Indiana now requires school districts to float referendums in general elections in the fall — when historically they were less likely to pass than in the spring, DeBoer said. At the same time, voters are more likely to approve a referendum that is a continuation of the current one, he said.

From 2016 to 2019, 76% of referendums statewide passed. But from 2020 to 2025, that fell to 68%, according to an analysis from DeBoer.

“I would guess that the environment now is a little less favorable than it was back in 2018,” he said. “We were eight years into an economic expansion. People were probably in a somewhat better mood than they are now.”

Another concern is that having an appointed board receive property tax dollars raises serious concerns about accountability, said Monica Shellhamer of the Indianapolis Education Association.

“We’re not quite sure yet what it means to have our new IPEC board,” Shelhamer said.

But most voters don’t care about such technicalities about how referendums work, DeBoer said.

Taylor Hughes, chief strategy officer for the Indy Chamber, said the organization wants to balance the need for a “world-class education” in the state’s capital without overburdening the taxpayers.

“We’ve had significant inflation for a long time. The politics of affordability is a bipartisan cry. This is something that everybody is feeling squeezed on,” Hughes said. “I think that is a dynamic that we need to be mindful of.”

IPS supporters have called for adequate funding for public education. But the Chamber would want to know what a fully funded school system looks like, Hughes said. If there is a need for a referendum, he said, it’s really important that everyone is “singing from the same song book.”

“If this becomes a fight,” he said, “I think that’s probably a lose-lose for everybody.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Lilly Endowment gives Marion County schools $460 million but delays grant decision for IPS

2025-12-02T22:34:48+00:00

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Marion County public and private schools will receive $460 million from the Lilly Endowment to support a wide range of initiatives like new student programming, teacher training, and updated STEM and performing arts spaces.

The 34 grants announced by the organization Monday range from around $195,000 to $40 million. They will benefit public school districts, charter schools, and private schools throughout Marion County as part of the endowment’s twin school initiatives — the Marion County K-12 Public Schools Initiative and Marion County K-12 Private Schools Initiative.

But the Indianapolis-based philanthropic foundation has not yet made a decision on the grant proposal from IPS, due to the ongoing work of the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, which this week will move closer to making key recommendations about the future of the district and local charter schools.

“The Endowment will delay its decision on IPS’ phase 3 competitive grant proposal under the Marion County K-12 Public School Initiative until after these recommendations have been made and until there is clarity about the impact the recommendations may have on the district’s proposal,” the organization said in a press release.

The endowment supports a number of education initiatives throughout Indiana, including the state’s shift to reading instruction based on the science of reading. The grant funding for districts comes as many are preparing for declines in revenue as a result of the state’s new property tax caps.

December’s competitive grant announcement follows two rounds of planning and implementation grants announced by the Lilly Endowment earlier this year. These smaller grants went to 82 schools in Marion County to help districts support evidence-based programs that improve student achievement or career readiness. IPS received $10.5 million from these earlier grants to support reading and tutoring initiatives.

Districts then submitted proposals for larger projects to compete for the implementation grants announced this week.

The largest grant of $40 million went to Perry Township Schools, which described the funding as an “extraordinary investment.” (The district has an operations fund of around $52 million and an education fund of around $138 million, the two primary sources of state and local funding for its costs.)

Perry will use the funding to address math proficiency, develop teachers, and expand its career education offerings. The Lilly grant will pay for a facility on the University of Indianapolis campus that will expand the district’s entrepreneurship graduation pathway.

“This investment directly supports and accelerates our goal to empower the Southside community of Indianapolis,” said Melissa Morris, the district’s director of grants and strategic partnerships, in a news release. “We look forward to working with our partners over the next five years to develop a self-sustaining system that inspires students to dream and equips them with the skills to turn those dreams into reality.”

With a $14.4 million grant, Adelante Schools, a K-8 charter school, will fund advanced degrees and licensure pathways for teachers, and enhance social studies and science instruction, the school said in an announcement on its website.

It will also update its cafeteria, gymnasium, and arts and wellness spaces.

“This grant allows us to create the learning conditions our students deserve,” said CEO Edward Rangel in the announcement. “By expanding rigorous instruction, improving key school spaces, and supporting our teachers as they further their education, we are building a stronger pathway to long-term student success,”

“The Endowment is pleased to support a wide variety of schools in Marion County in their efforts to help students succeed,” said Ted Maple, the Endowment’s vice president for education in a press release. “We believe those projects selected for funding will significantly benefit thousands of students across our city.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana submits federal funding flexibility request to Trump administration

2025-10-20T20:29:43+00:00

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Indiana has submitted its plan to use hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education funds with fewer restrictions to the U.S. Department of Education, state officials said Monday.

If approved, the plan would allow Indiana to merge several federal Title programs — funds currently earmarked for certain programs and groups of students — into a block grant. The state would then be able to spend that block grant on other priorities permissible under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the main federal K-12 law.

The controversial proposal, which the state submitted Friday, would also allow districts to spend their federal funding in the same way.

Doing so would reduce the administrative burden associated with federal funding, the state has said, and free up more staff to work directly with students. But advocates have expressed concern that the plan would cut funding for certain groups of students, like English learners and rural students.

Other aspects of the plan would substitute federal accountability standards for the state’s A-F school accountability model — the latest version of which is currently in development.

The plan would also redirect a fund meant for low-performing schools to other nearby schools, even if those schools are not low-performing.

This aspect of the plan has drawn criticism from education advocates who say that students who can’t transfer to another school would be hurt by the loss of School Improvement Grants. The state has denied that redirecting the funds would amount to abandoning low-performing schools.

The priorities of the plan as submitted are largely unchanged from the first draft the state presented in July.

Indiana’s proposal is similar to waiver proposals submitted by Iowa and Oklahoma after a call by the Trump administration to “return education to states.” Indiana officials have heeded that call.

“Indiana continues to lead the nation in education and innovation,” Gov. Mike Braun said in a statement Monday. “We can best support Hoosier students when we return education to the states, empower parents with high-quality educational options, get red tape out of the way for educators, and focus on improvement for every student.”

The U.S. Department of Education has 120 days to respond to Indiana’s request, according to the state. If approved, the plan would go into effect for the 2026-27 school year.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

How will a new national school choice program affect Indiana? It’s complicated.

2025-07-17T17:54:01+00:00

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A new federal tax credit touted as the country’s first national school choice program could help families pay for Indiana’s rising private school tuition costs but also favor wealthier urban areas over rural communities.

The program established by the tax and domestic policy bill signed by President Donald Trump earlier this month likely won’t generate as much money as school choice advocates initially hoped after members of Congress made compromises to get it over the finish line. Still, advocates say it might start small but will grow rapidly.

The new program creates a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit for individuals who donate to scholarship-granting organizations, or SGO, a type of nonprofit that provides funding for families to send their children to private schools. These nonprofits are associated with multiple schools.

Indiana lawmakers would first have to opt the state into the program in order for families to benefit from it. If state lawmakers do so, the additional scholarship funding could help cover rising private school tuition costs that aren’t always paid for by the state’s voucher program or the current scholarships backed by SGOs and funded by a state tax credit.

But as with other school choice programs, the new federal funds would only benefit students who can in practice attend participating schools.

The gap between the voucher amount students receive and the total cost of tuition at private schools can be significant, said Scott Schumacher, executive director of The Lutheran SGO of Indiana.

A report this year from Indiana’s voucher program estimated families were still responsible for an average of $2,450 in tuition costs after receiving a voucher.

“If Indiana chooses to opt-in, this could provide another great way to reduce the gap between school choice vouchers and the full cost to educate a child attending a participating non-public school,” Schumacher said.

Because eligibility for the federal program’s is tied to local median income, that could mean higher-income families in urban areas qualify for the scholarships funded by the new federal tax credits, while middle-income families in rural areas don’t, said Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Coupled with the fact that rural areas tend to have fewer private schools to begin with, the new federal tax credits are less likely to help rural families, Valant said.

Under the federal program, nonprofit organizations can begin accepting donations and distributing scholarships in December 2026.

Federal tax credits could grow fast in Indiana

It’s likely that conservative-led states like Indiana will opt in to the new program, said Valant, because “it’s additional money they can put into school choice.” But the decision will likely be more complicated in blue and purple states, where public opinion on choice programs is mixed and Democratic officials might be hostile to them.

However, donors in states that don’t opt in could still donate to SGOs in participating states and receive the tax credits.

Unlike in earlier proposals of the federal tax credits, in the final version, only cash donations are eligible for the federal credit for a maximum amount of $1,700 per individual, rather than cash or stock donations. And critically, corporations are excluded from the credit entirely.

Those changes will likely slow the growth of the program, although there is no total cap on the federal tax credits.

Indiana already offers its own state tax credit for donations to SGOs in which donors get a 50-cent tax credit for every dollar they donate. There are no limits on individual or corporate contributions, but the total amount available for the tax credit is $18.5 million per fiscal year.

Donations came in under that cap the last two fiscal years. It approved around $17 million in tax credits in fiscal year 2025, and $15.5 million fiscal year 2024.

The state has eight active SGOs that distributed around $23 million in scholarships in the 2023-24 school year, the most recent data available.

These private scholarships are separate from — and can be used by families in addition to — Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program, the state’s signature voucher program. That program provided $497 million in state funds in 2024-25 for students to attend private schools.

Indiana lawmakers this year removed the final income cap on the Choice Scholarship Program to make all families eligible, regardless of how much they make, beginning in 2026.

It was not possible to enact a national equivalent of this kind of voucher program because the federal government doesn’t fund parents and schools directly, said Jeanne Allen, founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform, which supports private school choice.

Instead, the federal tax credit signed into law by Trump was the “least intrusive, most direct way for taxpayers to participate in educational choice,” Allen said.

It also has lots of potential for future expansion, she said.

“It’s a relatively small amount of money, it’ll take time to raise it, but once people are aware of it, it’ll accelerate,” Allen said.

Funding could fill gaps but leave students out

Even as more Indiana families gain access to vouchers, there are indications that they cover less as private schools raise tuition, according to the 2024-25 Choice Scholarship report.

Indiana students can receive a voucher amount equivalent to either the school’s tuition, or 90% of the amount given to a student’s home school district, whichever is less. In 2024-25, only around 28% of students received the full cost of their tuition and fees — a much smaller share than in past years, when around 43% of families received an amount that could cover their full tuition costs.

Meanwhile, Indiana’s SGOs and the new federal program have different eligibility requirements. The state SGOs are open to families making 400% or less of the federal income threshold for families to get free or reduced-price lunch. The new federal tax credits are open to families making no more than 300% of the local median income.

This will mean that SGOs need to keep the state and federal donations and scholarships separate, Schumacher said.

The reliance on local median income for the tax-credit eligibility could also favor many urban families over rural ones, according to Valant, because urban areas tend to be higher-income communities.

Few regulations on SGO’s also could open the door to discrimination against certain students, such LGBTQ children or those with disabilities, Valant said.

In Indiana, students must meet income, residency, and age requirements to receive an SGO scholarship, but the organizations can set their own additional requirements for their scholarships as well. For example, every student who gets a scholarship from the Lutheran SGO receives $500, but scholarships are distributed based on financial need, and families can apply for additional support.

Donors can designate their contribution for a specific school, but not for a specific student.

Receiving a school voucher is not a condition of receiving a scholarship from an SGO. The Indiana Choice Scholarship program has its own eligibility requirements.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

State budget cuts impact Indiana alternative schools

2025-07-10T10:00:00+00:00

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Options Schools plans to send a letter to the state legislature in the coming months with an urgent plea: Reinstate funding for alternative schools.

Alternative schools provide education to middle and high school students who might struggle in a traditional school setting. The latest state budget slashes funding for alternative schools from more than $5 million in the last state budget to just $760,000 for 2025-2027 that will go to a specific type of alternative school.

The Indiana Department of Education identifies potential alternative school students as those who are parents, intend to withdraw from high school before graduation, work to support their families, or are disruptive in their current school. Alternative schools are often these students’ last chance to get their diploma. They are usually more expensive to run than traditional schools because of low teacher-student ratios and their more specialized curriculum.

Typically, alternative schools receive money in addition to the state’s per-student funding to account for the extra cost of these programs. The new state budget provides only enough money for schools dedicated to educating students in recovery from or struggling with substance abuse. Recovery schools will receive $10,000 per student.

Most of the alternative schools in the state are not accredited recovery schools. Indiana has only one, Hope Academy in Indianapolis, which had 55 students last year. The budget leaves the other 200-plus Indiana alternative schools with a funding gap.

Alternative schools offer flexibility, support

Options Schools CEO Mike Gustin credits the charter network’s success – it has schools across the state – to its focus on what he calls “acclimatization” — addressing challenges that might keep kids out of school. Options offers programming such as art therapy, social-emotional counselors, and a food and clothing pantry.

“If we properly acclimate a student, they’re more likely to attend at a higher rate. Higher attendance means higher credit attainment, high credit attainment means more kids get back on track for graduation,” he said. “But all that talk takes money.”

Typically, Options schools receive more than $500,000 in alternative school funding from the state. It’s adapting to the loss by cutting programs that don’t have a good return on investment, implementing smaller staff salary raises than usual, and making other cuts. As they lose more funds, Gustin worries that more significant programming will be impacted.

Other schools with fewer students took a smaller, but still significant, hit.

Dynamic Minds Academy is an alternative school serving kids with autism that personalizes its curriculum. This summer, Dynamic Minds has 14 graduating students, none of whom finished in four years.

“They needed that extra time that the alternative school programming allows for,” said Dynamic Minds Education Director Samantha Bandy.

Last year, Dynamic Minds received $50,000 in alternative school funding. The loss of funds has led to a hiring freeze, which will affect the school’s ability to maintain a low student-teacher ratio.

“These students, in addition to their academic needs, may have behavioral needs,” said Bandy. “We’re a lot of times their last opportunity to get a diploma, so restricting the kind of funding that we can receive for that programming is a disservice.”

She worries that there will be fewer alternative school programs in Indiana if funding is not restored.

“So you could see a lot more students missing out on opportunities to graduate because districts aren’t going to take the risk to start a program like this,” she said.

Cuts due to $2 billion decrease in state revenue

The cuts can largely be attributed to a grim forecast that predicted the state would have $2 billion less in revenue in the 2026-2027 budget cycle. To meet this moment, state lawmakers looked everywhere they could, trying to find $2 billion in the previous year’s budget that could be cut. Alternative education ended up on the chopping block.

Despite the loss in funds, Gustin remains optimistic. He said that lawmakers, including the Speaker of the House Todd Huston, seemed open to listening to alternative education advocates. He hopes lawmakers will give them consideration if the opportunity comes to re-evaluate the budget.

“They’re terrific supporters, they are always amenable to opening their door and having conversations with us, so that’s where the hope comes from,” he said.

Gustin has written a letter to the legislature that he hopes leaders of the over 200 alternative schools in the state will sign.

A budget re-evaluation would only occur if the state performs better than the forecast predicted, or it receives extra money from the federal government. Most likely, alternative education funding will next be considered in 2027, during deliberation over the new biennium’s budget.

Samantha Camire is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Samantha at scamire@chalkbeat.org.

Marion County families’ preschool costs set to rise this year as state cuts funding

2025-07-07T10:00:00+00:00

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Sheretta McCoy sends her 4-year-old to preschool because she wants him to be prepared for kindergarten.

As a teacher, she believes education is important. Plus, she needs somewhere to send her son while she works. But it’s not as easy as just dropping her son off and picking him up daily. She also has to figure out how to fit preschool into her family budget.

“Because prices keep going up on everything and my pay is not going up, it’s a struggle to pay for day care each week,” she said.

McCoy is not alone. Preschool costs are on the rise in Marion County, leaving many families to wonder how they will afford the crucial service. At least seven public school districts in the Indianapolis area are raising the cost of preschool for the coming year, as the state makes cuts to its state preschool voucher program, On My Way Pre-K.

Beech Grove, Wayne, Franklin, Lawrence, Perry, and Decatur townships are all instituting price increases at their preschools. Some raised their tuition by as little as $5 while others bumped prices by $60. Wayne Township did not respond to a request about the amount its cost is increasing.

Indianapolis Public Schools, meanwhile, is introducing sliding-scale tuition, citing cuts to On My Way Pre-K and the loss of federal Covid funds. All children previously attended for free, but now families who do not qualify for aid will pay the full price of $150.

Washington and Pike Township are keeping their rates the same, while Warren did not respond to a request about whether it was changing its cost.

Indiana caps enrollment, cuts funding for pre-K program

IPS attributes the switch to a paying model partly to changes to the preschool voucher program.

On My Way Pre-K helps low-income families afford preschool for their 4-year-olds. Under the program, low-income families receive vouchers to pay for preschool.

But new rules significantly limit the size and scope of the program.

According to the Family and Social Service Administration, in the 2024-2025 school year, over 6,000 children received On My Way Pre-K vouchers. This year, however, enrollment is capped at 2,500 seats.

Additionally, the voucher amount is now lower. Previously, preschool programs could receive over $300 per week from On My Way Pre-K. Now, coverage is capped at roughly $148 per week. Families will be responsible for covering the cost of preschool tuition past that number.

Eligibility has also changed. To be eligible, families must make 140% of the federal poverty level or less, down from the previous 150%. Parents must be working, in school, or attending job training — those searching for a job are no longer eligible.

End of federal COVID funds affect preschool costs

Changes to On My Way Pre-K hit some districts harder than others. While some districts, such as IPS, rely on On My Way Pre-K for much of their funding, others have only a few families enrolled using the voucher program. Their tuition increases can be attributed to a variety of other factors.

Beech Grove was planning to raise its preschool tuition by $60 even before the changes to On My Way Pre-K.

“Last year we lost money on snacks in the first semester, and in the second semester we relied on weekly donations from the same 5–8 families,” Rob Adamson, principal of Beech Grove’s Hornet Park Early Childhood Center, told Chalkbeat in an email. “This created an unfair burden on them, so we needed to adjust our rates to cover the cost of snacks.”

Districts were also hit hard by the end of federal COVID aid.

In 2020, Congress created the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. Indiana received about $2.8 billion from this fund. The infusion of money allowed many preschool programs to avoid raising their rates, even as labor, food, and supply costs rose.

IPS, for example, allocated nearly $18 million of the ESSER money it received to shielding preschool staff and classrooms from cuts.

But since that funding expired, programs are faced with tossing that increased price tag back onto parents.

“We are here to serve our public, our township people, but we also have to self-sustain,” said Nichole Webb, Director of Early Learning at Franklin Township Community Schools.

She cited rising cost of labor and certifications as part of the reason for her district’s price increase.

Pandemic money also allowed the On My Way Pre-K program to expand and educate additional children. Funding from a federal program called the Child Care and Development Fund, which helps low-income families pay for child care for children up to age 12, has helped pay for On My Way Pre-K since 2017. During the pandemic, CCDF expanded.

However the state will stop using CCDF to help support On My Way Pre-K, due to a reduction in available federal funding.

Preschool has academic benefits for kids

Rising costs and fewer vouchers could shut some families out of the market for preschool.

Brighter Futures Indiana found that the average weekly cost of full-time care for 4- and 5-year- olds in Marion County is about $195, higher than the Indiana average of $180. Early Learning Indiana’s Closing the Gap report found that care for one child costs on average 14% of a Marion County family’s income, with costs increasing for families with multiple children.

Capacity is also a concern. Despite high demand, as prices rise and the number of vouchers decrease, preschools and early child learning centers may find themselves with empty seats, said Maureen Weber, Early Leaning Indiana’s president. This could lead to the closure of programs, plunging the state deeper into a childcare deficit.

But to Weber, early childhood education is one of the most crucial investments Indiana could make, especially to help “level the playing field” for children from low-income backgrounds in core academic subjects and other skills.

She cited statistics that show that early childhood education improves children’s academic performance once they enter the K-12 system. One recent study found that children who attended preschool were more likely to attend college.

“Roughly one-third of our third graders passed both the math and language arts components of the ILEARN assessment,” Weber said, referring to results from the state’s standardized test. “I just think if our state is serious about making sure we’re competitive in the long run, we have to think differently about how we invest in vulnerable young families.”

Samantha Camire is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Samantha at scamire@chalkbeat.org.

What the new state budget and property tax reform mean for Marion County schools

2025-06-17T18:13:44+00:00

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When he considers future budgets for Wayne Township schools, Superintendent Jeff Butts knows times are about to get tougher. But he’s also grateful for what didn’t happen.

“There’s always that mantra of it’s better than it could’ve been, not as bad as it initially was,” he said.

Marion County school districts will soon receive more money from the state but lose millions in local tax revenue, creating a funding gap that could affect operations and student services, including building maintenance and bus replacement.

With the threat of a recession looming, schools in Marion County only received modest increases from lawmakers this year to their two-year education budgets. And district leaders are still dissecting what sweeping property tax reform will mean in the near future.

At the same time, district leaders like Butts feel grateful to have avoided deeper cuts in a year when state budget forecasts drove big reductions in other areas.

The 11 traditional public school districts in Marion County are projected to see an increase of $75.1 million in state funding over the next two years, according to an analysis of Indiana House Republicans’ projections by WFYI, Chalkbeat Indiana, and Mirror Indy.

That amounts to about a 2% increase across the county each year — but that’s not distributed evenly. The districts’ increases range from 1.1% to 4.4% in the upcoming school year across Marion County. Seven districts are projected to receive less than the 2.4% year-over-year increase in the inflation rate.

Even as state funding ticks up, districts in Marion County are expected to lose a total of $40.4 million in local property tax revenue in 2026 and 2027 — a critical funding source for transportation, facilities, and utilities. Because Indiana law limits transfers between the education fund, which includes state dollars, and the operating fund, which includes property tax revenue, leaders say they’ll now have to make hard decisions about what types of building maintenance and repairs to take on — and when to do those projects.

The new fiscal environment has also left some district leaders feeling cautious about future spending on everything from employee raises to new construction projects.

Tax changes will cut local revenue for schools

Indiana’s traditional public schools are primarily funded in two ways: state support in the form of per-student funding, and local property taxes. Each type of funding is designated for specific needs — state dollars cover classroom instruction, while local taxes support operations like transportation and building maintenance.

The bulk of state funding comes through the tuition support formula, which allocates money based on student enrollment at each district. Districts receive a foundation grant per student, plus additional funds through complexity grants for students from low-income families. The state also provides targeted grants for special education, career and technical programs, and academic honors.

In the newly approved state budget for 2025-26 and 2026-27, total K-12 funding increased by 2% each year, but not all of that money goes to traditional public schools. Charter schools and the private school voucher program are also supported from the same funding pool.

Districts with large funding gains are the ones projected to enroll more students overall, or more students requiring additional services, like students with disabilities.

State student funding for Franklin Township is estimated to grow by nearly 8% over the next two years. During the same time, funds for the Non-English Speaking Program will increase by nearly 24%.

At Indianapolis Public Schools, the county’s largest district, the state’s per-student funding will grow by an average of about 2% each year.

In Warren Township, state funding is estimated to inch up by 3.2% through mid-2027. Superintendent Tim Hanson said the district’s enrollment has stayed flat for about five years and “in this environment, flat enrollment is not a good thing.” While he said he feels fortunate the district didn’t take deeper cuts, he said enrollment is going to be a big focus for the district going forward.

In addition to state funds, local property taxes paid by homeowners and businesses flow into the operations fund and debt service fund, which pay for buses, utilities, and school maintenance and construction.

But property tax relief pushed by Gov. Mike Braun and approved by lawmakers will reduce that revenue stream. The measure, known as Senate Enrolled Act 1, gives homeowners a credit on their homestead property tax bills, with additional credits for veterans, seniors with disabilities and others.

Lawrence Central High School students work on projects in class on Sept. 29, 2023, in Lawrence Township, Indiana.

As a result, Beech Grove City Schools are expected to lose 3.7% of local funds in 2026 and 5.4% in 2027 — the most of all Marion County districts.

Butts, the Wayne Township superintendent, said that while his district “will see modest increases in our property tax revenue, they’re not nearly where they would have been without the language of Senate Bill 1.”

Another change to school funding is coming in 2028. That’s when traditional public schools will be required to share property tax revenue with charter schools. The change is expected to direct about $4.7 million to charter schools across the state in the first year, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency.

Unlike traditional districts, most charter schools have not historically received local property tax funding. But a law passed two years ago requires districts in Marion County to share a small amount of property taxes with eligible charter schools.

The changes are expected to reduce all local school district funding by $408 million in Indiana over the next two calendar years, based on what schools would have received under the current law.

Marion County districts start planning for funding loss

Several district leaders said they and their staff are still working to understand what the funding changes mean for their districts. While some of them said it’s too early to know exactly how they’ll respond, they stressed their dedication to students and families.

“We will continue to strive to be a district of destination, welcoming all families who seek a high-quality public education for their child,” said Dana Altemeyer, spokesperson for Lawrence Township Schools.

Kirk Farmer, chief financial officer for MSD of Decatur Township schools, told the school board in May that school districts don’t know the effect of changes to property taxes because the new law affects each parcel of property differently.

“We have to realize it’s going to be a substantial change in the way that schools are funded and how funds flow to school districts,” Farmer said, noting that Decatur is in a “significantly strong” position to navigate the challenges.

Other school leaders gave a glimpse into the topics they are thinking about as they review the effect of these funding changes

In Wayne Township, Butts said the district has already slowed spending after COVID relief funds ended. And due to new tariff policies, he’s expecting school buses and building materials to increase in cost too.

Plus, Butts said the modest increases in tuition support will make teacher contract negotiations challenging this year.

“We definitely need to look at ways that we can increase compensation for our teachers as we look forward, but with 1.1% and 1.3% increases, that’s going to be pretty hard to do,” he said.

As Warren Township schools plan for the years ahead, Hanson, the superintendent, said he’s focused on three things: protecting student learning, preventing layoffs and operations that are safe and sustainable.

At the Warren school board meeting in April, the district’s chief financial officer Matt Parkinson said officials are preparing to evaluate how new restrictions on when schools can issue debt will affect future construction projects.

The district already shares more than $100,000 with charter schools under existing law, and expects that to grow as new property tax sharing phases in over time.

“This creates a new moment for us in terms of how we operate and some of the decisions that we’re going to have to make,” Parkinson said during the April meeting. “We’re in a strong place financially, but it’s going to be a new challenge.”

Lawmakers will begin to plan for the next two-year budget in the 2027 legislature.

Chalkbeat Indiana reporter Amelia Pak-Harvey and WFYI reporter Sydney Dauphinais contributed to this article.

Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Weddle is WFYI’s education team editor. Contact Eric at eweddle@wfyi.org or follow him on X at @ericweddle.

Revised property tax reform bill would limit proposed revenue sharing for Indiana charter schools

2025-04-07T21:38:42+00:00

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Republican lawmakers have advanced a revised version of a property tax reform bill that would reduce the number of property tax revenue sources that school districts would need to share with charters, as proposed in separate legislation.

In addition to tweaking property tax sharing language outlined in Senate Bill 518, the amendment to Senate Bill 1 would also lead to the annexation of the small, mostly virtual Union School Corporation by two neighboring districts.

The amended bill, which the House Ways and Means Committee advanced on Monday with a party-line vote without public testimony, tweaks a previous version of Senate Bill 1 that would have capped property tax growth over the next three years. Instead, the bill would now provide homeowners a credit to apply to property taxes: either 7.5% of their tax liability or $200, whichever is less.

It would also phase in an increase to the supplemental homestead property tax deduction, which would grow to two-thirds of a home’s assessed value in 2031.

The total financial impact that these changes will have on school districts is unclear. But Indianapolis Public Schools said on its website Sunday that it would lose as much as $96 million from 2026 to 2032. A fiscal note for the latest version of the bill was not publicly available as of early Monday afternoon.

Republicans at the hearing before the committee vote said that the move will save homeowners $1.1 billion in property taxes over the next three years, with 55% of homeowners paying less in 2026 than in 2025.

But Democrats decried the lack of information on the fiscal impact of the changes, noting that it will still ultimately burden local governments and school districts.

“We’re in a really big state of unknown right now,” said Rep. Tonya Pfaff, a Democrat. “There’s a lot going on in our United States of America and Indiana, and I think this is just such a big thing to undertake in the current circumstances.”

Districts to share operations fund taxes with charters

The amended version of Senate Bill 1 now would only require districts to share property tax revenue raised for operating expenses with charter schools, eliminating the need to share money districts raise to pay for debt for expenses such as buildings.

Charter schools would have to formally adopt a budget and submit budget information to their authorizers for review under the amended bill. The information would also be posted on the state’s online public information portal.

The bill still phases in the sharing of such operating revenue: Districts would provide 25% of the total amount for charter schools in 2028, growing to 50% in 2029 and 75% in 2030 before reaching the full 100% after that.

Districts would also have to share funds from operating referendums passed and collected starting in 2028. Meanwhile, charter schools that close must return any unexpended property tax revenues to the school district.

Bill would break up Union School Corporation

The amendment also dissolves Union School Corporation, a district in the eastern part of the state that enrolls just a few hundred brick-and-mortar students but thousands of students in its virtual schools. Lawmakers did not explain why they are seeking to break up the district at Monday’s committee meeting.

The district would dissolve on July 1, 2027. The section of the district located in Henry County would become part of the Blue River Valley Schools district, and the section in Randolph County would become part of the Monroe Central School Corporation.

Union School Corporation Superintendent Galen Mast told Chalkbeat he believes lawmakers singled out the district due to its virtual Indiana Digital Learning School, which is run by contract with the for-profit company Stride, Inc.

“We will be fighting this every step of the way,” he said. “If they can do this to Union, who’s next?”

Mast said he believes the change is the start of attempts to force consolidation on smaller schools across the state, and that breaking up Union would help the neighboring districts regain some of the property tax revenue they’d lose in this proposal.

The Union School Corporation would have to use existing assets to pay off any remaining debts. Any funds or assets that remain would then be transferred to Blue River Valley Schools and Monroe Central School Corporation.

Senate Bill 1 now moves to the Indiana House. The legislative session must conclude by April 29.

This story was updated to include comment from the Union School Corporation superintendent.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Internet connectivity funding for Indiana schools is in jeopardy. Here’s why.

2025-04-04T17:36:19+00:00

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Indiana schools could lose both state and federal funding they use to pay for internet connectivity, due to a proposed cut in the next Indiana state budget and an ongoing Supreme Court case.

The combined effect could wipe out around $40 million that supports installing and paying for the faster internet necessary to support growing classroom technology use, advocates say.

The loss of the funding could come at a time when Indiana schools are grappling with the end of federal pandemic funding, a smaller increase to state tuition support than in recent years, and possible property tax reform — all of which could leave them with fewer dollars for connectivity. Rural schools in particular could be affected, although the Indiana Department of Education’s annual tech plan survey shows that most of the state’s school districts still fall short of national recommendations for bandwidth capacity.

“Realistically, no district will forgo internet,” said Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director for advocacy and governance at AASA, the Schools Superintendents Association. “It’ll come down to how much flexibility, how much liquidity do they have in their budget, or far more likely, what gets cut to cover that new shortfall.”

The federal dollars come from a fund known as the Universal Service Fund (USF). USF includes programs to support low-income households and rural health care providers. But E-Rate funds specifically are used by school districts to support one-time and ongoing costs like fiber installation and internet service. Generally, priority Category 1 funds support installing internet that serves the school, while Category 2 funds may support routers, firewalls, and other configuration costs inside the school.

Indiana schools received around $37 million in 2024 in federal E-Rate funding for internet connectivity. But a case before the Supreme Court challenges the legality of how this money is raised. A lower court has ruled that the law that created the USF unconstitutionally delegated power to raise the funds to the Federal Communications Commission, which in turn delegated that power to a private entity.

While E-Rate allocations are based on need, internet connectivity ultimately serves every student at a school, Ellerson Ng added.

“Without hesitation, E-Rate is singlehandedly credited for supporting schools coming online,” she said.

In Indiana, a smaller state grant of around $3.4 million also provides matching funds to schools receiving the E-Rate funding. But that grant was cut under a budget proposed by Gov. Mike Braun and passed by the Indiana House in February.

It’s up to Senate lawmakers to restore it in their version of the budget, which hasn’t yet been released, but must pass the Senate Appropriations Committee by April 10.

The state education department did not reply to a request for comment about the potential loss of funding.

The potential loss of both the state and federal funds would hurt Indiana schools’ ability to educate students, said Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association, in testimony before lawmakers in March in support of the state grant.

“The state grant is quite important to help offset costs, provide matching funds, and support access to necessary bandwidth for effective classroom learning,” Spradlin told Chalkbeat via email. “Schools are utilizing the Internet more than ever, and they are leveraging the additional bandwidth to better support their teachers and students.”

Rural schools in particular have relied on the state and federal funds to improve slow and unreliable internet connections by laying fiber, Spradlin said. But all schools are experiencing more demand for faster internet to keep up with classroom technology use, which in turn means higher costs.

One of the state’s large suburban districts, Carmel schools, which received around $540,000 in federal funds and $93,000 in matching state dollars in 2024, said in a statement that these funds support “internet access, essential cybersecurity measures like our firewall, and maintaining both wireless and wired networks.”

“Losing this funding would present a significant challenge, as it currently covers 40% of these critical costs,” the Carmel district said. “Beyond our district, these changes threaten equitable access to high-quality internet and network infrastructure for millions of students across the U.S., widening the digital divide and impacting learning opportunities,”

The Supreme Court is expected to decide in FCC v. Consumers’ Research this summer.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana bet big on tutoring for academic recovery. Will lawmakers save the programs when federal funds expire?

2024-11-19T12:00:00+00:00

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Thousands of Indiana students. Hundreds of thousands of hours in reading and math tutoring. And millions of dollars in funding.

Those add up to tutoring and intervention programs that have helped Indiana students recover from COVID-related learning loss. Now the programs — funded by federal COVID relief money — could end if Indiana lawmakers don’t make room for them in the state budget.

With the expiration of the federal funds this year, the state has to decide if its programs are worth saving as non-state funded tutoring programs also struggle for funds.

It’s not yet clear how high of a priority the programs will be in a budget session where lawmakers are expected to debate pay raises for teachers, expansions of voucher programs, and funding for K-12 schools, along with non-education priorities.

The Indiana Department of Education has indicated it would evaluate the academic impact of tutoring programs such as summer labs and learning grants as it seeks state, philanthropic, and existing funds to sustain and expand the programs.

“We’re only going to ask the General Assembly to sustain what’s working,” said Secretary of Education Katie Jenner at Wednesday’s State Board of Education meeting.

Tutoring programs combat learning loss

Several programs aimed at helping students make up for learning loss are now shrinking or facing an uncertain future, including:

Circle City Readers served 500 students in Indianapolis, with reading tutors at 10 schools providing tutoring three to four times per week to a small group of students during intervention time. The program was paid for by federal COVID aid through the Indianapolis Office of Education Innovation; the city needs another source of funding to continue the program beyond this year.
Indianapolis Public Schools offered several tutoring programs funded by its federal ESSER dollars, including free, virtual after-school tutoring to all students who wanted it, as well as virtual tutoring during the school day at 24 school sites. The programs scaled back at the beginning of this school year.
Indiana Learns offers grants of up to $1,000 to students from low-income backgrounds who are not proficient in reading and math, allowing them to schedule and pay for tutoring through vetted organizations. Operated by The Mind Trust, the ESSER-funded program has seen 23,000 students participate. Families have until Dec. 20 to enroll in the program and schedule tutoring sessions through March 2025, the next state testing window.
Another ESSER-funded program started to combat learning loss after the pandemic, the Indy Summer Learning Labs, takes place at school and community sites during the summer. Its focus on summer acceleration in larger classroom settings differentiates it from tutoring programs, but will also require sustained funding from the state to continue operating and expanding.

While the funding for each varies, the latter two are state programs that could be funded in the upcoming budget.

Each of the programs has been linked to academic gains for the students who participated. Students participating in the Indy Summer Learning Labs, along with the program’s new sites outside Marion County, have seen double-digit growth in reading and math on assessments given as part of the labs.

Such a report is not yet available for Indiana Learns, according to the Mind Trust, which operates both the summer labs and the tutoring grant program.

In a presentation to the State Board of Education Wednesday, Mind Trust CEO Brandon Brown noted that preliminary data for the grants shows the greatest gains in math and for students who attend regularly, as well as Hispanic and English learner students.

“The students I spoke to, when it comes to tutoring, were as excited as they could be about getting that extra support,” Jenner said during the presentation.

In-school tutoring is most effective, researchers say

When considering which programs to fund, Indiana should consider what research says about high-impact tutoring programs, said Nancy Waymack, director of research partnerships and policy for Stanford University’s National Student Support Accelerator, which provides resources for districts implementing tutoring programs.

High-impact tutoring is delivered one-on-one or in small groups by consistent and well-trained tutors. It happens during the school day up to five days a week, integrated with classroom instruction.

Indiana Learns requires parents to apply for the grant and then schedule and bring their children to lessons. The grant expanded in 2023 to allow tutoring during certain blocks of the school day, such as lunchtime, but it’s not clear how widespread that option is.

Putting the onus on parents is not ideal, researchers said.

“There are the pressures of everyday life and if something is at the top of the list and not this, it may get bumped down,” Waymack said. “We found it to be more effective when it’s part of the educational program, so students who need it have it.”

After-school, summer, and other out-of-school programs don’t work as well as tutoring during the school day because students may not show up consistently, said Amanda Neitzel, director of research at ProvenTutoring from the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University.

Programs that require families to opt in also risk furthering inequity, because the families who sign up likely would have found tutoring anyway. And with a variety of providers, it’s not clear how much tutoring a $1,000 grant can buy, she said.

Going forward, Neitzel said states and school districts should strive to make tutoring part of the school day, integrated with a strong in-class curriculum.

Research is mixed on whether tutoring leads to sustained gains after the intervention has ended, but Netizel said there are other concerns with ending the programs after ESSER funding runs out.

“A lot of kids have not caught back up, and we have not addressed the other factors that led to kids not being proficient even before the pandemic,” Neitzel said. “You can’t tutor your way out of that.”

After ESSER, there are ways to sustain tutoring programs, Waymack said.

Some schools and districts are adding tutoring to their multi-tiered systems of support so intervention time can be used for tutoring, Waymack said. On a larger scale, states like Tennessee have added tutoring dollars to their student funding formula.

Without additional funding, Indiana expects to be able to operate both Indiana Learns and the Summer Learning Labs through next year.

Families can apply for Indiana Learns grants through Dec. 20, but must also schedule tutoring sessions through March by that deadline.

Regional organizations can apply to host a summer learning lab in 2025 by Nov. 22.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana’s revamped reading law could have big consequences for students from low-income families

2024-07-02T11:00:00+00:00

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To get students to attend summer school, the staff at Global Preparatory Academy in Indianapolis do whatever it takes: Flyers and messages, conferences, and even stopping parents to talk at pick-up and drop-off.

They strongly encourage some students to attend for “more at-bats,” or to practice key reading skills before taking the state’s third grade reading test, known as the IREAD. Others are there to prevent summer learning loss, said Assistant Principal Jessica Pumphrey.

Known as Summer Learning Labs, — a project of The Mind Trust and United Way of Central Indiana — similar sites around Marion County are open to all. But they were created for students in neighborhoods where families live above the federal poverty threshold — $31,200 in annual income for a household of four — but can’t afford all their household needs, like child care and rent.

As a new law goes into effect in Indiana that could lead to an increase in the number of students who are held back because they don’t pass the IREAD-3, it will likely have the greatest impact on students who come from low-income families.

This group made up nearly three-quarters of the over 13,000 students who didn’t pass the IREAD in 2023. They also made up roughly 300 of the 400 total students who were retained in third grade that year.

Research isn’t clear on how the tougher retention criteria will likely affect these students in the long run. But education advocates are optimistic that the other provisions of the law — like earlier identification, intervention, and summer school — will make a positive impact on their reading skills long before third grade.

Still, those efforts will take a significant investment in summer school and instruction that’s based on the science of reading.

Beginning next summer, the law mandates summer literacy instruction for students who are struggling in reading, but it won’t be clear how much funding will be available for these programs until lawmakers pass the next biennial budget in 2025. The current state budget for summer school doesn’t fully cover summer school costs.

At Global, the free program’s enrichment activities, field trips, and meals are key for families at a school where the majority of students receive subsidized meals.

And similar services may be critical for a growing number of children.

Around 16% of Indiana children live in poverty as of last year, said Tami Silverman, president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute. In 2022, 15% of Indiana children were in poverty.

Those children are “most likely to have issues with transportation, food, and shelter, they may have to move more frequently, which impacts academic success,” Silverman said. “In order to move the needle on retention, we need to talk about poverty and transportation and healthy foods and mental health care. It’s all intertwined.”

Retention may improve short-term academic performance

While retention has long been part of Indiana policy, it has dropped off in practice, with thousands of students “socially promoted” over the years. Now, students must pass the IREAD-3 to move on to fourth grade, unless they meet one of a handful of exemptions. The policy begins in 2025-26, based on 2024-25 IREAD results.

In 2023, 72% of the students who didn’t pass the IREAD and 74% of the students held back came from low income families.

A complex web of factors, rather than a single reason, connects poverty to lower academic performance, said University of New Hampshire professor NaYoung Hwang, who’s the coauthor of an Annenberg Institute at Brown University study on retention that used Indiana student data.

Oftentimes it’s educators who spot signs that economic factors are affecting a student’s academic performance, said Lillian Barkes, a former elementary teacher who’s now CEO of the Indianapolis-based tutoring organization Listen to Our Future.

“A student comes in upset, what do you do? Are you asking questions, or are you assuming a student is lacking the will?” Barkes said. “You start with Maslow’s hierarchy: Do you feel safe at home, do you feel safe coming into this room, did you sleep last night, did you eat this morning?”

Some research also suggests that students with highly educated parents are less likely to be held back because their parents are more likely to take advantage of exemptions to these policies. Effectively, this means that retention policies are “enforced differentially depending on children’s socioeconomic background,” according to that study.

But does retention work? Hwang said her study showed retention in third grade improved both math and reading scores for all students, including those who come from low-income backgrounds.

“In the short-term, there is a huge positive effect. It benefits basically everybody,” Hwang said.

However, few studies have followed students who were held back a grade through high school and graduation, Hwang said. One such study in Florida found that the positive effects on achievement fade out by high school, while others have noted a potential cost to students entering the workforce a year later.

Research has also found that holding kids back in later grades can lead to worse behavioral outcomes — including higher dropout and suspension rates — than holding kids back in third grade, Hwang said.

“Timing is very important,” she said.

Summer school reading programs start in 2025

Beginning next year under the new law, all Indiana schools, including private schools, must offer a summer school program based on the science of reading to all second and third graders who don’t demonstrate proficiency on the state reading test.

The programs, including the ones at private schools, are supposed to receive priority reimbursement from the State Board of Education. But it’s not clear how much funding will be available until the 2025-27 budget is passed next spring.

In 2023, 309 Indiana schools requested and received $18.3 million in reimbursements from the state’s summer school fund. That amount was 65% of schools’ $28 million in actual costs for summer school.

Meals and transportation are not eligible for reimbursement.

If lawmakers don’t appropriate enough money to cover these costs, schools would have to fund the rest through other means.

The Indy Summer Learning Labs began in the summer of 2021 as a collaboration between The Mind Trust and United Way of Central Indiana. They’re funded through federal pandemic relief money that’s expiring later this year. That means it’s critical for lawmakers next spring to appropriate money to keep the programs going after 2025, said Kateri Whitley, senior director of communications at The Mind Trust.

Most of the lab sites are free or low-cost for students, and the program this year is expanding beyond Marion County.

In 2023, around 89% of the 5,000 students who attended learning labs qualified for subsidized meals. This group improved by 24 percentage points in English scores, and by 23 percentage points in math, according to data from The Mind Trust from an assessment it gives students. A state education department analysis of ILEARN data from 2021 and 2022 about students in the labs also found gains.

At Global Preparatory Academy, some of the 115 students at the summer lab work on remediating literacy skills to prepare for and retake the IREAD, while others work on concepts to prepare for their next grade level.

“Students in poverty, students of color, might have less access to acceleration because their schools have fewer resources,” said Jazmin Sanders, manager of school support and incubation at The Mind Trust.

The cultural relevance of the work is also important. On a recent Tuesday, a classroom of rising third graders read “The Tales of Our Abuelitas” by Alma Flor Ada and Isabel Campoy, while rising fifth graders discussed the discrimination against Jackie Robinson, who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier.

“Literacy is easier when you make a connection,” said Pumphrey, the school’s assistant principal.

Identifying students and notifying parents about reading concerns

Other provisions of the law require schools to identify students at risk of not reading proficiently in earlier grades, and notify their parents of their assessment results and literacy skills. How that will be done is largely up to schools.

Silverman, of the Indiana Youth Institute, said the youth-serving organizations she works with routinely say engagement is one of the biggest hurdles to helping low-income families access resources.

While many schools offer these supports, it’s important for families to feel invited to access them via personal connections with teachers, counselors, and other school staff, Silverman said.

The same goes for the new programs that will address reading skills.

“If a young person’s reading levels are lagging, how are we adjusting outreach knowing that might be an issue within the home?” Silverman said. “If our hypothesis is that tutoring and summer school can help, how can we increase access? How can we increase comfort in using those services?

Freedom Readers, a program from the education nonprofit RISE Indy, takes steps to address those questions. It teaches Indianapolis parents to first request and interpret their child’s assessment results, and then take steps to practice reading skills at home.

The goal is to help parents understand their role in tackling the larger literacy crisis, said Jasmin Shaheed-Young, founder of RISE Indy, while at the same time making test results easier to understand for all families.

“We want to empower them with the information that could combat the challenges and disparities that we see,” said Shaheed-Young.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Election results show Indiana voters mostly supporting school funding referendums

2023-11-08T21:50:59+00:00

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Indiana voters across the state showed support for giving their school districts the green light to use millions of dollars in property tax revenue to hire and retain teachers and fund programs and transportation.

Unofficial election results on Wednesday showed voters largely in support of property tax referendums in seven of the 11 districts that placed one on the ballot. Fort Wayne schools, along with three school districts in Hamilton County, saw strong support for their referendums. Monroe County schools’ referendum led Wednesday by just 108 votes.

Meanwhile, three districts in Lake County, including the School City of Hammond, saw the opposite results from their voters. By Wednesday, Lake Station schools’ referendum was down by only 14 votes.

Property tax referendums have long been a cornerstone of school funding in the state, but local revenue is especially important now as the federal emergency funding that has supported schools throughout COVID begins to sunset. Due to a change in state law this year, certain districts like the School City of Hammond will also need to share any property tax revenue with charter schools.

Indiana allows districts to ask local residents for three kinds of referendums: construction referendums for renovation and building projects; operating referendums for staff, programs, and services; and safety referendums, the newest type of ballot measure that allows schools to make security improvements and hire school resource officers.

This year, 11 districts sought approval from voters for new referendums or renewals of previous referendums. Below are the unofficial results according to the Indiana Election Division website.

Operating referendums

Carmel-Clay Schools, Hamilton County

With 91% of precincts reporting, the vote is 67.8% yes and 32.3% no.

Rate: $0.19 per $100 of assessed property value for eight years (renewal)

Annual revenue: $24 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $23 million dedicated to retaining and attracting teachers and staff

Hamilton Southeastern Schools, Hamilton County

With 91% of precincts reporting, the vote is 70.1% yes and 29.9% no.

Rate: $0.1995 per $100 of assessed property value for eight years (renewal at a decreased rate)

Annual revenue: $24 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $9 million for attracting and retaining teachers and $5.9 million for maintaining class sizes

Lake Station Community School Corp., Lake County

With 91% of precincts reporting, the vote is 49.3% yes and 50.7% no.

Rate: $0.54 per $100 of assessed value for eight years (renewal)

Annual revenue: $1.3 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $466,000 for school bus transportation

Monroe County Community School Corp., Monroe County

With 91% of precincts reporting, the vote is 50.5% yes and 49.5% no.

Rate: $0.085 per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $8.5 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $6 million for funding low-cost preschool, $1.25 million for eliminating K-12 student fees

Northeast Dubois County School Corp., Dubois County

With 91% of precincts reporting, the vote is 60.6% yes and 39.4% no.

Rate: $0.18 per $100 of assessed value for eight years (renewal)

Annual revenue: $703,000

Highlights from the spending plan: $390,000 for academic programming

School City of Hammond, Lake County

With 91% of precincts reporting, the vote is 28.7% yes and 71.3% no.

Rate: $0.44 cents per $100 of assessed value for eight years (renewal)

Annual revenue: $14.6 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $4.8 million for school bus transportation

School City of Whiting, Lake County

With 91% of precincts reporting, the vote is 39.8% yes and 60.2% no.

Rate: $0.17 cents per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $1.1 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $418,000 staff recruitment

West Lafayette Community Schools, Tippecanoe County

With 91% of precincts reporting, the vote is 80.5% yes and 19.5% no.

Rate: $0.37 cents per $100 of assessed value for eight years (renewal)

Annual revenue: $7 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $4.4 million for teacher and staff compensation for managing class sizes

Sheridan Community School Corp., Boone & Hamilton Counties

With 91% of precincts reporting in Hamilton County, the vote is 81.8% yes and 18.2% no in Hamilton County.

With 91% of precincts reporting in Boone County, the vote is 77.5% yes and 22.5% no.

Rate: $0.25 cents per $100 of assessed value for eight years (renewal)

Annual revenue: $1.3 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $896,000 for retaining and attracting teachers and staff

Safety referendums

Bluffton Harrison MSD, Wells County

With 91% of precincts reporting, the vote is 42.2% yes and 57.8% no.

Rate: $0.075 cents per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $445,000

Highlights from the spending plan: $254,000 for additional school resource officers

Fort Wayne Community School Corporation, Allen County

With 91% of precincts reporting, the vote is 53.3% yes and 46.7% no.

Rate: $0.10 cents per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $12 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $4 million for student advocates

Construction referendums

School City of Hammond, Lake County

With 91% of precincts reporting, the vote is 23.7% yes and 76.3% no.

Rate: $0.4357 per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Revenue: $84 million over 25 years

Highlights from the spending plan: Renovations and additions at Hammond Central High School and Morton High School

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Charter school funding is on the ballot in northwest Indiana. Do voters know?

2023-11-03T16:04:16+00:00

This article was originally published by WFYI.

Residents in Hammond will vote next week on whether to continue a property tax increase to give more money to local schools.

But voters may not know a crucial detail. For the first time in the state, the district will be required to share the money with nearby charter schools. That’s because the question on the Tuesday ballot does not mention charter schools at all.

Charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently managed, don’t typically receive property tax revenue in Indiana.

A law approved earlier this year by the GOP-controlled General Assembly and Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb requires school districts in Lake and three other counties to share the money from voter-approved referendums with charter schools that chose to opt in.

Supporters for changing the law say all students attending public schools should benefit equally from local referendum funds — not just students at traditional school districts.

But citizen advocacy groups and local voters say lack of transparency on the ballot is concerning.

Julia Vaughn, head of the elections watchdog Common Cause Indiana, said the referendum question is missing critical information the public needs to know when casting a vote.

“This is a big change in state law,” Vaughn said. “I think voters might after the fact feel a bit hoodwinked if they come to understand that now there will be charter schools who are eligible and will be receiving this funding.

“I think the legislature missed the mark this year, by failing to require full and complete transparency with the school referendum.”

Referendum funds would be shared with charter schools

The School City of Hammond is the only district in the November election to qualify for the provision since it went into effect in May. Hammond has agreed to share revenue, as required by law, with 10 charter schools. The district is asking voters to extend a previously approved tax rate increase to generate $14.6 million in operational funds for each of the next eight years.

The public question that voters see on the ballot says the tax levy is for funding the “school corporation,” which will use it for costs including teachers, academic programs, and transportation at the Hammond school district. It does not mention charter schools.

The new law does not require the ballot question include an explanation that funds will be shared with charter schools, or the names of those charter schools, according to a recent Department of Local Government Finance memorandum. Rather, the law modified the required ballot language by striking the term “school corporation” as the unit that receives the tax revenue and replaced it with “schools.”

But the law does not modify the question for a referendum to extend an existing tax levy, according to the DLGF memo. The ballot question for Hammond still refers to the “school corporation” as receiving all the funds.

A DLGF spokesperson did not respond to questions about requirements of the law.

Kenneth Davidson, a Hammond resident and property owner opposed to the referendum, said he was “flabbergasted” when learning the ballot question lacked details about sharing revenue with charter schools that are outside city limits.

“I guess the theory is that the dollars follow the students,” Davidson said about the intent of the law. “But my general belief is that my property tax money supports my local community. And when you take that money outside the community, I think that’s a big step for people and especially when they don’t know about it.

“If it was clearly stated, and people knew about it and they still chose to do it, that’s fine.”

Splitting the money between district and charters

If the Hammond referendum passes, about $830,000 annually would be distributed between local charters, according to a district spending plan. Those 10 schools enroll students who live in Hammond. They chose to participate in the referendum and follow certain requirements, like agreeing to post a referendum disclosure statement on their websites.

Charter schools will receive money for each student they educate who lives in Hammond. Most of the participating schools will get less than $20,000 each year.

Hammond Academy of Science & Technology, however, would receive around $700,000 annually. The charter, which serves grades 6-12, enrolls more than 500 students who live in Hammond. School leader Deborah Snedden said the revenue injection would support a full-time social worker, support staff for academic intervention and possibly building improvements — to make more space and modernize high school course offerings.

But Snedden is cautious about what will happen even if the referendum is approved. Guidance on how the new law is supposed to work has been difficult to get.

“We’re on uncharted territory,” she said.

Hammon Schools Superintendent Scott Miller said the district did its best to follow the law and contact all charter schools that qualified to be part of the referendum. In June, the school board passed a resolution to seek the referendum and it included language that revenue would be shared with eligible charter schools.

“This is not just for the School City of Hammond, this is for all Hammond students. And it would help us have a better chance of winning, quite honestly,” Miller said in an interview with WFYI. “So that’s why we intentionally made the decision to revenue share and be fully transparent.”

But details on which charter schools would receive the funding are not easily available for voters. WFYI only received the list after requests to the state Department of Education and Hammond schools. The district website for the referendum does not mention the charter-sharing agreements.

Miller said the district did not add the names of charters to the ballot question because Hammond Academy of Science & Technology, the school that would receive the bulk of the revenue share, confirmed participation in the referendum after the language was submitted to the state.

“So for us, it was a timing thing,” Miller said. “Perhaps if we had more time to plan around that, you know, we could have done that better.”

The Indiana Charter School Network advocated for the passage of the charter-sharing law. Marcie Brown-Carter, executive director, said she was pleased to see the school district and charter schools collaborating. And she was not surprised a major change to how tax dollars are distributed is not perfect.

“It’s such a departure but it’s a great one,” Brown-Carter said of the law. “And I’m sure from what I understand that legislators will be willing to go back and fill in any gaps or any holes that make the law stronger, and better for everybody in this coming session.”

Republican Sen. Linda Rogers, who co-wrote Senate Enrolled Act 391 that changed the referendum law, declined to comment about transparency concerns. Rogers, through a spokesperson, cited ongoing litigation over the law.

The Indianapolis Public Schools Board is suing the state over another provision in the law that exempts school districts from selling closed buildings to charter organizations if they share referendum revenue with local charters.

The School City of Hammond is not the only district in Lake County with a referendum on the ballot this month. But Lake Station Community Schools and School City of Whiting are not required to share revenue with charter schools because their school boards approved resolutions to place a referendum on the ballot before the law went into effect on May 10.

Which charter schools would benefit?

Here are the eligible charter schools, excluding virtual charter schools and adult charter high schools, that would receive a share of School City of Hammond’s referendum funds, according to the Indiana Department of Education. The revenue share is based on the per-student enrollment of students who live in the boundary of Hammond schools. Enrollment is in parentheses.

21st Century Charter School of Gary (3)
Aspire Charter Academy (13)
Charter School of the Dunes (1)
East Chicago Urban Enterprise Academy (37)
East Chicago Lighthouse Charter (33)
Gary Lighthouse Charter School (4)
Gary Middle College (7)
Hammond Academy of Science and Technology (513)
Neighbors’ New Vistas High School (2)
Steel City Academy (1)

WFYI education reporter Dylan Peers McCoy contributed to this report.

Contact WFYI education editor Eric Weddle at eweddle@wfyi.org.

Students’ mental health needs are growing. Here’s how one district is asking taxpayers to help.

2023-10-17T11:00:00+00:00

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After nine guns were found at Fort Wayne schools during the 2022-23 school year, a group of community members approached district leadership with an urgent request: Make schools safer.

Together with the district, a new safety committee made up of law enforcement, mental health professionals, and teachers compiled a list of recommendations to do so. Campuses needed technology updates and more school resource officers. But the group also recommended hiring additional staff to support students’ well-being.

Now, they’re asking voters to support the efforts by approving a property tax increase earmarked for school safety in the November election. At a rate of $0.10 per $100 of assessed value, the safety referendum would generate up to $12 million annually for eight years toward mental health staff and school resource officers, security improvements, and a program that teaches students nonviolence.

If passed, the referendum would create dozens of new positions at Fort Wayne schools working in tandem to address two major safety concerns schools are facing nationwide: An increase in gun violence and the number of weapons found at schools, as well ongoing strains on students’ mental health as a result of the pandemic.

Indiana schools have long relied on property tax increases to fund operations and construction. But in 2019, lawmakers also made it possible for districts to improve safety and security using tax dollars.

Only two districts have asked voters to approve safety referendums since 2019, and just one — Carmel schools — has been successful. Schools generally asked voters for fewer tax increases in the immediate aftermath of COVID, but the number has slowly risen since.

A tax referendum was a logical avenue to secure the funding needed for the committee’s recommendations, said Matt Schiebel, the district’s executive director of safety and community partnerships.

“Technology and security measures are important, but the well-being of students is as much or even more important to improving safety,” Schiebel said.

Referendum funding focuses on mental health staff

Fort Wayne schools, along with Bluffton Harrison schools in Wells County, are seeking to pass safety referendums this year in Indiana.

Bluffton Harrison schools intends to spend just over half of its estimated $445,000 in annual revenue from its referendum on additional school resource officers, and another one-quarter on student mental health supports.

Fort Wayne plans to use two-thirds of its total proposed funding for student mental health supports, like therapists, third-party counseling services, and positions known as student advocates, according to its spending plan.

Another one-quarter of the funding is planned for technology, including over $1 million next year for a weapons detection system. And the remainder is earmarked for more security personnel, including 12 additional school resource officers.

The average Fort Wayne taxpayer would pay a maximum of $76 more annually, though the bill would be less next year as the district intends to use only around $7 million of the available funds, Schiebel said.

Schiebel said the district has already leveraged other funding sources for safety, like its facilities referendum for building improvements, emergency funding for student mental health positions, as well as $100,000 from the state-funded Indiana Secured School Safety grant for a school resource officer. It also partners with the Fort Wayne Police Department and the Allen County Sheriff’s Office to place school resource officers in its middle schools.

But a safety referendum would offer more.

“Safety has always been a priority and we have always used any means necessary to do all we can,” Schiebel said.

The largest proposed expenditure — over $4 million — would go to hiring student advocates, adults who monitor hallways, parking lots, and bathrooms. They also may be responsible for de-escalating situations, but not disciplining students.

Their most important task is building positive relationships with students by serving as another adult to turn to when conflict arises, Schiebel said.

The district has already piloted the role at South Side High School through the use of federal emergency funding, which is now coming to an end, Schiebel said. Through referendum funds, the district hopes to sustainably expand the program and place two student advocates in each of its high schools, as well as one in each elementary and middle school, or 56 total.

They would join other new staff, including 18 new mental health therapists slated to serve middle and high schools.

Data indicates that students need these mental health supports more than ever, with nearly half of all Indiana students reporting feeling persistently sad or hopeless in 2021.

“Being in-person gives students the opportunity to learn social skills, to cope with people with varying viewpoints,” Schiebel said. “Our kids were isolated for 18 months. When students came back, we had to re-learn those skills.”

Expanding a student-led nonviolence program

The advocates and therapists would also work alongside students through a program known as the Peacemaker Academy, which trains high schoolers in the principles of nonviolence espoused by Martin Luther King Jr.

The district hopes to use a share of the referendum funds to expand the program, which is operated by the faith-based nonprofit Alive Fort Wayne. The pilot program has focused on South Side High School students, but the additional funding would allow the nonprofit to place coordinators in each of the five schools as well as hire a director.

Angelo Mante, executive director of Alive Fort Wayne, said the goal of the program is to teach students King’s principles of nonviolence to help them identify and address issues at their schools.

One project involved students beautifying the campus to improve school culture. Another student initiative keeps a “Peace Count” — tallying the number of days that the school has gone without seeing a fight between students. For every 10 days without a fight, students earn an extra minute for their passing period between classes.

Mante said that the combined efforts at South Side High School — of the Peacemakers, student advocates, and other security measures — have already led to a 40% reduction in violent incidents compared to this time last year, as well as more collective awareness of violence.

Students have earned their extra passing period minute twice this year compared to just once by October of last year.

“It’s highly beneficial to have all of these pieces working together,” Mante said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Voter guide: These Indiana school districts are seeking tax increases in the November elections

2023-10-11T17:28:13+00:00

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This story has been updated with information about Sheridan schools’ referendum.

Smaller class sizes. School buses. Low-cost preschool.

These are some of the things that eleven Indiana districts are hoping to fund via property tax increases that voters will consider in the November election.

That includes three districts in Hamilton County, which has long been ranked as Indiana’s wealthiest county, as well as another three districts in Lake County — the second most populous county in the state behind Marion County.

Local tax increases are a mainstay of school funding in Indiana, and schools rely on them to pay teacher salaries and offer an array of programming and transportation services.

But they can be controversial. In 2021, legislators mandated changes to ballot language that emphasized the percentage by which school property taxes would increase from the base, not from what voters were currently paying. Some school leaders have said the change gives voters an exaggerated picture of how much their taxes will change.

Still, districts have not shied away from the funding measures: The number of Indiana school districts seeking tax increases has rebounded after dropping in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic.

This year, the funding requests come as schools face a fiscal cliff due to the upcoming end of emergency federal funding. And due to a new state law, school districts in Marion, St. Joseph, Vanderburg, and Lake counties will also have to proportionally share revenue from operating referendums with charter schools. That applies to three districts this year.

School districts can also seek construction referendums to pay for building and renovation projects, as well as safety referendums to pay for additional school resource officers, security improvements, and other staff.

The only construction referendum on the ballot this year is from the school city of Hammond, which is also seeking an operating referendum. The $84 million construction referendum is partially earmarked for renovating and expanding the district’s two high schools, according to the district’s ballot language.

Early voting is underway and the referendums need a simple majority to pass.

Here are the school districts seeking approval from voters in the November election for new tax increases or extensions of past rates.

Operating referendums

Carmel-Clay Schools, Hamilton County

Rate: $0.19 per $100 of assessed property value for eight years

Annual revenue: $24 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $23 million dedicated to retaining and attracting teachers and staff

Hamilton Southeastern Schools, Hamilton County

Rate: $0.1995 per $100 of assessed property value for eight years

Annual revenue: $24 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $9 million for attracting and retaining teachers and $5.9 million for maintaining class sizes

Lake Station Community School Corporation, Lake County

Rate: $0.54 per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $1.3 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $466,000 for school bus transportation

Monroe County Community School Corporation, Monroe County

Rate: $0.085 per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $8.5 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $6 million for funding low-cost preschool, $1.25 million for eliminating K-12 student fees

Northeast Dubois County School Corporation, Dubois County

Rate: $0.18 per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $703,000

Highlights from the spending plan: $390,000 for academic programming

School City of Hammond, Lake County

Rate: $0.44 cents per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $14.6 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $4.8 million for school bus transportation

School City of Whiting, Lake County

Rate: $0.17 cents per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $1.1 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $418,000 staff recruitment

West Lafayette Community Schools, Tippecanoe County

Rate: $0.37 cents per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $7 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $4.4 million for teacher and staff compensation for managing class sizes

Sheridan Community School Corporation, Boone & Hamilton Counties

Rate: $0.25 cents per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $1.3 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $896,000 for retaining and attracting teachers and staff

Safety referendums

Bluffton Harrison MSD, Wells County

Rate: $0.075 cents per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $445,000

Highlights from the spending plan: $254,000 for additional school resource officers

Fort Wayne Community School Corporation, Allen County

Rate: $0.10 cents per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Annual revenue: $12 million

Highlights from the spending plan: $4 million for student advocates

Construction referendums

School City of Hammond, Lake County

Rate: $0.4357 per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Revenue: $84 million over 25 years

Highlights from the spending plan: Renovations and additions at Hammond Central High School and Morton High School

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana families will no longer be charged textbooks fees. Here’s what to expect.

2023-07-05T11:00:00+00:00

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For years, a small district of 1,100 students just east of Indianapolis aimed to ditch the fees that had created barriers for students and burdens for their families.

But officials at Charles A. Beard Memorial schools knew if they took on the costs, they’d have to sustain them long term, said Superintendent Jediah Behny. So they started small — first eliminating entrance fees for students to school sports events — before eventually dropping the fees for textbooks and materials in 2020.

“We wanted to eliminate the likelihood that some kids were getting something that others weren’t,” Behny said.

Beginning this school year, after a law passed in the 2023 legislative session, all Indiana schools will be required to follow the district’s example and stop charging families for curricular materials, including textbooks, iPads, and Chromebooks.

The change, championed by Gov. Eric Holcomb, is meant to lighten the load on Hoosier families, who reported paying hundreds of dollars every year for their students’ course materials. Indiana had been among the last handful of states that still allowed schools to charge these fees.

The law provides $160 million for curricular materials, but a per-student amount has yet to be determined, Indiana Department of Education officials said. The department will calculate this number by dividing the total amount that all schools report for curriculum costs by how many students are enrolled at each public school, and how many qualify based on socioeconomic status at each private school.

Education advocates agree the change benefits families, but say the state must support schools with the financial burden.

With a new school year rapidly approaching, they say more guidance is needed on how much schools will receive to make purchasing decisions and also on what counts as curricular materials under the new law, which broadly includes books, computer software, digital content, and hardware that will be consumed by a student over the course of a year.

Only time will tell if the total allocation is sufficient, said Denny Costerison of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials. It’ll be up to the General Assembly to increase the funding if necessary, which likely won’t happen until the next biennial budget session in 2025.

Schools will receive funding as a lump sum in December, according to an FAQ issued by the department.

“Textbooks don’t get cheaper, they get more expensive,” said Terry Spradlin of the Indiana School Boards Association. He noted that when Indiana first considered dropping textbook fees in the 1990s, the cost estimate was around $100 million.

The state already covers the cost of textbooks for students who qualify for free and reduced priced meals at a cost of around $39 million per year.

For all students, a per-pupil figure of about $162 would likely cover most districts’ elementary and middle school costs, said Spradlin, but fall far short of the costs for high school courses. Spradlin said that example amount came from an IDOE memo, but the department didn’t confirm.

Any excess from the lower grades could be used to pay for secondary school courses, but schools may also need to turn to their education fund dollars to cover shortages, he said. Federal emergency dollars are also an option, albeit one that expires in September 2024.

It’s important to remember that general funds must also cover the bulk of schools’ operating and personnel costs, said Keith Gambill of the Indiana State Teachers Association.

“You need to be able to provide the funding they need to operate and make sure those programs are fully realized without jeopardizing important items, which includes salaries,” Gambill said. “That’s where things can get tricky, especially for schools on a leaner budget.”

According to the FAQ, curricular materials include materials in advanced placement, dual credit, and career technical education courses, but not dual enrollment courses. Schools are allowed to charge families for lost or damaged items, and can offer insurance for technology.

Some additional guidance might be needed for items like parking passes and student identification cards, said Spradlin, as well as for co-curricular programs. Performing arts, for example, can include a variety of costs for instruments and their upkeep, as well as attire and transportation to school events.

If the course is required, or if students receive a grade for it, then it’s likely considered a course that schools can’t charge for, said Costerison. The education department’s FAQ directs schools to consult with their legal counsel for further questions about what counts as curricular material.

Charles A. Beard Memorial schools will be able to offer fee-free music programs to students this year after building a stock of instruments over the last several years, said Behny, the superintendent.

He said the new law will provide the final nudge for the district to drop the last of its fees for its cooperative programs, but added that the new funding alone may not be enough for districts just starting to eliminate fees.

Covering textbook fees cost his district around $87,000 in the first year of the program. This year, they spent around $110,000 to cover fees for 1,100 students, money saved through attrition and watching supply costs.

“It was much easier to do than I thought it would be,” he said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Voters pass Indianapolis Public Schools, Speedway, and Warren school ballot measures

2023-05-03T02:30:52+00:00

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Voters on Tuesday night approved property tax increases or renewed existing referendum funds for Indianapolis Public Schools, the School Town of Speedway, and the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township.

Unofficial results for the IPS ballot question showed that roughly 59% of voters supported the $410 million measure, compared to 41% who opposed it. The largest of the three ballot measures, the IPS tax increase will fund upgrades to 23 school campuses.

Superintendent Aleesia Johnson thanked voters in a statement released shortly after the results.

“Their support of our capital referendum means IPS can Rebuild Stronger and immediately get to work on projects across more than 20 schools — from design to construction starting this year — so that every student who walks through our buildings feels valued and loved, knowing that something joyful and important happens inside those walls,” Johnson said.

Voters in the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township narrowly passed that district’s ballot measure with roughly 52% supporting it and 48% opposed, while the ballot measure from the School Town of Speedway succeeded handily, with roughly 79% in favor and 21% against.

Polls closed at 6 p.m. with a total of 78,237 voters casting ballots. That turnout represents a 45% increase over the last municipal primary election in 2019, according to the Marion County Election Board. The number of early voters also rose dramatically, increasing by 306% from the 2019 municipal primary.

Tuesday night’s election results are unofficial until the Marion County Election Board certifies them on May 15.

Johanna Dix, 29, casts her vote with her “almost” 2-year-old daughter on her lap at the Indianapolis City-County Building on May 2.

Indianapolis Public Schools ballot question focuses on buildings

IPS officials have stressed the need for building improvements, which vary by school and include new HVAC and plumbing systems, roof upgrades, new athletic fields, and classroom additions.

“We need to update those things so that students have a safe and welcoming place to spend their day,” Deputy Superintendent Andrew Strope previously told us.

Approval of the $410 million question will allow the school district to issue bonds that the district will pay back over 30 years, using revenue from increased taxes. IPS officials estimate that residents with a home valued at the median value of $138,500 will see an extra $3.18 per month on their property tax bill.

Roughly $66 million of the proposed $410 million will fund a two-story addition to Arlington Middle School as it transforms into a STEM school in 2024-25. The money will also establish science labs and a “makerspace” — a collaborative area for creative projects — and upgrade the school’s athletic fields.

At George Washington Carver School 87, funding will support a building addition, new art and music rooms, a larger parking area, and more green space for the play area.

David Spencer, chief operating officer for KIPP Indy Public Schools, stands in the gym of the elementary and middle school building, which will receive about $800,000 in upgrades after voters approved the $410 million ballot question for Indianapolis Public Schools on Tuesday, May 2.

And at KIPP Indy, one of the school district’s Innovation Network charter schools, funding will help fix the roof, upgrade the gym, and replace old flooring. KIPP officials estimate that replacing the floors will save roughly $30,000 annually in maintenance costs.

Warren Township proposal will fund COVID-era initiatives

Warren Township asked voters for an extra $88 million over eight years to cover the school district police department, 24 school counselors, and a few programs launched with the help of federal coronavirus relief funds that expire in 2024.

The ballot question will raise the property taxes that support the district’s operating expenses from 21 cents per $100 of assessed value to 30 cents.

Eastridge Elementary in Warren Township received a family engagement liaison with the help of federal coronavirus relief funding. On Tuesday, May 2, voters approved The Metropolitan School District of Warren Township’s ballot measure for a tax increase to continue funding that position and other initiatives supported by federal COVID relief funding.

The additional money will help the district pay bus drivers after the district increased the starting wage by $4 per hour last year. It will also help cover support staff pay, which the district boosted to $15 per hour using federal coronavirus relief.

“It’s just simply more expensive to run a school district in 2023 than it was in 2018,” when the last referendum was passed, Matthew Parkinson, the district’s chief financial officer, previously told us.

Speedway schools hope for third renewal of operating referendum

The School Town of Speedway sought a third renewal of its operating referendum, which Superintendent Kyle Trebley previously said will help pay for staff in the small district of roughly 1,850 students.

The approval of the ballot question maintains the current operating tax rate passed in 2016 of 59 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Warren Township district seeks tax increase to cover initiatives once federal COVID aid expires

2023-02-23T19:29:28+00:00

Tabitha Jackson couldn’t have arrived at Eastridge Elementary at a more crucial time.

The pandemic wreaked havoc on learning, and the return to in-person classes proved tough. Her position as a family engagement liaison, funded through federal coronavirus relief dollars, had one major goal: Get families back to school.

Since 2021, Jackson has helped parents find rental assistance, directed families to childcare providers, and visited the homes of students who are chronically absent. Today, Principal Tomeka Johnson doesn’t know how she ever ran the school without her. Attendance has ticked up from last year, she said, and the school has earned back trust from parents.

“She’s able to provide those resources and take some of that load off of parents,” Johnson said. “It really helps parents get kids to school.”

But the roughly $45 million that the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township received in federal coronavirus relief funds — money that supports jobs like Jackson’s — will run out relatively soon.

Now, the Warren Township district is asking voters for an $88 million property tax increase over eight years, in part to maintain the support it received from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding that the state says must be spent by the end of 2024.

The district is far from alone: From Michigan to New York City and beyond, the upcoming expiration of federal COVID aid is a challenge facing many school leaders. After districts accelerated their spending of that money last year, they must figure out whether — and how — to preserve jobs like Jackson’s after the money runs out.

The ballot question the Warren Township district will place before voters in May would replace the current 2018 referendum rate for operating expenses, increasing it from 21 cents per $100 of assessed property value to 30 cents.

Officials estimate the new tax rate would generate roughly $11 million annually over eight years. It would fund a few of the programs launched during the pandemic.

But the ballot question also seeks to continue funding positions currently covered by the 2018 tax increase (which is set to expire in 2026), including $1.6 million for a district police department and $2.1 million for 24 school counselors.

Even with property values on the rise, district leaders also say additional funding is needed to keep up with increasing costs of everything from diesel fuel to property insurance.

“It’s just simply more expensive to run a school district in 2023 than it was in 2018,” said Matthew Parkinson, the district’s chief financial officer.

Superintendent Tim Hanson stressed his district isn’t looking to pay for new programs, but simply maintain all of the district’s current efforts.

“And in order to do that, we need this referendum passed,” he said.

Referendum would continue ESSER-funded efforts

Warren Township’s pitch to voters covers a wide variety of efforts supported by federal pandemic dollars, from helping students get to school to competitive support staff pay.

In an attempt to battle a bus driver shortage that’s plagued many districts during COVID, for example, the district increased the starting salary for its bus drivers this fall by $4 an hour to roughly $22.50.

Keeping bus driver pay competitive is part of an estimated total $3 million in annual transportation costs to be covered by the referendum. Warren Township’s pay hike hasn’t entirely solved the problem: As of early February, Warren still had 20 vacancies out of 115 full-time positions.

Professional development, support staff compensation, and family engagement liaisons make up another annual $2.8 million that officials hope to keep in their annual budget.

The district used federal dollars to provide stipends for teachers to participate in training programs, including one on the science of reading.

And after completing a market analysis of hourly support staff pay, the district also used about $3.5 million in ESSER funds to increase compensation for its roughly 750 full-time support staff.

The analysis found that $15 per hour was the threshold for remaining competitive in hiring employees such as custodians, secretaries, and instructional assistants, Hanson said.

“We have provided an additional hourly stipend to meet or exceed that $15 threshold,” he said. “It’s our hope with the passing of the referendum that we would be able to maintain a competitive level.”

Another annual $1.5 million will cover the cost of technology such as iPads and Chromebooks.

While the district adopted 1-to-1 devices for every student before the pandemic, it also used ESSER relief funds to purchase devices, since some were lost by students when they were sent home over the pandemic, officials said.

The new referendum funding will cover the annual cost of recycling or replacing those devices, according to the district.

At Eastridge Elementary, where roughly 76% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, the pandemic has led some parents to declare bankruptcy. Others have lost jobs or been pushed to the brink of eviction.

Through it all, Jackson has tried to connect them to resources.

“This year, now that I’ve built those relationships, I’m really able to have those in-depth conversations about attendance and really hone in on: ‘Why are you not able to get your kid here? How can I help?’” she said. “That trust has been built.”

Pre-pandemic support for counselors pays dividends

The referendum will also continue services adopted before the pandemic that have since become even more vital.

Kristen Linenberg joined Warren Central High School as a counselor in 2018 with a caseload of 500 students — twice the size recommended by the American School Counselor Association.

That meant 500 seniors with a medley of academic and personal challenges that Linenberg tried to address as she worked to get them to graduate.

“We were very reactive, because that’s truly what we had time to do,’ she said. “And it was just, whatever happened that day, that’s kind of what you dealt with.”

Warren Central High School has a large population of over 3,400 students. The operating referendum on the May ballot will help continue funding for counselors at the school that began before the pandemic.

The initial funding from the 2018 referendum provided 12 counselors in middle schools and eight at the high school. The starting salary for those with a master’s degree is $48,000.

But after the pandemic, the district added four more counselors at the high school to relieve Linenberg and others. That move was made possible by increased property values that generated more referendum revenue than projected in 2018.

Now, Linenberg’s caseload has dropped to roughly 300 students, allowing her to spend more one-on-one time with students. That’s especially helpful as the need for counseling services has increased in COVID’s wake.

“Not every student needs crazy intensive therapy and counseling. Sometimes they just need a safe place to vent about a bad day,” she said. “And so us having more counselors and a smaller caseload allows us to have the time to do that.”

District officials are cautiously optimistic that voters will support the tax increase. In 2018, 65% of voters backed the new tax rate.

Johnson, Eastridge Elementary’s principal, didn’t realize how many needs her students had until she actually got the funding for staff such as liaisons and counselors. The upcoming referendum is not about money, she argued, but about need.

“This is our community and we have to invest in it because if we don’t, then who will?” she said. “Our role is to raise and grow children, and they need us.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Speedway schools seek renewal of 2016 operating referendum to pay for staff

2023-02-08T19:35:31+00:00

The School Town of Speedway is asking voters to renew an existing referendum for operating expenses that would help the small district continue funding its staff.

Speedway joins two other Marion County school districts in asking voters in May to approve more funding.

The referendum for operational expenses for Speedway, a district of roughly 1,850 students, would renew the previous operating referendum tax rate of 59 cents per $100 of assessed value, which voters passed in 2010 and again in 2016.

Superintendent Kyle Trebley said all of the funding will pay for the school district’s employees, including teachers, paraprofessionals, and custodians.

“This is a continuation of what we’ve always had,” Trebley said.

But changes to state law have altered the way the referendum language must be presented to voters. School districts must now state the percentage increase in property taxes that a proposed referendum would bring to the school district.

District leaders and experts worry that the language could be misinterpreted, leading voters to assume a much higher increase in their personal property taxes than actually proposed.

Although Speedway voters have approved the maximum rate of 59 cents in the past, the district has routinely issued a rate lower than that, at 53 cents in 2022, 50 cents in 2021, and roughly 51 cents in 2020.

“That’s one thing our constituents I think are proud about,” Trebley said.

That rate has generated roughly $4 million to $5 million annually since 2019, according to Department of Local Government and Finance records.

The School Town of Speedway, which has six schools and 126 full-time teachers, is different from most Marion County districts.

Speedway, which covers an area under five square miles, is small enough for all students to walk to school and does not use transportation. That means the district is able to avoid the rising costs of buses and fuel that plague larger districts.

The district also has the highest proficiency rates in Marion County for both English and math on the state ILEARN test, which is administered in grades 3-8.

And the school district has garnered more support for its previous ballot questions than Warren and IPS, both of which are also seeking referendum revenue from taxpayers in May. In Speedway, the referendum received roughly 86% approval from voters in 2010 and 90% in 2016.

“We believe that the community and the schools go hand in hand, so I’m hoping for a great turnout,” Trebley said.

In addition to Speedway, IPS and Warren Township schools are seeking a referendum in May.

IPS, which tabled its operating referendum amid significant pushback from the charter school and business community, still seeks a $410 million referendum for capital expenses.

Warren Township, meanwhile, hopes to increase its existing operating referendum tax rate from 21 cents per $100 of assessed value to 30 cents.

Two bills in the state legislature could change how much in referendum funds school districts collect.

One bill would require districts to share a portion of operating referendum revenue with charter schools — but it would only apply to ballot questions passed after June 2023.

Another would cap the amount of revenue a district could collect from a ballot measure for operating expenses in 2024 only, limiting revenue growth to no more than 5% from 2023.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

HIM By HER, previously denied a charter over financial concerns, later closed amid finance issues

2023-02-07T17:37:18+00:00

Natasha Leavell loved what the HIM By HER charter school offered her fifth-grade son: a focus on performing arts, Black culture, and a diverse staff.

She even started working there, where she enjoyed helping second graders. The school provided anything the children needed, she said.

So the school’s abrupt closure over winter break left Leavell and other families devastated. It was the latest upheaval for Martindale-Brightwood, a predominantly Black neighborhood that for generations has endured numerous school closings.

This time, families were sent scrambling by a charter school that initially failed to win permission to open, fell short of enrollment projections, cycled through multiple principals, and lacked timely financial oversight from its authorizer, Ball State University, according to documents from Ball State and minutes from the school’s board meetings.

With barely a month’s notice, more than 200 students plus the school’s staff members had to find new schools and jobs mid-school year. The closure has raised questions of charter school oversight.

“This whole HIM By HER closing epitomizes a major problem with the charter schools, and that is the accountability piece,” said Rev. David Greene, head of Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, which joined other groups last month in suggesting a moratorium on charter schools.

HIM by HER Collegiate School for the Arts operated for 2½ years under the auspices of Ball State University, launching against all odds during the pandemic.

Most charter schools in Marion County are approved by either the Indiana Charter School Board or the mayor’s office. State law also allows other entities, including universities, to authorize and oversee charter schools.

Proponents of charter schools say they offer parents public school options beyond those available at traditional neighborhood schools.

A denial by one authorizer doesn’t preclude an approval by another. Each authorizer has its own standards. That enables would-be school operators to go “authorizer shopping” — seeking approval from one entity if they are denied by another.

Indiana Charter School Board staff twice recommended that the board deny the HIM By HER Foundation a charter in 2018 and again in 2019, citing concerns about the school’s financial projections and educational model. The board voted to deny the school in the spring of 2019.

Founded by Harry and Michelle Dunn, the foundation is dedicated to helping underserved communities. HIM By HER stands for Help Improve Mankind By Healing Every Race.

After the rejection, the foundation approached Ball State, which approved the school proposal to open in 2020-21 on the site of the old IPS School 73.

But HIM by HER changed course and opened instead at a building more than four times the size on the former IPS Forest Manor Middle School campus. That involved leasing the site from a private Utah company that purchased the parcel from IPS in 2020.

The former Forest Manor Middle School at 4501 E. 32nd St. was more than four times the size of the initially proposed site of old School 73.

The cost of the lease is unclear, but it appears to be a factor in the school’s closure. In a December letter to parents, the board said that the school did not have enough students to support and maintain the building.

Charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated, get state payments based on the number of students they serve. HIM By HER was a small school operating on a large campus.

For a school to close midyear is rare, said Veronica Brooks-Uy, vice president of policy at the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, which sets forth best authorization practices. To guard against that happening, an authorizer should follow those measures, including monitoring a school’s finances at least quarterly, she said.

“Absent extraordinary circumstances, an authorizer’s review of applications and strong oversight should prevent that kind of thing from happening,” she said.

Ball State did not grant requests for an interview nor answer questions about its charter authorization process, but in a statement said it closely monitored the school’s enrollment. The university ensured the school returned state overpayments made during the first year due to shortfalls in enrollment, and knew the school negotiated a delay in paying its rent, the statement read.

“While we regret the disruption of a school closure, we are confident the leadership of HIM By HER is working tirelessly to support families and employees in this difficult transition, and continuing its commitment to the neighborhoods surrounding the school,” the statement said.

Board Chairman Harry Dunn did not respond to requests for comment. Of the other six board members, two responded to a reporter’s query but either declined to comment without board approval or referred requests to Dunn.

HIM By Her submitted various proposals

The HIM By HER Foundation recast its proposal, including leadership and grade configuration, with every application.

In its spring 2018 proposal to the Indiana Charter School Board, the foundation suggested opening at Broad Ripple High School to provide hands-on learning in a school that would grow to pre-K through 12th grades. It listed Keith White as principal.

Staff for the state board recommended denial, but the board instead postponed a decision until fall 2018. The foundation submitted an application for that review cycle, but later withdrew it.

Reapplying again in spring 2019, the foundation said it would gradually grow a K-8 school at the former IPS School 73 and listed Clete Ladd as principal. State board staff again recommended denial, citing financial concerns and a lack of research-based best educational practices. The board denied the application.

Later in 2019, the foundation sought authorization elsewhere, proposing a K-8 school focusing on marginalized families in the Martindale-Brightwood area and embracing nine cultural themes of African-American communities. Ball State approved the application.

“[HIM By Her] believes that populations in Indianapolis are effectively part of a school-to-prison pipeline, and there is a long-felt but unmet need for a school to interrupt the pipeline,” the foundation said in its proposal to Ball State.

The application touted support from “well-known celebrities,” such as former NFL and NBA players whom it said had pledged to help with recruitment.

In a statement, Ball State acknowledged that the school had previously been rejected for authorization.

“It is not unusual for applicants to not be approved for a charter, learn from that experience, and then refine their plans,” a university spokesperson said.

But Ladd said he resigned as principal before the school opened.

He worried about the board’s decision to move the school from the 47,000-square-foot School 73 to the 200,000-square-foot Forest Manor Middle School.

“The building was too big, the building needed too much repair,” Ladd said. In addition, he said, the school already had told the community it would open in School 73.

Pat Payne, director of the IPS racial equity office who was listed as a member of the proposal development team in the school’s 2018 application, said she requested her name be removed from all documents pertaining to the school when she found out the HIM By HER Foundation was launching a charter school.

“I’m not a charter proponent at all,” she said.

Growing financial concerns at school led to shutdown

After the charter school opened in 2020, it grew from 63 children in K-2 to 224 in K-6 this school year, according to state enrollment records — just below the 240 it projected by its third year.

Still, its financial status was not certain. Ball State apparently neglected to keep up on audits of the school.

The university was behind on two years’ worth of audits, the HIM By HER school board was told in a meeting shortly before the school announced its closure. The university did not respond to questions about the delay.

But it issued a statement indicating that low initial enrollment created an obstacle that doomed the school. The university said the school’s opening enrollment fell well below its projection and required the school to return to the state $139,054 in overpayments.

“Despite HIM By HER’s strong growth in enrollment over the next two years, the net effect of the low first-year enrollment was a significant financial deficit from which the school ultimately could not recover,” the university statement read.

By the time HIM By HER entered its third year, it faced multiple challenges.

Principal Tim Wright resigned in November, after serving only a few months. In December, Harry Dunn reported that six staff members had submitted their resignation, in part because the school would no longer offer health insurance in January, according to minutes from the school’s Dec. 9 board meeting.

The building’s owner also sought to triple the rent, Dunn reported.

Even so, maintenance remained a problem.

“There continue to be HVAC problems and issues in the building revealed that require considerable attention and expenditures,” minutes from the Dec. 9 school board meeting state.

The board decided on Dec. 16 to close the school in five weeks, on Jan. 20. It informed parents in a letter dated Dec. 27.

Critics call for charter school moratorium

All HIM By HER students have been placed in other schools, the school said in a press release on Jan. 20.

“While the School continues winding up activities, it wishes to express profound gratitude for all the families that supported HBHF, all the dedicated employees who helped make HBHCSA a unique school as part of a larger community development center, all the many strategic partners that helped HBHF to carry out its mission, and the public at large in supporting our efforts to begin to interrupt the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” the school said in the statement.

The closure of the fledgling charter school is nothing new to Martindale-Brightwood, a predominantly Black community where dozens of schools have closed across generations.

Schools 71 and 73 closed in 1981 as Black students were bused to township schools to comply with desegregation orders. Forest Manor Middle School closed in 2007. In 2012, the mayor’s office revoked the charter of the Project School after four years. Kindezi Academy, a charter operator that took over the underperforming Joyce Kilmer School 69, closed last year. And the Indianapolis Academy of Excellence lost its charter from the Indiana Charter School Board in 2019.

The latest closure has stirred up discontent with charter schools.

“Ball State didn’t track the finances, they’re behind two years — why is that?” said Greene of the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis. “That’s unacceptable.”

The history of charter school closures led Leavell to use a voucher to place her son at Turning Point, a private Christian school, rather than at a charter school. She didn’t want the same thing to happen to him again.

“It’s taken him a little bit to adjust to the work,” said Leavell, who has found a non-teaching job for herself.

She still feels a connection to her previous students and keeps in touch with some.

“One of them called me yesterday because she was having a breakdown at her new school,” she said. “I had to talk to her, calm her down, tell her it was OK.”

Despite the disruption, Leavell said she enjoyed her time at HIM By HER.

“I just wish HIM By HER could’ve stayed open because there was a lot of good things about the school,” she said. In the end, “the children, they were all sad.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana Department of Education wants to double funding for English learners in next state budget

2022-12-14T21:54:14+00:00

The Indiana Department of Education has offered an early look into its priorities for the upcoming legislative session, which include nearly doubling the funding for teaching English language learner students.

Secretary of Education Katie Jenner on Wednesday presented the department’s requests to the State Budget Agency, which makes a recommendation to the governor on the state’s biennial budget ahead of the start of the session in January.

The requests did not cover any changes to the K-12 funding formula — which Jenner said would be announced in tandem with Gov. Eric Holcomb — but instead focused on funding specific programs.

The department’s largest itemized ask is a $45 million increase in funding for English learners over the biennium, for a total budget request of $100 million.

The increase would nearly double the current budget of $55 million, which Jenner said is necessary not only due to the growth in the English learner population, but also due to evidence that the group’s test scores have continued to decline after COVID even as other student groups recover. Indiana’s English learner population has increased by 52% over the last five years.

A shortage of teachers for English learners, which school districts have attributed to funding gaps, and a decline in the number of interested candidates are among the issues.

Jenner said that in addition to the funding request, the department would seek to change the name of the fund from the “Non-English Speaking Program” to the “Indiana English Support Program.” The fund is allocated separately from the state’s K-12 funding formula.

Jenner said the department would work with Holcomb and state lawmakers to determine how to adjust the K-12 funding formula based on state revenue projections, set to be released this month. Lawmakers have said they expect to increase K-12 funding, as well as funding for school choice voucher programs.

“As soon as I lay my eyes on that report, I’m going to be as aggressive as you can imagine to get that money into education,” Jenner said.

The department is further asking for a $10 million increase for special education excess costs, which cover services for students with severe disabilities and are separate from the special education grants in the K-12 funding formula. The total budget request for this item is $58 million.

Several literacy initiatives are also part of the department’s ask. It seeks $20 million over the biennium to offer performance incentives to schools based on the number of students who pass the third grade reading test, called IREAD-3.

It’s also requesting a one-time $10 million allocation toward literacy efforts announced this summer, which the Lilly Endowment will match.

The 2023 session begins on Jan. 9.

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Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

3 takeaways from Indiana lawmakers’ hearing on funding for English learners, kids in poverty

2022-10-18T22:16:43+00:00

As Indiana lawmakers prepare for budget discussions in next year’s legislative session, school officials are pressing them to reconsider their approach to additional funding earmarked for students who live in poverty.

That funding, which schools receive in addition to base funding for all students, has not kept pace with schools’ actual costs, local district officials told members of a state legislative committee last week.

The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that programs for English learners and special education are underfunded, district leaders said, forcing schools to stretch dollars to serve more than just impoverished students, but students who need other additional services as well.

Rep. Greg Porter, an Indianapolis Democrat who brought the issue to the committee, said he hopes such concerns lead to a discussion about adequate and equitable funding during next year’s legislative session.

Here are three key points that the committee’s Oct. 12 hearing covered.

Base funding leaves big gaps

Indiana’s base funding for all students has increased from $4.75 billion in 2015 to $6.3 billion in 2023, the Indiana Urban Schools Association told lawmakers in a presentation.

Yet the association found that additional aid for students in poverty has decreased from $1.15 billion to $700 million in the same time period. (It wasn’t immediately clear if the figures had been adjusted for inflation.)

The result is that funding for schools with fewer students who live in poverty has increased faster than funding for schools with more students who live in poverty, the association said. The latter still receive more money per student on average due to the overall increases in basic funding.

Supplemental funding is meant to fund case managers, counselors, alternative programs, and classroom assistants.

Lawmakers also gave special education funding a $196 million boost in the 2021 budget. But schools sometimes still spend more on special education than they receive from the state’s special education grants to districts, advocates and district officials said.

This can leave schools to draw from their general fund — which includes the money they receive from the state for students who live in poverty — to cover special education expenditures.

Schools struggle with English learner services

Schools receive both federal funds and state funds specifically for educating English learners. But the federal money generally can’t cover teacher salaries, and schools may have to turn to the supplemental funding marked for students in poverty.

Meanwhile, the population of English learner students in Indiana has grown by 42% since 2017. That’s left districts unable to meet staffing recommendations set by the Indiana Department of Education, even as they try to spread dollars between different student groups. The department recommends one teacher for every 30 English learners.

For example, Fort Wayne Chief Financial Officer Kathy Friend said the district uses $4.5 million of its $30 million complexity grant to hire teachers to serve English learners.

The district also used $3.4 million of its federal emergency funds to bring student-to-teacher ratios down from 50-to-1 to 40-to-1, she said. (Indiana received roughly $3.1 billion in federal pandemic aid for state education agencies and school districts.)

But in spite of using other funding to hire those teachers, Fort Wayne would need around $2 million to add 30 more teachers and reach the state’s recommended ratio, Friend said.

“It’s a huge issue for us,” Friend said.

Bartholomew Community Schools spends $578,000 of its education fund on English learner teachers and has a ratio of 70 students per teacher, said Chad Phillips, the district’s assistant superintendent for financial services. He added that funding is not the only challenge in the face of statewide teacher shortages.

“If we posted 10 [English learner] positions today, we’d get one applicant,” he said.

To help address the issue, Phillips suggested integrating funding for English learner students into the base or supplemental funding, instead of keeping it as a separate grant that must be renewed.

Counting kids who qualify isn’t easy

Officials also expressed concern that students who receive special education or English learner services don’t necessarily count toward a school’s allocation of state aid for students with additional education needs.

That allocation is determined by the number of students at a school who are enrolled in food assistance programs, or who are in foster care. Families enroll in those programs through the Family and Social Services Administration, and the Indiana Department of Education matches the children to their schools to determine this funding.

Indiana and Illinois are the only states to rely on certification through benefit programs, according to the Indiana Urban Schools Association’s presentation.

Indiana switched to this system in 2015. Before that, the state relied on a school’s population of students who receive federally subsidized meals to determine the supplemental state aid — a common approach in other states. Since then, the number of students identified has dropped from 250,000 in 2015 to 187,000 in 2022, according to the state’s urban schools group.

The new system was meant to provide a more accurate count. But critics say it misses students, either because their families don’t enroll in assistance programs, or because the agencies’ systems don’t align.

In Fort Wayne, for example, around 67% of students qualified for subsidized meals, according to the district’s presentation, while 29% were identified under the method based on food assistance and foster care.

Rethinking the methodology for how students in poverty are identified is a priority, Porter said.

“Those numbers are not adequate and not accurate,” Porter said of the current system.

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Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

What to know before IPS unveils Rebuilding Stronger plan

2022-09-12T20:06:12+00:00

It’s a big week for Indianapolis Public Schools.

Superintendent Aleesia Johnson will deliver her annual State of the District speech Tuesday, unveiling the district’s long-awaited Rebuilding Stronger plan.

We’ll see the district’s answers to its most pressing problems: declining enrollment, competition with charter schools, and a lack of high-quality choice programs for students of color.

And at its most basic level, the plan will aim to stabilize declining enrollment by closing or consolidating schools while also expanding school choice. Enrollment zones could give school choice options to more students of color. Breaking up K-8 schools and creating standalone buildings might make better use of the district’s underutilized buildings.

You can watch the speech at 7 p.m. Tuesday at myips.org.

It could very well dictate the future of the entire district. To prepare, sign up for texting updates from Chalkbeat Indiana by texting “schools” to 317-932-3900. Also, sign up for our newsletter here.

And catch up by reading our previous coverage on what the plan could mean for students and families:

Indianapolis embarks on another middle school overhaul. Will this one work?: IPS has changed its middle school structure twice under the previous two superintendents. Is the third time a charm?
Parents criticize lack of information about IPS’ school consolidation plan: They asked for more details and worried the plan will bring more charter schools into the district.
As IPS considers closing schools, see what score your school building gets: Which school buildings close could depend on a facilities report showing each school’s usage and condition. Here’s the data.
In new school year, some Indianapolis charter schools grow: In turn, neighborhood, district-run schools are shrinking, and enrollment is a key component of Rebuilding Stronger.
Shuffling grades, closing school buildings: IPS proposes sweeping changes: District leaders outlined five potential solutions to the district’s financial challenges as it faces declining enrollment at neighborhood schools and unequal access to high-demand innovation programs.
Small IPS schools offer fewer extracurriculars. Is closing them the answer? The uneven distribution of extracurricular activities is especially acute for Black and Indigenous students, who have less access in middle school.
Enrollment losses in cities prompt talk of school closures: IPS isn’t the only district considering closing schools in response to declining enrollment and rising costs. School leaders across the country are grappling with this decision.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

MJ Slaby is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Here’s how IPS has spent its federal pandemic funding to date

2022-06-21T20:00:09+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools has spent around 10% of its federal COVID funding to date, directing most of the money to keeping schools open and staffed.

That figure is low compared to other districts in Indiana and across the country. But IPS officials say the state has approved its plans for another 40% of the funding, and that it has created an internal budget that accounts for the full allocation.

With $213.5 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief dollars — the most of all Indiana districts — IPS must be deliberate in its spending, said Sarah Chin, deputy chief of staff.

“A district that only received a couple million dollars might have honestly been able to spend all of it on immediate COVID response, like PPE, testing, and technology,” Chin said. “IPS has a much bigger responsibility and also much bigger opportunity to use these dollars to rapidly accelerate student achievement, which means launching an enormous set of new district initiatives and student programming in a very short time horizon.”

The lion’s share of the $21 million spent so far has gone toward what the district describes as “stabilizing schools.” That means avoiding staff cuts due to enrollment drops, and purchasing the personal protective equipment needed to keep doors open.

But with COVID protocols easing, and Indiana schools able to stay open consistently, a growing portion of the funds is going to tracking and improving academics. And district leaders also expect to direct some of the funding toward improving IPS’ physical and digital infrastructure.

“The amount of dollars we have available for things that advance student learning, that’s ultimately going to be contingent on how much it costs us to keep schools open and safe,” said Chin at a school board meeting in December.

There’s no typical way that the nation’s 14,000 school districts have chosen to spend their emergency funding so far, said Katie Silberstein, a research fellow at Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab.

Some have prioritized salaries or pay raises, while others have extended the school day, or year, she said.

Districts tend to spend the funding in the order that they received it. The latest and largest pot of money — ESSER III — is likely to be the funding source for capital improvements, but also requires districts to reserve some money to address learning loss, Silberstein said.

“A lot of things can be justified as academic interventions or investments,” Silberstein said. “The big question for us is: Are your investments working? And we’re having trouble finding that data.”

The percentage that IPS has spent so far is comparatively low, Silberstein said. Districts may be slow to spend their relief money due to being unfamiliar with having such a large amount of funding all at once, she said. Or they may face a slow start to capital projects, or roadblocks to hiring.

Chin said IPS has applied to the state and been approved for projects representing 40% of its ESSER allotment, but that officials don’t submit those applications until the district is ready to spend the money.

As a result, some future projects may be accounted for internally, but have yet to be submitted to the state, such as $4 million earmarked to match tutoring scholarships from the state, when those become available.

Furthermore, Chin said, many costs are long-term, or will grow with time, like the tutoring pilots launched at a limited number of schools this spring.

“This represents only a fraction of the total amount we will spend on tutoring as we prepare to scale and expand tutoring across the district over the next two years,” Chin said.

The district tracks its expenditures online. Here are the most notable categories of spending so far.

Keeping schools open and students in person

The district’s single greatest spending category has been $8.9 million on preventing layoffs due to enrollment declines that resulted in less state funding, according to a December ESSER presentation. This includes funding teachers in K-12 grades, as well as food service staff. Enrollment declines are a major source of concern for the district’s long-term outlook. Superintendent Aleesia Johnson has predicted the district will fall into the red by 2028 unless it makes changes.
Another $2.2 million has gone to COVID safety, including purchasing COVID tests and personal protective equipment.
After offering a $300 incentive to each staff member to get a COVID vaccine by September 2021, IPS spent $813,800 on the initiative and reported a 71% vaccination rate in November.
The district has spent $11,500 so far on its newest staff retention initiatives through a program known as “Proving What’s Possible.” These initiatives include three rounds of attendance bonuses, a telehealth counseling service, and a pilot program to allow teachers more flexibility in working from home. The first round of attendance bonuses will be doled out this fall.
Around $960,000 has been spent on increasing enrollment and attendance, including $132,000 on recruiting students, and $828,000 on community programs focused on keeping students engaged. The latter category includes the launch of City Connects, which places a coordinator at school sites to identify students’ out-of-school learning challenges, and AfterSchool HQ, which is meant to centralize the district’s after-school activity offerings on a single platform for parents.
IPS has spent $262,200 on technology measures, including relocating its data center and purchasing enhanced cybersecurity software.

Tracking and improving academics

The district has spent $2.6 million on purchasing new English/language arts and math curriculum materials, as well as $576,300 on curriculum-focused professional development for teachers.
Around $492,600 has gone to what the district describes as “turnaround strategies.” This category includes teacher coaching, such as CT3 coaching and University of Virginia’s Partnership for Leaders in Education in some high needs schools.
Almost $400,000 has gone to continue funding Future Centers at the four district high schools. These centers, started in 2018 via a $2.87 million grant from the Lilly Foundation, provide college and career counseling for high school seniors.
Around $6,200 so far has been spent on summer school.

Managing and distributing ESSER funds

The district is also responsible for sharing ESSER fund. It has sent $4.1 million to nonpublic schools, township schools, and innovation schools, as state policy requires. Another $248,900 has gone to administering ESSER grants and projects.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Eight Indiana districts seek referendums in May election with new ballot language

2022-04-19T21:30:44+00:00

Eight Indiana school districts will ask voters to approve property tax measures next month.

That includes two Indianapolis districts: Perry Township, which is seeking to renew a $154 million referendum, and Franklin Township, which is requesting $95 million to renovate its high school.

This will be the second election that school districts put referendums on the ballot using new state-mandated language that emphasizes the percentage by which school property taxes will increase — a change that education officials have criticized as misleading.

Despite this, some hope that the state’s low unemployment rate and growing home values will convince voters to open their pocketbooks.

“Now’s the time to do this,” said Fred McWhorter, chief operating officer at Franklin Township schools.

Early voting is underway ahead of the May 3 elections. All the referendums need a simple majority to pass.

Referendums after COVID

The number of referendums on the ballot has rebounded slightly after the COVID economic downturn, during which schools and voters were reluctant to increase taxes.

Indiana saw more referendums than ever in the spring of 2020, which were written before pandemic-related upheaval, said Larry DeBoer, a Purdue University professor emeritus who studies Indiana tax issues. In three elections during the pandemic, just seven referendums were proposed, and only four passed, he said.

Now, schools face an uncertain economy, DeBoer said, and ballot language that might cause sticker shock.

The tax rate change that school districts must post could lead voters to believe that their total tax bill would increase by the stated amount, DeBoer said, when it actually only the affects the portion of the bill that goes to schools.

Voters would have to know how much of their total tax bill goes to schools, then calculate the percentage change — perhaps in the voting booth, DeBoer said.

In Franklin Township, the ballot language highlights a 24.4% increase in property taxes earmarked for schools. But the average homeowner’s overall tax bill would increase just 10%, according to the district’s referendum calculator.

Referendum language is typically most important to voters who haven’t researched the issue beforehand, he said. Some voters may be put off by the length of the state-mandated language and choose to skip the question entirely.

“This is an experiment,” DeBoer said. “I’m all for informed voters. But what’s the best way to do that?”

Generally, May referendums pass at a higher rate than do November referendums, he said, and districts that previously have tried to pass a tax hike have better luck than those trying for the first time, DeBoer said.

In Indiana, unlike in some neighboring states, operational referendums have passed at a higher rate than have construction referendums, he said. The former can finance a district’s operating costs for eight years, while the latter are earmarked for a specific building project.

Marion County referendums on the ballot

Perry Township is seeking to renew its 2015 operating referendum to support 20% of its teaching force, as well as transportation for all students, and a science, technology and math program.

If passed, the referendum tax rate of 0.4212 per $100 of assessed value would remain the same. If the renewal fails, Perry property taxes would decrease.

A renewed referendum would last eight more years and generate over $19 million in revenue each year, Superintendent Pat Mapes said. The referendum would continue to pay for 193 teachers, 20 assistant principals, 17 tech positions, and 14 instructional assistants.

It would allow the district to continue to finance a popular STEM program for first through 12th grade students, Mapes said.

Should voters reject the referendum, Perry would need to cut art, music, STEM courses, transportation, and teachers. Class sizes would rise. More students would walk further to school.

“When you’re doing a renewal, you’ve already decided to support your schools,” Mapes said. “You know that strong schools equal a strong community.”

Six other school districts are asking local voters for operational support, including Edinburgh, Griffith, Lebanon, Mt. Vernon, and Valparaiso.

Lebanon is also asking for a construction referendum, along with Vigo and Franklin Township schools.

Franklin Township is seeking a construction referendum primarily to fund an expansion and repairs to its 50-year-old high school building, as well as make some smaller improvements to its elementary schools. The district’s last referendum — an operational question in 2011 — failed, which district officials attributed to the economic recession.

The district is the only one in Marion County to not have passed an operational or construction referendum before.

McWhorter, the chief operating officer, said enrollment has grown by 1,800 students in five years, and likely will increase more with new construction in the area.

The high school needs new plumbing and HVAC systems, and a new roof which alone is expected to cost around $7 million, he said.

Franklin Township has used about $3.8 million of its federal emergency funding and $2 million in other funds to upgrade ventilation in elementary schools, McWhorter said. The district opted not to use federal relief funds for the high school because the extensive repairs would take two years, beyond the time limit for using the relief funds. The district received about $11 million total in federal ESSER dollars.

The referendum would increase taxes by 0.2099 per $100 of assessed value and generate about $95 million. For a home with the Marion County median value of $185,700, the annual increase would be $185.67, according to the district’s calculator.

If the referendum fails, McWhorter said the district would not be able to repair and maintain facilities, which would continue to deteriorate.

“The growth is not going away, the aging facilities are not going away,” McWhorter said. “What we can promise is it’s not going to be any cheaper later.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana schools got $3B for COVID relief. Why don’t we know how they will spend it?

2021-12-07T19:26:39+00:00

Indiana schools are slated to get a surge of nearly $3 billion in federal coronavirus relief over the next three years. The money is meant to help them safely operate and make up for the instruction students missed out on. But months after the stimulus began flowing, public information on how local districts are spending it is inconsistent and often hard to find.

The unprecedented aid holds the promise of helping students by paying for crucial support like tutors, social workers, and longer school days. Schools can also use it to invest in areas that have long been underfunded — from repairing ventilation systems to updating class materials.

Yet advocates and policymakers say that without clear information from school districts, it is hard for the public to know if the money is benefiting students. It also hampers efforts to scrutinize spending for misuse.

“We have a tremendous upside opportunity to invest these funds and use them in wise ways,” said Indiana Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, who called on the state to do more to guide school districts in how they spend the aid and encourage them to share details of their spending.

“You have a responsibility to spend the money in a way that invests for the public — not to be frightened of it or not to hide it,” DeLaney said.

The temporary aid was included in three federal stimulus bills that Congress passed during the pandemic, and districts have until late 2024 to spend it. School systems with larger shares of children from low-income families received more money, and advocates say schools should focus their spending on helping students who were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

Local districts are responsible for deciding the best use for the money. And because the funding does not have many restrictions, schools can use it to respond to unexpected challenges, such as paying stipends to bus drivers to help get students to school amid a crippling labor shortage.

But a number of schools across the country have already faced scrutiny, for example, for spending the federal money on athletic facilities.

Federal requirements, local decisions

Experts and advocates are far more worried that schools will miss the opportunity to use the money in ways that benefit students than that people will commit fraud and abuse. In part, that’s because the state and federal government are overseeing spending.

Federal law requires school districts to submit spending plans to the state, and the Indiana Department of Education reviews those applications to ensure the plans comply with guidelines, according to IDOE spokesperson Holly Lawson. After school districts pay for purchases and services locally, they request reimbursement from the state.

Those plans contain details such as how much districts anticipate spending on replacing roofs or summer school. But the state has not publicly posted the applications it has received. Lawson said the department plans to launch a dashboard soon with some district-level information on the federal funding.

“We want to have this in the most user-friendly way possible so that someone can hop on and see the local spending from each [federal funding] round,” she said.

The education department is also supporting schools as they spend the money, Lawson said. For example, it offered districts the chance to join strategic planning groups led by experts. Out of more than 400 districts and charter schools in the state, 18 participated.

“IDOE provides guidance to schools, but the requirements are federally set and the spending priorities and decisions are locally driven,” Lawson said.

The federal government is also expected to collect information on how districts use the funding through an annual form, said Phillip Lovell, associate executive director of All4Ed, a national education advocacy group. But Lovell said communities should not have to wait for that data.

With the federal stimulus, education is getting a historic level of investment, Lovell said. The quality of public information on spending can either help build confidence in the system or erode that confidence.

“It’s really critical for us — for the public — to know how these dollars are being spent,” Lovell said. “As soon as schools and districts have accurate reportable information, they should be sharing that with the public.”

‘A real lack of transparency’

The most recent federal stimulus bill required school districts to post plans for how they will spend the aid. The information that school systems have shared, however, varies widely.

Anderson Community Schools, a district of about 6,500 students, posted a list of ideas for how it might spend some of the aid. It includes broad categories such as “summer programming, and/or after-school instruction,” and it doesn’t say how much the district would spend on any of the items.

The summary mentions the $27 million Anderson received from the most recent round of funding. But it doesn’t reference the money the district received earlier — roughly $15 million, including some aid it shared with private schools.

In an email, Anderson spokesperson Bradley Meadows said the plan posted on the district website did not include earlier funding because that was used for emergency costs, such as technology and protective equipment. It did not include details on how much the district might spend on priorities because the district is “committed to taking our time to ensure this funding is used most effectively.”

Anderson is one of a handful of Indiana districts where a flood of new money — including the federal aid and a state funding increase that is supposed to help boost educator pay — spurred tense negotiations with the teachers union.

Meadows said the district provided updates on the spending at school board meetings, and it would offer another in the near future. The district also surveyed parents and community members and met with the teachers union, Meadows said.

“Since part of the bargaining negotiations involved staff stipends using [federal] funds, we felt it necessary for that process to conclude prior to providing additional information and updates to the public about our use of [federal] funding,” Meadows said.

But Marisa Little, a vice president of the teachers union, said the district should have done more to publicize the money it is receiving. Even many staff members were unaware that Anderson was slated to receive about $41 million in federal stimulus until the union began bargaining a new contract this fall, she said.

“There’s been a real lack of transparency and a real lack of planning when spending the dollars,” Little said. “As soon as we knew we were getting it, everyone should have known. Our entire staff should have known — our entire community.”

It was an exceptional moment for Anderson because enrollment in the district is dwindling and in recent years, it has been too cash strapped to give significant raises, Little said.

“In my 20 years in Anderson Community Schools, it’s more money than I recall us ever having at one time,” Little said. “We really felt like, it’s now or never if we have any hope of getting a raise or getting an additional stipend.”

Tracking over $90 million in stimulus funds

Although Anderson teachers have reached an agreement with the district, some school systems are still bargaining weeks after the state imposed deadline. In South Bend Community Schools, which educates about 16,000 students, the district and teachers union are working with a state mediator.

South Bend schools CFO Kareemah Fowler said the ongoing union negotiations are one reason for the district to be open about the federal funding it received. The administration needs to be clear that the infusion of close to $93 million (some of which it shared with private schools) is short term. It would be unsustainable to use it to run schools, she said.

South Bend created an online tracker that shows how it plans to use most of the aid it received throughout the pandemic and how much of the money it has spent so far. At the start of the school year, the district also held a series of community meetings to tell people about how it had spent the money and learn what the public saw as needs, Fowler said.

“The funding is really a big shot in the arm for communities right now,” Fowler said. “I thought it was very important to kind of let the community know how we’re spending that money and that we’re taking the student learning loss — we are really taking that seriously.”

But publicity takes work. Even in South Bend, one of the largest school districts in the state, planning how to use the aid has been a challenge, and the district is hiring additional staff to oversee the federal money, Fowler said.

Engaging the community

Planning how to use the federal aid and publicizing that spending is an extra administrative burden for staff at a moment when districts are already overwhelmed. Schools are tackling those challenges at the same time they are attempting to operate during the pandemic and respond to unprecedented staffing shortages.

It takes even more commitment to go beyond publicizing information and get parents and community members to meaningfully engage in planning.

The grassroots organizing group Hoosier Action is familiar with this challenge — it led an effort to encourage residents to give input on how cities and counties use federal stimulus money, said Tracey Hutchings-Goetz, the communications director. Organizers found that many people were not used to thinking of public institutions as something they could influence.

“Time and time again, we would see a lack of imagination,” she said. “We would spend a lot of time working with people to be like, ‘No, you really, you can impact this. You get to decide.’”

The group uses tactics like text message campaigns and door-to-door canvassing to get people involved, she said.

“Robust public information is absolutely better than no or limited public information,” Hutchings-Goetz said. But, “it takes organized people to create change or impact policy.”

WFYI reporter Lee V. Gaines contributed to this story.

Contact WFYI education reporter Dylan Peers McCoy at dmccoy@wfyi.org. Follow on Twitter: @dylanpmccoy.

IPS erases $18 million deficit — but needs to keep cutting

2021-09-23T20:03:54+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools has eliminated an $18 million deficit that it had projected for this school year, Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said. While she doesn’t anticipate closing any schools by next fall, she warned the district must continue to cut costs to avoid falling into the red.

Johnson told reporters Thursday that the district trimmed and reorganized central offices and transportation to wipe out the current deficit — even though transportation cuts fell far short of what the district originally had anticipated.

“Our budget line is headed in the wrong direction,” Johnson said in her Wednesday State of the District speech delivered to a virtual audience. “If we change nothing, we’ll go into the red in 2028.”

She is planning six “dream and scheme” community meetings to hear what people want schools to be doing, and to inform the difficult work of trimming budgets. From Monday through Oct. 4, board members will convene six virtual and in-person meetings. Registration is online on the district website.

After gathering and synthesizing community ideas, the administration will present options and proposals to respond to those “dreams” and to cut budgets.

“Nothing is going to be off the table,” Johnson said. “We can do just about anything. We just can’t do everything.”

The magnitude of the required cuts will significantly affect district programs and people.

For months, officials have been privately discussing school closures. Four years ago, IPS cut down its high schools by half, to four campuses. It hasn’t reduced the number of elementary or middle schools, many of which operate below capacity.

Facing a fiscal crisis, IPS turned to the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce in 2018. The district won chamber backing by agreeing to scale down a tax measure that it was seeking, and to cut spending by $328 million and raise teacher and principal salaries by $230 million over eight years.

Voters passed the referendum, which is expected to generate $220 million for the eight-year duration of the tax.

The formal partnership, with the chamber helping set goals for cost-cutting and backing other initiatives such as outsourcing some busing, has just ended.

The district has fairly steadily cut utilities, custodial services, and transportation, but last school year missed its cutback target by $27 million, after exceeding it the first two years.

Last month, the budget cuts were on track to fall 20% short of the chamber-advised goal.

Although robust property values have bumped up expected tax revenues from the referendum by more than one-third, it’s not enough to offset the shortfall in savings.

In part, that’s because the district made investments that Johnson has called vital.

“We’ve built supports for high-need students, we’ve invested in high-quality curriculum, and we’ve given raises to staff, not just because they deserve it, but because we can’t function if we can’t compete for talent.”

With negotiations launching on a new teacher contract, so far raises are on track to amount to 30% less than outlined in the chamber pact. IPS teachers won a 9% raise in 2019 and a 5% raise last year.

Those raises came after Indiana teachers led nationwide protests two years ago for higher wages. The state had ranked last among states in teacher raises over a 15-year period.

The district, like every other one across the country, has reaped a windfall of federal pandemic relief aid. IPS schools will get $213 million in one-time funds. Johnson said the district is steering those funds toward tutoring and accelerating learning, providing students access to tech devices and the internet, improving building safety against the coronavirus, and providing more nurses.

Still, she said, the district faces unpalatable decisions. Elementary principals must choose among art, music, and physical education — they can’t offer all three. High schools can’t afford all the advanced courses students want. A facilities survey last year rated one-quarter of district buildings poor or unsatisfactory.

The constraints present a challenge that Johnson cast as an opportunity — “a chance not to fiddle around the edges, but to rebuild, to create the school system our children deserve … a plan that embodies excellence, justice, and sustainability.”

Indianapolis Public Schools will publicly post federal relief-fund spending

2021-06-23T22:45:27+00:00

So that the public can see how Indianapolis Public Schools is using federal coronavirus relief funds, district officials plan to post online a tracker detailing how they are spending $213.5 million federal funds.

“We know folks are paying close attention to how schools are leveraging these dollars,” Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said on Tuesday. “We want to make sure that we are being as transparent as possible.”

The tracker will categorize spending within each of the three federal aid packages. It will show how much the district has spent in categories like instructional support and personal protective equipment. The tracker, which will include charts, will not break down expenditures by school.

The district plans to update the data quarterly. Viewers will be able to see the tracker on the district website later this week.

IPS has only recently begun to spend its federal aid.

“We’re not three or four years down the road where we know what we’ve spent. We’re at the very beginning,” said Weston Young, the district’s chief financial officer. “So our decision-making process with community feedback, that’s critical.”

The federal government allocated IPS $17 million in the first round of coronavirus aid, $60.5 million in the second round last fall, and $136 million this spring for schools under the IPS’s direct management.

IPS’ innovation schools, which operate independently from the district, together will receive $78.1 million.

The district created the tracker after hearing from the public at town halls last week that people wanted to know more about what the district was purchasing with federal aid.

About 90 community members attended the in-person and virtual town halls June 14-17. They offered suggestions on how the district should spend the federal largesse.

Participants suggested, for example, that IPS provide more tutoring, tech support, and therapy. District officials said people also mentioned investing more in racial equity support, teacher training, language support for families, school libraries, and extended learning times.

Community members may offer ideas and feedback on how to use federal relief funds via an online form through June 30. Johnson said that the district will incorporate community ideas that they were already exploring into a strategic plan and look for ways to implement suggestions.

The district has to spend the dollars from each aid package by federal deadlines. It must spend the grant from the first relief package by 2022.

Tutoring, tech support, therapy: How parents want IPS to spend millions in COVID aid

2021-06-16T21:03:10+00:00

Last year, Ann Brown’s daughter struggled through seventh grade at Indianapolis Public Schools. Dealing with a health impairment, she had trouble adapting to virtual classes and keeping up with schoolwork.

“She’s lost a year in math, and it needs to be recovered,” Brown said.

On Tuesday, Brown attended an IPS town hall to tell leaders how she thinks they should spend the third round of federal COVID relief funding: Provide individualized before- and after-school tutoring to address last year’s gaps in instruction.

Brown is one of many parents and community members who IPS officials hope to hear from this week at virtual and in-person town halls and through an online form. The district was allocated almost $136 million in the latest round of federal aid for schools, and must take public comment before spending it.

IPS officials plan to look for trends from this week’s feedback. The school board will discuss how to use the relief funds at meetings next week. IPS must submit an application to the state outlining its spending plan by June 25.

Fewer than 10 parents and teachers attended Tuesday evening’s town hall at Arlington Middle School, but they generated dozens of ideas.

Attendees pushed for accelerating learning and supporting mental health. Some, including Brown, emphasized the need for tutoring services, and others suggested hiring instructional assistants to provide more one-on-one help in each classroom. Almost universally, participants asked for more funding to support mental health.

“These kids need mental health services,” Brown said. “My daughter had to start therapy.”

Jasmine Burditt, senior director of policy and partnerships at local education advocacy group RISE Indy, agreed.

“I think mental health is really important for students right now, especially after COVID,” Burditt said.

Jasmine Burditt, right, of RISE Indy, an Indianapolis education advocacy group, participates in brainstorming how Indianapolis Public Schools should spend the latest round of federal stimulus funding. Burditt said investing in students now will help them in the future.

After a year of technical difficulties, many people wanted more instruction on how to use the Chromebooks IPS purchased early in the pandemic. Attendees suggested training for parents on how to use the devices and to navigate the software so they could help kids troubleshoot. They also wanted more charging stations in classrooms and extra devices in case a student forgets theirs at home.

Some suggested mentorship programs for students transitioning into new schools. Attendees worried about students who started middle or high school virtually and didn’t have a chance to adapt to the new environment last year.

Many also mentioned relief for overworked teachers. Some suggested the district purchase school supplies that teachers typically buy out of pocket, and that it provide free therapy. Unlike many other districts, IPS didn’t provide teachers bonuses last year — and attendees wanted the district to tap into federal aid to boost teacher pay.

Some suggested awarding bonuses to students for high attendance and to parents who took on teaching responsibilities last school year.

Overall, IPS has received nearly $213 million in federal relief funding for K-12 schools, which comes out to almost $9,300 per student. As a comparison, that’s more than what IPS expects to receive per student in state funding next school year.

But the money comes with a catch: The district must spend each grant by a deadline, so the infusions can’t fix long-term financial problems. IPS must use its most recent award of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds by Sept. 30, 2024.

“ESSER is not the solution to our long-term financial sustainability,” said Weston Young, the district’s chief financial officer.

With this in mind, Young encouraged attendees to brainstorm short-term purchases with long-term impact. He suggested options like providing virtual therapy services to students or purchasing reusable classroom supplies.

Superintendent Aleesia Johnson of Indianapolis Public Schools speaks at a Tuesday town hall in the Arlington Middle School cafeteria. Johnson spoke about the latest round of federal COVID relief, which IPS has three years to spend.

IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said a portion of the funding will probably go toward purchasing new curriculum and updating buildings to improve air ventilation. The federal government requires that at least 20% of the latest round of aid address learning loss. Johnson said IPS might exceed that proportion.

While she wants to avoid hiring too many people knowing the funding will run out in three years, Johnson said the importance of accelerating learning now could mean IPS will invest in temporary hires or programs.

“We’re trying to think about this in terms of what we do now to improve in the future,” Johnson said.

Registration is still open for the last town hall, planned for 6 p.m. Thursday at George Washington High School.

Push for $40,000 minimum teacher salary in Indiana puts pressure on rural districts

2021-05-26T17:48:09+00:00

After wrapping up the school year last week, kindergarten teacher Nicole Damm was right back in the classroom Monday planning summer school lessons.

She’s working this summer to help her students — but also for the extra cash. As a first-year teacher at Southern Spencer Schools, Damm made $38,000, leaving her driving a 2002 Pontiac Firebird with a leaky roof for most of the year, and unsure when she’ll be able to redo the temporary plywood floors in her fixer-upper house.

Even though she thinks teachers are underpaid, the low salary is worth it to her because this was her dream: to work in the district where she went to school and where her mom still teaches.

“I want to be the reason why kids want to come to school every day,” Damm said.

To improve pay for new teachers like Damm, Indiana lawmakers are requiring schools to try to raise minimum salaries to $40,000 by 2022-23. But that’s a particularly tough ask for rural districts, where first-year teaching salaries average just $38,343.

“We want to pay people — I mean, a happy staff is a productive staff,” said Superintendent Donnie Bowsman of Randolph Southern School Corporation, where the starting salary is $34,500. “$40,000 is great — as long as you have the money to do it.”

Out of 206 rural districts in the state, 181 had minimum salaries below $40,000 last year, with some as low as $32,000, according to data compiled by the IndyStar.

The call to boost minimum teaching salaries to $40,000 was part of a budget deal: State lawmakers will increase K-12 education funding by more than 9% in two years, but they want to see those extra dollars go toward teacher pay.

There’s no legal punishment for not meeting the $40,000 goal — district leaders can just submit a letter to the state with details of funding challenges.

A 2020 state report on teacher compensation had suggested both the minimum salary and the increased funding, among its 37 recommendations. Indiana’s teacher salaries have grown at the slowest rate in the nation since 2000, the report said, leading to problems attracting new teachers and retaining experienced ones.

But several rural district leaders and educators say the $40,000 goal isn’t a quick fix for the teacher shortage.

Bowsman doesn’t think he can reach the goal in two years.

It’s more complicated than just raising salaries for first-year teachers, given that the eastern Indiana district also has 19 teachers making less than $40,000, even after four or five years at Randolph Southern.

“If I go in and I pay a first-year teacher $40,000, what do you think my other folks are going to do? We’re going to have to raise them up, too,” Bowsman said.

But the shrinking district faces a tight budget. With an enrollment of 463 students this year, a loss of just a few can result in a significant drop in state funding, which is doled out based on enrollment.

From 2017-18 to 2018-19, for example, Randolph Southern’s enrollment fell by 27 students. Its state funding dropped by almost $148,000 — but the number of teachers on payroll remained the same, since it’s difficult to cut a teacher when only a few students leave in each grade.

“It’s extremely challenging for all schools, but it is very challenging at a smaller school corporation when you lose kids,” said Bowsman, who also serves as president of the Indiana Small and Rural Schools Association. “It has a big impact on us.”

Randolph Southern has trouble competing with larger neighboring districts and virtual school options. Populations of rural Indiana counties have also declined in recent years as people seek out better economic opportunities in more urban areas, causing students to move away.

Like many other rural school corporations, Bowsman has taken cost-savings steps like joining a special education cooperative, sharing teachers with other districts, and outsourcing specialty classes like welding. He sees little opportunity to raise local property tax revenues through a referendum, which can be a harder sell in rural areas than urban or suburban ones.

Rather than providing an influx of cash to make raises possible, as state legislators anticipated, Bowsman said the upcoming budget will provide just enough for Randolph Southern to “stay above water.”

At Frontier Schools, Superintendent Dan Sichting said a $40,000 starting salary may not be enough to attract teachers to his 636-student district north of West Lafayette.

It’s difficult to attract new teachers to a small district surrounded by farmland when pay is higher and life more exciting in Indianapolis, he said.

“In 2006, when we had an elementary opening, I might have 30 candidates that were applying for one elementary teaching job,” Sichting said. Today, he said he would be lucky to get three.

Some teachers are concerned the state’s focus on raising the minimum salary will incentivize districts to focus new funds on first-year recruits rather than existing staff, who rarely get significant raises.

In 2011, Monica Myers started her teaching career earning $30,000 a year in a rural district. A decade later, even after switching to an administrative role in 2018, she still makes just $42,900.

Myers, now a Blackford County Schools instructional coach who plans curriculum, attends conferences, gives feedback to teachers, and more, said she’s angry that her school might offer inexperienced new hires a $40,000 paycheck while she makes just $2,900 more than that.

“I can go be a manager at Mike’s Carwash and make more money than I am now,” Myers said. “I can’t believe that teachers, who are the core root of everything, at least in my world, are making less than a McDonald’s worker or a car wash person.”

Families raise safety concerns over busing cuts for 2,600 Indianapolis Public Schools students

2021-04-13T22:51:02+00:00

In response to a proposal to cut bus service for 2,600 students, community members at a virtual town hall peppered Indianapolis Public Schools district and transportation officials with questions about a lack of lighting, sidewalks, supervision, and protection from the weather.

In the first of three town halls on transportation, IPS and IndyGo officials on Monday responded verbally to written questions submitted in a chat box or on a district feedback form. Parents and others logging in were provided no way at the event to speak to the officials.

The district has proposed to scale back transportation to cut up to $7 million from its budget and to bring its practices more in line with those of other similar districts.

IPS plans to eliminate busing for more than 600 students who can ride city buses with less than 50 minutes total journey time, total walk less than 0.7 miles, and no transfers. IPS also will enforce “walk zones” for 2,000 elementary students living less than 1 mile, middle schoolers living less than 1.25 miles, and high schoolers living less than 1.5 miles of school.

But people worry about sending children on foot and by city bus to school.

Some pointed out the lack of sidewalks in neighborhoods, exposing children to speeding traffic.

“I live where there are no sidewalks to get to the IndyGo bus stops,” one participant noted on Monday.

Zach Mulholland, the district’s executive director of operations, responded that in cutting bus routes, the transportation team considered the availability of safe walking routes to schools. He said that unfortunately, Indianapolis has more miles of roads than miles of sidewalks.

“There may not be a sidewalk to support every single walk route,” Mulholland said. “What we look at is if there is a pedestrian-supported safe route to school for a student based in that walk boundary.”

District officials said they also looked at hazards like busy roads and freeways.

Mulholland said that many of the concerns that people brought up about walking to IndyGo stops also apply to school bus service.

IndyGo trains its bus drivers to call the dispatch center to ask for city police in case of problems, said Mark Emmons, IndyGo’s director of safety, security, and training.

Parents also object to sending elementary children on foot. Alicia Rodriguez said her family lives more than a mile from Lew Wallace Elementary School 107, but the district has determined her 9-year-old son should walk next school year.

Rodriguez said her son would have to walk 25 minutes, along a section without sidewalks and past a gas station that has been the scene of robberies, police activity, and traffic accidents.

Rodriguez, who said she could not attend Monday’s town hall, said she has not heard back from the district about her concerns.

Mulholland said parents may request an exemption to the loss of bus service. The district also will help organize student walking groups.

He also said parents with concerns may contact their school leader, school board member, or a family and community engagement liaison.

The district has been forced to consider steep cuts, including reducing transportation and potentially closing schools, after years of shrinking enrollment and as lawmakers have shifted school funding formulas in favor of more affluent districts.

The district plans to hold virtual town halls about walk zones at 6 p.m. on Wednesday and about IndyGo at 6 p.m. on Thursday. Click here to register. The board is scheduled to vote on the proposal April 29.

New Indiana budget proposal scales back private school voucher expansion

2021-04-08T14:48:13+00:00

After a chorus of opposition from public school districts and advocates, Indiana Senate Republicans significantly scaled back an expansion of the state’s private school voucher program under their budget proposal Thursday.

The Senate plan would not extend private school vouchers to as many middle-class families as suggested in the House budget proposal and other legislation discussed this session. It also would dramatically curtail a proposal for education savings accounts, which would give stipends to parents of children with special needs who do not attend public schools.

The Senate would nonetheless make the state voucher program, which currently serves more than 36,000 students, more generous than it is currently. Students from a family of four earning nearly $110,000 per year could be eligible for vouchers under the Senate plan. It would raise the eligibility for new students to 200% of the subsidized meal income qualifications and 225% for returning students and those receiving special education, instead of the House’s proposed cap of 300%.

All students who receive vouchers would be eligible for up to 90% of the amount the state would have given to the local public school, an increase for middle-class families.

Indiana’s decade-old voucher program is already one of the broadest in the nation, available to low- and middle-income families as an alternative to public schools.

The state would spend about $40 million less per year on private school vouchers under the Senate plan than the House proposal, according to projections. The voucher program is expected to cost the state about $174 million this year.

Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray said the budget reduces funding for vouchers in part because his caucus believed “philosophically” it should be lower and in part because it is more fiscally prudent.

The proposal is the latest step in developing the state’s next two-year budget. The final spending plan will be negotiated by House and Senate leaders before the session is expected to end April 21.

House leaders plan to push for higher spending on state funding for private education. Speaker Todd Huston said that the House majority, which made expanding vouchers a legislative priority, would help senators “see the light.”

“We’ll be strong on the things that matter to our caucus,” Huston said. “I would expect that we will be negotiating very aggressively around those provisions.”

The Senate proposed budget would also pull back on plans to create a new education savings account program by capping the price tag at $3 million, about $16 million less than the House budget projection. The Senate budget requires families to meet the same income eligibility requirements as the state voucher program, and stipends would only include special education grants that students would have received.

Betsy Wiley, who leads the pro-voucher Institute for Quality Education, called the Senate proposal “disappointing.” Reduced funding for education savings accounts, in particular, would make the new program largely useless for most eligible families, she said.

“I would not consider it a victory if the Senate budget were the final budget. I would consider it a very small positive step,” Wiley said.

Advocates for traditional public schools remained critical of the increased spending on school choice.

Joel Hand, general counsel and lobbyist for the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, said his organization is “very disappointed” that the budget still includes an expansion of vouchers and the creation of education savings accounts.

The Senate plan, however, is “definitely a move in the right direction,” Hand said.

The budget proposal, presented Thursday to the Senate Appropriations Committee, also offered a slightly larger increase in state funding for K-12 education than the House: $408 million over the next two years.

Most of that increase would come in the second year of the budget, with funding going up by $92 million, or 1.2%, in 2022 and $316 million, or 4.2%, in 2023.

The draft budget would also benefit many school districts by increasing the aid for educating students from low-income families, students who are learning English, and students who receive special education services.

The final plan will be shaped in part by the revenue forecast expected next week, which will give lawmakers more information on how much money they have to spend.

Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association, lauded the budget as “enormously helpful to public education.”

“The proposed spending plan does a good job of providing increases for all schools while making strategic investments in areas of high need, including special education and English language learners,” Spradlin said in a statement.

Other areas of the proposed Senate budget included:

The proposed budget offers a new way of deciding how much extra money school districts get to educate students in poverty. It would peg the amount of “complexity” aid that districts receive at 66% of the basic per-student funding the state provides. As a result, poverty aid would increase at the same rate as overall funding for schools, a notable change in a state where funding for schools serving low-income students has stagnated.
The budget would increase funding for special education by $196 million over two years. Unlike the House budget, the Senate would increase per-student aid for children with moderate and severe special education needs by 5% in the first year and 10% in the second year.
Senate Republicans also rejected a proposal to fully fund virtual schools. Their budget would keep funding for students who are learning virtually at 85% of the amount that brick-and-mortar schools receive.
Lawmakers would increase grants for charter schools, meant to help pay for buildings and operations, to $1,000 per year, slightly less than the House budget.

Career and technical education programs in fields that are considered low-wage and low-demand, such as culinary arts and cosmetology, would be spared from funding cuts.

How cash-strapped Indiana schools plan to spend federal coronavirus stimulus money

2021-04-07T23:44:34+00:00

Facing shrinking enrollment and chronic budget problems, the South Bend district has spent the past few years bracing for painful cuts, beginning by closing two schools.

Now, however, the 16,000-student district is one of several cash-strapped Indiana school systems where leaders and community members will tackle a less common challenge: choosing how to spend a massive infusion of coronavirus aid.

The South Bend district is expecting to receive over $50 million, equivalent to about a quarter of its annual budget, from the federal stimulus package approved last month. That’s on top of about $33 million it will receive from two earlier bills.

Indiana in total will get more than $3 billion to help schools — that amounts to about 40% of what the state allocates to schools each year in the budget. That aid will be distributed to districts based on how many students in poverty they serve.

But the mind-boggling sums are one-time grants, intended in part to help students recover learning lost during the pandemic. The federal money cannot provide a long-term fix for a district that has been spending beyond its means.

So some districts will be in the incongruous position of spending big on short-term programs like summer school at the same time they make painful cuts, such as closing schools.

In South Bend, the influx of federal cash will allow it to offer students long-needed support.

“Our district needed help before the pandemic,” Chief Financial Officer Kareemah Fowler said. “There were some things that we just couldn’t afford to do.”

South Bend has a long list of plans for the federal money, including adding an hour of instruction to the school day next year, Fowler said. It will upgrade buildings to improve air quality. And it will train staff, particularly at schools that are struggling academically.

The district also plans to use the federal money to hire full-time social workers and other staff to support students at each school, Fowler said. But because the money is one-time only, funding for some of those positions won’t last, she said.

The federal boost won’t erase long-standing financial strains for South Bend and other urban Indiana districts that struggle under local property tax caps, cuts to state aid for educating students from low-income families, and decreases in enrollment that lead to less state funding.

South Bend won local voter support for increasing property taxes for education last year. But the schools will still need to make cuts to sustain the budget in the long term, Fowler said.

Districts typically spend the vast majority of their budgets on staff salaries and benefits. The federal aid all must be allocated by October 2024, making many school leaders reluctant to spend it on raises or new educators.

In the Muncie school district, CEO Lee Ann Kwiatkowski hopes to use the federal funding to provide one-time stipends to educators in recognition of the work they have done this past school year. Spending will also focus on short-term projects, such as construction, she said.

After years of financial mismanagement when the district misspent money from bonds, in 2018 the state placed the Muncie school system under the control of Ball State University. The district now has a balanced budget, but it has very limited funding to update facilities, Kwiatkowski said.

State education officials have not yet announced exactly how much each district will receive from the federal stimulus bill passed last month. But schools are expected to get roughly double the December federal allocation. Muncie schools will receive nearly $11 million from the December aid bill.

Muncie will use some of the federal money for upgrading school buildings, such as by replacing windows and ventilation systems, Kwiatkowski said. The district will also update two schools that were built in “open concept” style with large doors and few walls.

“For Muncie, this is going to be a tremendous blessing for us,” Kwiatkowski said.

The school district that stands to get the most federal funding per student is Gary. The district was so deep in debt that the state brought in an emergency manager four years ago and later stripped the elected school board of power.

Gary schools will get about $26 million in the first two rounds of federal aid. It could get close to twice that much in third round.

The influx of money could have huge implications for the district, but it is not yet clear how it will be spent.

Parents and students have a long list of improvements they would like to see, including repairs to a leaking roof, improved ventilation, and a fieldhouse for student athletes, said Tracy Coleman, a parent at West Side Leadership Academy.

Coleman argued that the state-appointed emergency manager, who is meant to be temporary, should not decide how to spend the federal relief money. The school system needs an empowered local board so that parents can have a voice in spending, she said.

The district will also get about $71 million in additional funding over eight years from a referendum recently approved by voters, and a state law gave it access to about $25 million for building repairs, renovations, and demolition.

“We have three large sources of revenue that could change our educational system for generations to come,” Coleman said. “But we have no say.”

The largest federal allocation in Indiana will go to Indianapolis Public Schools, which will receive $77 million from the first two aid bills. It is expected to receive well over $100 million from the third package.

The district’s budget is tight. As part of a campaign to win additional funding from voters more than two years ago, IPS leaders committed to dramatically cutting its spending to make it sustainable after years of shrinking enrollment.

To meet that goal, it is likely the district will need to make painful cuts — such as reducing transportation and closing schools — at the same time that it is spending the infusion of federal aid.

IPS Chief Financial Officer Weston Young has repeatedly cautioned the board not to let the surge of federal money delay it from making difficult financial decisions.

“Federal stimulus funds will mask the district’s underlying structural deficit which needs to be addressed,” he told the board in February. “We can’t lose sight of the work that we still have to do.”

“We’re shooting for sustainability,” Young said.

Voucher expansion, education savings account plan could cost Indiana $100 million

2021-01-21T23:56:55+00:00

Indiana politicians are seizing on the upheaval caused by the pandemic to push forward a vast expansion of taxpayer funding for private education, which could cost the state more than $100 million next year.

A top priority for House Republicans, House Bill 1005 would offer aid to thousands of students from middle-class families and children with special needs.

It could increase the number of students receiving state stipends by about 40% in 2021-22, according to an estimate from the Legislative Services Agency.

About 12,000 students who already attend participating private schools but don’t currently qualify for state aid could become eligible.

In addition to expanding eligibility for state vouchers to more students from middle-income families, the bill would create a form of school choice — known as education savings accounts — that would give stipends to parents of children with special needs to spend on their education.

The Republican effort comes at a time when some parents are frustrated with remote schooling during the pandemic and many students with special needs lost out on crucial therapies when schools were remote. Last week, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into whether Indiana schools are providing appropriate special education services during the pandemic.

But lawmakers would also be making a costly investment in school choice even as they have not backed substantial increases in education funding as recommended by a state commission on teacher pay.

Indiana’s voucher program, which primarily funds religious schools, is one of the largest in the country. The proposed expansion is the latest in a yearslong campaign to expand private school funding.

“Taxpayers should be allowing parents to send their child to the education that best meets the needs of their child,” said Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, who chairs the House Education Committee and authored the bill. “Empowering parents to have a little bit greater ability to decide what’s in the best interest of their child makes perfect sense at this time.”

Critics say that expanding the state’s voucher program bleeds money from traditional public schools, reducing the quality of schools that educate most students in the state.

“We’re funding two separate systems instead of really investing in one,” said Jennifer Smith-Margraf, vice president of the Indiana State Teachers Association. Without more state funding, schools cannot offer competitive teacher pay and students suffer, she said.

“We think that the issues that parents are having in terms of public education are coming from the fact that we can’t fund the programs that we know that we need to have,” Smith-Margraf said.

The bill would open up the state’s existing voucher program — which serves 37,000 students from low- and middle-income families — to wealthier families. By 2022-23, a family of four would qualify if earning up to about $145,000 per year. That’s well above the state median income for families, which is about $74,000 per year.

It would also increase the tuition stipend that middle-class students receive to 90% of the amount the state would have provided to their public district.

The voucher program cost the state about $173 million last school year.

Proponents originally pitched Indiana’s decade-old voucher program as a way to help low- and middle-income families who couldn’t afford tuition to send their children to private schools. As the state has expanded eligibility, opponents have argued it is draining money from public schools to underwrite middle-class students who could attend private school without vouchers.

School choice supporters like Betsy Wiley, who leads Institute for Quality Education, argue that parents are entitled to money for private school tuition because they are taxpayers. Wiley said that there are families who cannot afford private schools who would be able to send their children under the expanded program.

“This does allow a number of working, middle-class families to potentially offer a better educational fit for their kids,” Wiley said. “We are talking about a very real, important educational opportunity for a number of kids, that can make a huge difference in their future.”

The most costly element of the proposed legislation would create education savings accounts focused on students with special needs. The program would be more generous than vouchers by providing the full amount the state would otherwise spend on a child’s schooling. Parents could choose to receive money for special education, instead of services. In addition to paying tuition, parents would be able to use that money for expenses such as tutoring and therapy.

The bill also makes the accounts available to children in foster care and the children of some military members and veterans.

But while the bill appears designed to help students with special needs, some advocates for those students worry that in practice, children would not get the services they need. The Arc of Indiana, an organization that supports people with disabilities, currently opposes the bill, CEO Kim Dodson said.

Dodson flagged several practical issues, including that private schools may be less likely to offer services if parents can purchase them through the savings accounts. Ultimately, Dodson said, only children with proactive parents who have time to navigate a cumbersome system seem likely to benefit.

To make the savings accounts work for more families, Dodson said, the legislature should create a special education ombudsman to help parents navigate the system and a parent council to oversee it.

“It’s really hard to argue against giving families money and control of their education. That sounds fantastic,” Dodson said. “However, it works differently for every family, and the devil is always in the details.”

Leading Indiana lawmaker vows to fully fund schools’ virtual learning

2020-11-18T00:43:19+00:00

Indiana Speaker of the House Todd Huston said Tuesday that lawmakers will move quickly to provide full state funding for K-12 students who are educated virtually — a crucial step to prevent schools across the state from losing revenue this spring.

Legislative leaders also said they hoped to stave off cuts to education in the coming budget — or even try to boost funding. But in the midst of a recession brought on by the coronavirus, leaders say the budget will hinge on coming revenue forecasts.

Lawmakers gathered at the Statehouse Tuesday for the ceremonial beginning of the 2021 session. They discussed how the legislature would adapt to the pandemic, including how to respond when people test positive, whether to allow members to vote remotely, and whether to require masks.

When the session reconvenes in January, lawmakers will face a host of pressing policy issues, and education will dominate that list.

Earlier this year, the Indiana State Board of Education suspended rules that limited payments to districts for virtual students to 85% of the state’s per-pupil allocation. Instead, the board fully funded students whom districts were educating online due to the pandemic. But to continue full funding for the spring, lawmakers must take action when they return.

During this crisis, we have “learned the nimbleness and flexibility needed to ensure children have access to high-quality education, no matter what the circumstances,” said Huston, a Republican. “We will continue to support full funding this academic year for all of our K-12 schools.”

Districts across the state regard maintaining full funding for virtual students as essential. Although Indiana schools are taking a patchwork of approaches to handling the crisis, many are returning to virtual instruction as the virus makes its second surge.

Indianapolis health officials announced last week that they will require all schools to suspend in-person instruction at least until Jan. 15. Other school districts, such as the suburban Hamilton Southeastern, have been forced to close buildings because they did not have enough staff due to sickness and quarantines.

Another important question for schools is how much money the legislature will allocate to education in the next two-year budget. Following the 2008 housing crash, Indiana slashed funding to schools to address a massive deficit. This time around, lawmakers hope they will be able to preserve funding for schools.

Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, a Republican, said that lawmakers do not expect to cut K-12 education funding and instead actually would “like to give it a little bump.” But he said it’s too soon to provide specifics.

Indiana teachers began the year with strong momentum for increasing school funding and teacher pay after months of activism. But it may be challenging for teachers to persuade lawmakers amid a shrinking budget and other competing needs.

IPS drop in enrollment leads to budget shortfall

2020-10-30T19:19:03+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools enrollment has dropped by 1,200 students, nearly 4%, from last fall. The decline means the financially strapped district will receive $15 million less in state funds than anticipated last spring, a critical loss when Indiana legislators are considering reducing funds for education statewide.

Officials expected to have 33,300 students this school year. But this fall, the district enrolled just 31,200 students.

Weston Young, the chief financial officer for the district, said housing and job shifts due to the COVID-19 recession may have caused the fall in enrollment.

IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson also suggested the pandemic may have caused enrollment to drop. While high school enrollment increased, elementary enrollment fell. Many parents may have kept their kindergartners home or sent their children to schools in other districts that had reopened their campuses earlier, she said.

IPS was one of the last two districts in Marion County to open in-person learning, in October. Johnson said of elementary grades, kindergarten enrollment was lowest.

“It’s not mandatory in Indiana,” Johnson said. “My hypothesis is that some families chose to just not opt into a formal kindergarten structure this year.”

While total district enrollment has decreased, the number of students at innovation schools managed by outside partners grew by 2,600 students.

Young tied that increase to the conversion of some campuses to charter-operated innovation schools. Those include low-performing schools that were overhauled with outside partners and schools that were released from state control this year.

The dip in enrollment is particularly problematic for IPS because its budget was already tight. After voters approved a property tax hike two years ago, the district got an influx of money that helped boost teacher pay. But when leaders asked for the tax increase, they also committed to reducing long-term expenses to make the budget sustainable. Many of those cuts are still on the horizon.

Indiana lawmakers are also considering cuts to school funding in the next state budget because of lower sales and income tax revenue during the pandemic.

District officials say they do not know yet if the $15 million shortfall will have a domino effect on staff layoffs and program cuts.

“The question we are wrestling with currently is where might we look to close those gaps,” Johnson said.

Additional federal stimulus dollars could help make up the lost dollars.

How the coronavirus spreads in the second semester will affect both spending and revenue. Whether lawmakers decide to fully fund schools operating virtually also will affect the district’s bottom line, she said.

A federal bailout could help. Last school year, IPS received $23.8 million from the CARES Act Allocation and Governor’s Competitive Grant. The district used federal funds for facilities, transportation, food services, special education, and English language learners.

This school year district officials expect to spend $26.5 million to respond to COVID-19 needs.

$1 million for hand sanitizer: Indianapolis leaders size up costs of reopening schools

2020-06-18T21:43:32+00:00

Two Indianapolis school leaders warned Thursday that the costs to reopen schools in the fall will likely exceed what their districts received in federal aid to pay for additional safety precautions against the coronavirus.

Indianapolis Public Schools, for example, used its federal relief money to buy devices for each student and recently spent nearly $1 million on hand sanitizer, Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said in a virtual town hall on reopening schools.

“The reality is, I think, that what we are going to end up spending will likely be more than what has currently been allocated,” Johnson said.

Johnson, Wayne Township Superintendent Jeff Butts, and the mayor’s charter school director Patrick McAlister discussed the complicated factors for reopening in Thursday’s virtual event hosted by the Indy Chamber. While they acknowledged many uncertainties and said they are working on multiple learning options, Johnson and Butts said they hoped to release their districts’ reopening plans by early July.

Educators across the state have raised the issue of cost as a major hurdle to reopening. That’s a key reason behind Gov. Eric Holcomb’s decision this week to maintain state funding levels for schools despite seeking other budget cuts, which McAlister said was a win for local schools.

Some educators are hoping for another round of federal relief dollars. McAlister also said he’s advising charter and private schools to look for outside resources such as grants or donations.

The leaders said their first priority is the safety of students and families, but they believe in-person learning is the most effective means of instruction.

“We are set up best to do that in the physical learning environment,” Johnson said.

But they aren’t sure if school buildings will be allowed to open completely, and they want to give families the flexibility to choose virtual. A potential compromise could be a hybrid model, where some students would learn in-person and others would learn at home. Johnson and Butts said their districts are spending the most time planning for this option because it would be the most complex to pull off.

Virtual instruction would need to match the scope, sequence, and pacing of in-person lessons so that students can transition smoothly when they return, Butts said.

One of the most complicated logistical challenges schools face centers around transportation. With social distancing, Johnson said a school bus that usually transports more than 40 students could only accommodate about 12.

“That dramatically reduces the number of students that can actually get to school every day,” she said.

IPS is surveying families to get a sense of how many would be able to bring their children to school themselves.

In addition to addressing logistical issues, schools expect to account for a learning gap due to the disruption caused by classrooms closing in the spring. Johnson said IPS is thinking about how to embed last quarter’s standards into the first four to six weeks of the fall semester, while balancing students’ emotional and mental health needs.

“We know our students are coming to us having experienced, like we have, a very traumatic event that we are still in the midst of,” she said.

Wayne Township schools are focusing on a two-year strategy to catch students up.

The district is considering offering standardized tests such as IREAD 3, a literacy exam that was canceled this year, to get a sense of where students are, Butts said.

The school leaders said they hope to improve virtual learning this fall based on the lessons they learned in the spring.

“The virtual learning environment at home in this next year will look dramatically different than it did the last three months of this school year because of what we’ve learned and what we’re putting in place,” Butts said.

IPS will be able to offer every student a device for virtual learning in the fall, addressing a major barrier. In the spring, Johnson said the district only had enough devices for one out of every three students. IPS is also working to ensure students have internet access at home, she said.

McAlister’s key takeaway from the spring was that some schools are more prepared than others to adapt to distance learning.

“We are all in the same storm, but we start off in different ships,” he said.

Indiana’s K-12 schools won’t face state funding cuts, Holcomb says

2020-06-17T21:55:10+00:00

Indiana school districts will not face state funding cuts next school year, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Wednesday — an assurance that had seemed unlikely amid steep state revenue shortfalls.

State lawmakers have agreed to move forward with the current budget, including a planned $183 million increase to school funding, Holcomb said during a scheduled video conference.

“We did not want to limit resources as school corporations must prepare and execute a productive and safe learning environment,” said Indiana Office of Management and Budget director Cris Johnston during the announcement.

The news came as a relief for school district leaders who were preparing for cuts and need to take potentially costly coronavirus precautions to open in the fall. But it’s a far cry from what teachers had hoped for when thousands rallied at the statehouse months before the state’s first coronavirus case.

Facing pressure, Holcomb, who is up for re-election in November, pledged in January to boost teacher salaries by spending $250 million of the state’s reserves to free up more money for schools. But on Wednesday, Johnston said keeping the budget steady is “the best we are going to be able to do during this time period.”

The state is expected to end the fiscal year this month with a nearly $2 billion budget shortfall, Johnston said. Without cuts, planned spending could significantly deplete the state’s $2.3 billion surplus.

Budgets for other state agencies have already been reduced and plans released last week propose public universities take a 7%, or $103 million, cut. Many school district leaders were preparing for similar reductions, since funding for K-12 education accounts for about half of the state’s spending — more than $7 billion a year.

“I am pleased our state decision makers will not cut funding from Indiana K-12 education,” State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick said in a statement following the announcement. “Schools will have one less stressor as they continue to educate our students during this unprecedented time.”

Holcomb also said he supports the Indiana Department of Education’s decision last week to protect schools from losing funding for students who choose to take classes online. Typically, online students are funded at 85% of what brick-and-mortar schools receive.

The Indiana State Teachers Association thanked teachers for being vocal about their funding concerns, applauding the state’s decision.

“While concerns about the coming school year remain, these fiscal decisions give educators confidence that we can provide students a quality education in a safe environment this fall,” the state’s largest teachers union said in a statement. “We encourage the governor and legislators to continue making educators and kids a priority in the next budget year.”

School districts have been looking to lawmakers for financial assurances as they put together plans to reopen in the fall. New coronavirus safety precautions recommended by the state could be costly to implement, and McCormick has cautioned that federal relief likely won’t go far for most districts.

Early in Indiana’s coronavirus response, state leaders said K-12 funding would not change under the current budget. But their promises didn’t initially extend beyond this past school year. The Indiana General Assembly is scheduled to set a new two-year budget in the upcoming legislative session, which is set to start in January.

“Well call me stunned,” Southeast Fountain Schools Superintendent Dan Foster tweeted, “but thank you...”

When asked what this means for those future budget conversations, Holcomb said the state will “cross the January bridge when we get to January.” But he said he’s optimistic about the state’s economic recovery.

To make up for the expected shortfall, Johnston said the state will have to be “very disciplined” with the other cuts that have already been imposed and take another look at the list of planned capital projects for additional savings. The state will also rely on federal relief.

If that’s not enough, Johnston said the state might have to dip into the reserves “a little bit more.”

Schools in other states are already facing proposed cuts, including in New York, California, and Colorado. A school district in Denver is asking teachers to forgo some of the pay raises agreed to after a three-day teacher strike last year.

Johnston did caution district leaders not to “over commit” with their spending this year, saying it’s still unclear what restraints may be put on the state budget next spring after new forecasts are drawn.

The last time the country faced a recession, about a decade ago, then-Gov. Mitch Daniels cut $300 million from education funding. Public education advocates argue that school budgets have never fully recovered.

Despite coronavirus challenges, Indiana school referendums receive broad support

2020-06-04T22:32:51+00:00

Indiana school referendums across the state were largely approved by voters, despite concerns that the pandemic and looming recession would spell failure for the property tax increases.

According to preliminary results, voters Tuesday passed 16 of the 18 ballot measures, including school-funding referendums in two Marion County districts, Washington Township and Beech Grove. Advocates say the results signal a significant show of support for teachers and traditional public schools that could lead to more referendums in the future.

“I think that this is very encouraging to all school districts in the state,” said executive director of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials Denny Costerison, pointing out that many measures promised teachers raises. “[Voters] want to see teachers paid more.”

Referendum results trickled in days after the election as some areas scrambled to process thousands more absentee ballots than usual. But the early results mark an unexpected victory for school districts. Before Election Day, experts worried about the effect of soaring unemployment rates and canceled in-person campaign efforts would have on turnout and voters’ willingness to raise taxes.

Purdue University professor Larry DeBoer, who studies school referendums, previously predicted that widespread job losses would make it more difficult to sell a tax increase.

During the previous recession, in 2009, half of all school referendums statewide failed. DeBoer initially thought it could be attributed to the economic downturn, but now he surmises that the losses in 2009 were likely because the school referendum process was still new to voters and districts.

“Based on the evidence we have right now, recession doesn’t matter,” DeBoer said.

The stakes for districts were particularly high this year, as coronavirus restrictions caused state revenues to plummet and made cuts to state budgets, including K-12 funding, highly likely. Passing a referendum puts districts in a better position to deal with financial uncertainty, experts said.

But John Fenci, Washington Township board president, cautioned the referendum money wouldn’t be a silver bullet. Washington Township is poised to pass two measures worth a total of $413 million, including the largest construction referendum in state history. The money, however, wouldn’t necessarily fill gaps that funding cuts could create, he said. The funds raised by the referendum are already earmarked for certain expenses, such as renovating buildings, constructing a middle school, and increasing teacher salaries.

The superintendent of New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated Schools, Bradley Snyder, however, said he worried about what the district’s finances will look like after its referendum failed. The southern Indiana district asked voters to approve a school safety referendum worth about $3 million annually for eight years.

The campaign lost momentum when the coronavirus closed school buildings, Snyder said. And the measure faced organized opposition that was critical of the district’s focus on mental health services, saying a more robust program could make the district more attractive to students facing challenges.

“There’s no doubt there’s a financial storm coming,” he said. “And we will have to deal with it one day at a time… We were trying to get resources to help our students cope with [anxiety, anger, and stress] and be better citizens, and it’s not going to happen.”

Drawing statewide conclusions from the referendum results is difficult, DeBoer said, since passing a measure can be affected greatly by local culture, efforts, and opposition. This year there was little correlation between referendums that passed and districts’ size or the amount residents’ bill would increase.

In South Bend, where the district’s two ballot measures also faced organized opposition, both passed. The effort to defeat the referendum, led by a local charter school founder, pointed to the districts chronically low test scores and state grades, despite having more per-student funding than many nearby districts. Brian Pawlowski, who co-chaired the anti-referendum committee, said he wished voters had asked more critical questions.

“Our whole goal was to draw attention to the issues in South Bend schools,” Pawlowski said. “Our hope now is that, given all this new influx of revenue, [district leaders] start to take the kinds of swift and bold action that they‘ve been discussing.”

Results trickle in on election night for Indiana districts seeking referendums

2020-06-03T02:37:13+00:00

The results of most Indiana school referendums remained unknown hours after polls closed on Tuesday, as election officials waded through a record number of mail-in ballots.

Two Marion County districts, Washington Township and Beech Grove, are among the 11 districts statewide that didn’t have results as of 10 p.m. Tuesday. Early results, however, showed voters favoring measures for both Washington Township and Beech Grove, as well as two measures in South Bend.

For school systems asking voters to approve an increase in property taxes, the stakes are especially high this year as the state faces steep declines in revenue due to economic shutdowns related to the coronavirus.

Some smaller districts did report results. According to the state, Barr-Reeve and Western Wayne Schools both passed referendums with 63% and 65% of the vote, respectively. New Albany-Floyd County Schools saw its safety referendum fail, with 52% voting against the measure.

A district that has passed a referendum will be in a better position if state leaders cut education funding next year. School budgets rely heavily on state sales and income taxes, which experts said leaves schools particularly vulnerable, given the recent spike in unemployment. Property taxes are more stable, and a successful referendum allows districts to boost their collection above the state cap.

Tuesday proved to be a strange Election Day — one pushed back by weeks due to the coronavirus. Many people arrived at polling places wearing masks and covering their fingers to avoid touching voting machines, and they faced long lines in parts of the state where there were poll worker shortages. The vote also coincided with protests across the country, including in Indianapolis, spurred by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

State officials previously warned it could take up to 10 days to get finalized election results as workers scramble to count hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots residents requested amid the coronavirus crisis. And it remains unclear how many absentee ballots may go uncounted due to postal service delays in Marion County.

By 10 p.m., only half of Marion County’s 22 sites had reported unofficial results, which didn’t give school leaders a concrete idea of where their districts stood.

“It’s unfortunate, but given the surge in absentee ballots and the [coronavirus], that’s the reality that we are under,” said John Fencl, Washington Township school board president.

With 50% of voting centers counted, residents were favoring Washington Township’s $128 million operating referendum, which would be used for teacher salaries, and $285 million construction measure — the largest school construction referendum in state history.

According to the district, the construction money would be used to build a new $72 million middle school, renovate aging buildings, and finish projects where construction costs have run higher than anticipated. Opponents, however, have called the ask “obscene” and “tone deaf,” in part because voters in the district approved two referendums in 2016.

The final results of Beech Grove City Schools’ $22.4 million referendum also remained unclear. District leaders said the money would be used to build a new early childhood center, hire additional school safety officers, and give teachers $2,000 raises.

“We feel good about what we saw in the lines today,” said Beech Grove Superintendent Paul Kaiser. “As people were going though, they were positive.”

School districts typically see success in passing a referendum during spring elections, but this year the coronavirus brought additional challenges. School buildings closed in March, in some cases canceling community meetings to discuss the measures, and stay-at-home orders hampered campaign efforts.

Experts said it could be especially difficult for school leaders to sell voters on approving an increase to their property taxes as unemployment skyrockets. Plus, some worried the virus could negatively affect voter participation.

In South Bend, WSBT reported that early results with about two-thirds of precincts reporting showed 57% of voters supporting the district’s operational referendum, which can be used for day-to-day expenses, and 54% supporting its construction referendum.

District leaders are asking voters to approve two property tax increases worth a total of about $220 million over the next eight years. The referendums, which would fund security updates and the hiring of more teachers, come at a critical moment for South Bend, following years of dropping enrollment and low standardized test scores.

But the measures faced opposition from the founder and board president of three local charters, who said the district does not have a clear enough plan to improve.

Voters were also set to decide a southern Indiana school district’s yearslong campaign to split in two. Leaders of West Clark Schools in Clark County successfully made their case for separating to the State Board of Education in November — a move that seemed at odds with the state’s history of pushing for consolidation.

The drastic decision came after decades of growing animosity between the communities, most recently spurred by anger over a failed $95 million referendum. Final results weren’t posted by press time.

2020 Indiana primary election results: How school referendums fared

Several school districts across Indiana appealed directly to voters in Tuesday’s primary election to raise additional funding by increasing property taxes. Here’s a list, as of 9:45 p.m. Tuesday, of which school referendums passed, which failed, and which are still waiting for results.

Passed measures:

Barr-Reeve Community Schools

Operational referendum, passed 62.6% to 37.4%
Tax rate increase: $0.25 per $100 of assessed value for eight years
To replace a 2013 referendum with a lower rate and continue funding small class sizes, athletics and extracurriculars; elementary music and gym classes; and school safety and mental health resources.

Western Wayne Schools

Operational referendum, passed 64.5% to 35.5%
Tax rate increase: $0.19 per $100 of assessed value
Expected total: About $500,000 annually for eight years
To maintain current educational programs and class sizes, restore programs that have been cut, and pay employees.

Failed measures:

New Albany-Floyd County School Corporation

Safety referendum, failed 52.5% to 47.5%
Proposed tax rate increase: $0.085 per $100 of assessed value
Expected total: About $3 million annually for eight years
To fund additional school resource officers; safety and security improvements; student programs to address mental wellness, addiction, anger management, bullying, and school violence; and professional development and training on proactive safety strategies.

Waiting for results:

Construction referendums:

Beech Grove City School Corporation

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.25 per $100 assessed value
Project total: $17.5 million
To renovate existing schools, including Beech Grove High School, and build the Hornet Park Early Childhood Learning Center.

Fort Wayne Community School District

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.1486 per $100 of assessed valuation
Project total: $8,652,375,911
To repair windows and rooftops and improve security at existing school buildings.

Hanover Community School Corporation

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.8351 per $100 of assessed valuation
Project total: $79 million
To build a new intermediate school building and for renovations to the middle school, high school, and resource center.

MSD Washington Township

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.3172 per $100 of assessed valuation
Project total: $285 million
To finish construction of a new middle school and repurpose the former middle school building as a transportation center.

South Bend Community School Corporation

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.0663 per $100 assessed value
Project total: $54 million
To renovate buildings, including adding secure entries, and update an existing building to create a career and technical focused high school for students.

Operational referendums:

Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.156 per $100 of assessed value
Expected total: $9.3 million for eight years
To increase pay for teachers and support staff; provide mental health professionals in every school; fund school resource officers; and replace aging school buses.

Benton Community School Corporation

Operational referendum
Proposed tax rate increase: $0.31 per $100 of assessed value for eight years
For retaining teachers and support staff; maintaining class sizes; funding academic, agricultural, vocational, and fine arts programs; and enhancing student safety and security.

Beech Grove City School Corporation

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.55 per $100 of assessed value for eight years
To replace the 2015 referendum and give $2,000 raises to teachers and $1,000 raises to support staff; and add three school resource officers and three counselors.

Crothersville Community School Corporation

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.63 per $100 of assessed value
Expected total: $820,000 annually for eight years
To fund teacher retention, expansion of academic programs, and support for students with special needs.

Eminence Community School Corporation

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.35 per $100 of assessed value for eight years
To replace the existing referendum with a new tax rate to fund instructional support, attract and retain teachers, and maintain daily educational operations.

Hanover Community School Corporation

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.29 per $100 of assessed value for seven years
To renew the 2015 referendum, funding the expansion of academic programs, student safety, transportation, and other educational needs.

Lanesville Community School Corporation

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.17 per $100 of assessed value for seven years
To renew the 2014 referendum and manage class sizes, retain teachers, and promote school safety.

MSD Washington Township

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.25 per $100 of assessed value
Expected total: $16 million annually for eight years, totaling $128 million
To replace the existing 2016 operational referendum with a new tax rate to fund school safety improvements, additional student support services, expanded academic support programs, and teacher and staff raises.

South Bend Community School Corporation

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.3334 per $100 of assessed value
Expected total: At least $20.8 million annually for eight years
To maintain and expand courses; create new career pathways; increase teacher pay; and offer student support through counselors, college coaches, and social workers in each building.

Union Township School Corporation

Proposed tax rate increase: $0.21 per $100 of assessed value for seven years
To renew the 2013 operational referendum, which would fund academic programs, manage class sizes, and retain teachers and staff.

Washington Township seeks largest school construction referendum in Indiana history

2020-05-29T23:08:11+00:00

Four years after passing sizable tax measures, Washington Township is asking voters to approve the largest school construction referendum in state history.

The $285 million request — paired with an eight-year, $128 million operating referendum — will appear on Tuesday’s ballot at a time of great economic and educational uncertainty.

With the extra capital funds, the Indianapolis district hopes to renovate aging buildings, finish projects where construction costs have run higher than anticipated, and build a new $72 million middle school. An increase in operating funds would give teachers raises and pay for new positions, including teachers, police officers, and bus drivers.

“We recognize that it is a big ask of the community,” said school board president John Fencl. “However, we’re looking at this as a 20- to 30-year investment, and so we think it’s prudent to go ahead and maintain our buildings for the next life cycle, even if it is a large request.”

But some opponents say the district’s requests are “obscene,” “tone deaf,” and “indefensible.” They take issue with the district seeking to increase property taxes again after voters approved two school referendums in 2016, and at a time when residents are bracing for an economic downturn as unemployment hits record highs.

“It’s just indefensible,” said Al Hubbard, an Indianapolis businessman and philanthropist. “I just feel like they’re trying to take advantage of the taxpayers. It’s going to make Washington Township a much less attractive place for homes.”

Washington Township voters have approved three school referendums since 2010, each by a healthy 70-30 margin. But nobody knows how the coronavirus outbreak will affect turnout or sentiment in this year’s primary election, which the state pushed back a month from its usual early May timing.

Problems with mail-in voting could also dramatically affect election results. With local and state leaders encouraging voting by mail, more than 123,000 Marion County residents requested absentee ballots, according to the clerk’s office. That’s 20 times as many as in the 2016 primary.

But postal service delays have left many people waiting for their ballots to arrive and could mean thousands of ballots might not be received by the election board in time to be counted, Marion County Clerk Myla Eldridge warned the state this week.

With Indiana schools mostly funded through the state, and property taxes capped, districts are increasingly asking residents for more money to pay teachers and renovate buildings. This is particularly the case in Indianapolis and for other urban districts.

But voters aren’t always willing to raise their own taxes, and sometimes districts ask for too much. Indianapolis Public Schools, for example, met enormous pushback in 2018 to what was initially a nearly $1 billion ask for two referendums. District officials had to twice scale down and postpone their requests to ultimately win both referendums, totaling $272 million in additional funding.

In Washington Township, a 11,000-student district where about 60% qualify for free or reduced-price meals based on their families’ incomes, one expert said the high dollar amount of the referendums doesn’t necessarily affect taxpayers as dramatically.

That’s because Washington Township is a “property-wealthy” district, said Steve Klink, a school referendum consultant in Indiana. The district currently has a low school tax rate compared to the state average, he pointed out. But with a lot of property value, it can collect more money with a lower rate than some places with higher tax rates but less property value.

“They get more bang for their buck,” Klink said. “The schools are not a huge tax burden on the property taxpayers in Washington Township, and yet they’ve been able to increase their levy substantially over the last four years.”

The two proposed school referendums would increase the tax rate by up to about 45 cents per $100 of assessed value. For the median home value in the district of $180,500, property taxes would increase by $32.41 per month, according to the district calculator, or about $390 per year.

In 2016, Washington Township’s $185 million construction referendum was the second-largest successful effort of its kind in Indiana. The district built two new elementary schools that opened last summer to reduce overcrowding. In other buildings, the district improved safety features and addressed immediate needs such as leaking roofs.

“I think everybody knew that the 2016 referendum was not going to fix everything,” Fencl said. “I think it was a great step forward, and we thought it was a fair ask of the community at the time.”

In a booming economy, construction costs ran higher than anticipated, the district said, beyond its accounting for inflation. That’s partly why the district is putting forward another referendum, which would cover $47 million in projects that couldn’t be completed.

The district also wants to build a new Northview Middle School at 91st Street and College Avenue, a project that officials estimate will cost $72 million, including site development, construction, and furniture. The old middle school building will be converted into an operations center that would provide a hub for school buses.

Officials didn’t want to postpone the referendums after the pandemic because it would delay the potential for any work for several years, Fencl said.

The new operating referendum would raise $16 million per year for eight years, replacing the one passed in 2016 while adding funding such as $1.5 million annually for teacher raises. Additional operational funds could be particularly critical if the state has to reduce school funding to tighten upcoming budgets amid plummeting revenues.

Opponents say that while they want to support education and teachers, the two asks are simply too high.

“The focus needs to be on dramatically improving teaching and retaining great teachers,” Hubbard said. “This is not what this is about. This is about buildings and facilities.”

Hubbard and his business partner Devin Anderson, both Washington Township residents, are running social media ads opposing the referendums. They declined to disclose how much they are spending.

Anderson questioned why the district was seeking four referendums in four years, which he said suggests “mismanagement, and frankly somewhere between arrogance and tone deafness on the amount. For the school district to think that half a billion is OK in tax increases is alarming.”

Another opponent, longtime resident Penny Bigelow, said she felt like the district asked for too much money in 2016, and the even bigger requests this year were “absolutely obscene.” She worries homeowners, particularly those on fixed incomes, will leave Washington Township because of increasing taxes.

“What we want is to defeat this referendum, and then work with the MSD of Washington Township in order to have better use of existing monies for the classroom,” Bigelow said. “We want to see the teachers get more money, we want to see the teachers get more aid, we want whatever is needed in the classroom to be done first.”

Bigelow said she has given out 200 lawn signs opposing the referendum. She said she is in the process of forming a political action committee and declined to say how much her group has raised or spent.

On the other side of the issue, the “Vote Yes” political action committee supporting the referendums has raised more than $27,000 with significant support from the political arm of the state teachers union, according to a May 15 campaign finance filing. The group has spent nearly $20,000 on expenses such as direct mail and text message campaigns and video production.

“Public schools have had the short end of the stick of funding. When you’re on fixed revenues but variable expenses, you’re screwed,” said committee chair T. Ray Phillips, whose children attend district schools. “If I truly believe I live in a great neighborhood, and that neighborhood is a direct function of the schools that attract people to it, this is part of what I need to do.”

Washington Township resident Nichole Heilbron, whose son attends one of the new elementary schools, voted in support of both referendums, because she believes it’s a small price to pay when a quality public education can lead to successes later in life. “I want that for my own child, but I want that for all the other children, too.”

“I don’t want to pay more money in taxes either, but I’m never going to argue with paying more money for education for our kids,” Heilbron said. “I feel like that’s an investment in our future.”

If the referendums don’t pass, Fencl said the district will likely have to come back to voters later for more funds.

Potential partnership sours as charter leader opposes South Bend school referendums

2020-05-29T22:50:14+00:00

Months after South Bend Schools took its first step toward partnering more closely with local charter schools, one of its potential partners is trying to defeat the district’s referendums ahead of Election Day.

South Bend is asking voters Tuesday to approve two property tax increases worth a total of about $220 million over the next eight years. But the referendum campaign has revealed that at least one attempt to reform the district by creating an innovation school — managed by a charter operator but considered part of the district — is unlikely to become reality.

The ballot measures, which would fund security updates and the hiring of more teachers, come at a critical moment for South Bend, following years of dropping enrollment and low standardized test scores. Administrators are bracing for big financial hits while also trying to turn around academic performance. The district is under pressure to make changes after narrowly avoiding state takeover of a middle school after it received consecutive failing grades from the state.

“I believe that it is an important moment, not only for our schools but for our neighborhoods and city,” said Mary Downes, who co-chairs the committee campaigning in favor of the referendum. “I think there’s a very strong commitment and passion to have public education be very solid, and an equal access to education for all.”

But the referendums face opposition led and self-funded by Larry Garatoni, the founder and board president of three local charter schools. He says the district lacks a clear plan for change. His opposition presents an unexpected dynamic, considering that he met with Superintendent Todd Cummings in October to discuss an innovation partnership.

Garatoni said he never had “meaningful negotiation” with the district about partnering with Success Academy, which serves grades K-5, and Career Academy middle and high schools, which serve grades 6-12. The school board also formally voted in February to cut off discussions with another potential innovation charter school: Purdue Polytechnic.

South Bend would have been the third Indiana district to pursue the controversial strategy. Only two districts in Indiana have innovation schools: Indianapolis Public Schools, with 21 such schools, and Gary Community Schools, with one.

For South Bend, the partnership started as an effort to boost enrollment and improve education for students. Cummings didn’t say what happened after his initial meetings with Garatoni. But he did say that the current opposition would make partnering impossible.

“I can’t imagine those conversations will continue as long as there are giant ‘Vote No’ billboards in town,” he said.

According to election committee filings, Garatoni has contributed $30,000 to his anti-referendum campaign, which has no other donors, and has spent around $10,000 so far. The pro-referendum committee has raised nearly $17,000 and spent more than $14,000.

Garatoni acknowledged that his growing network of charter schools, which together serve around 1,300 students in grades K-12, could benefit from the referendum failing, because it might force the district to close more schools. Under state law, empty school buildings are available for charter schools to purchase for $1. But Garatoni said that’s not why he opposes the referendum.

“I’m not trying to harm the schools,” Garatoni said. “Basically, I’m saying fix the schools. If they get the money then they can coast again and they won’t confront the issue.”

Garatoni points to state data, which shows that South Bend spent $9,654 in funding per student in 2019 — more than neighboring districts — but still has low passing rates on state standardized tests, with black and Hispanic students scoring lower than their white peers.

But advocates say comparing the districts to its wealthier neighbors is unfair. South Bend has more low-income students and English language learners, which requires they offer more supports and therefore grants them more funding under the state formula. Indianapolis Public Schools, for example, spent $14,469 per student in 2019.

“Schools in neighborhoods of high poverty have the need to make class sizes smaller, to work with social emotional needs, have robust food service programs, robust programs for students who are learning to speak English,” said David Marcotte, executive director of the Indiana Urban Schools Association.

Providing extra support means those districts need more funding, Marcotte said. In Indiana, urban schools have faced the greatest competition from private and charter schools compared to rural areas, where fewer have opened. In a state where funding follows the student, losing students to other schools means funding losses for urban districts that are difficult to plan for or respond to quickly, he said. More than 7,000 students who live in South Bend don’t attend school in the district, according to state data.

Passing a referendum could be even more critical for districts now that the coronavirus is threatening state funding. School budgets in Indiana largely depend on state sales and income tax revenues — both of which have taken a hard hit after businesses closed and unemployment soared.

Property taxes likely won’t see an immediate impact from the virus, which makes passing a referendum an attractive option. But it will likely be more difficult to sell families on paying more in taxes, Marcotte said, as hours are reduced or companies lay off workers.

“It’s a whole different conversation,” he said. “Now families are going to say, ‘I support the schools, but can I afford to do this?’”

If the referendums are approved, South Bend would receive a total of $54 million for construction, which the district said would be used for security updates to its buildings, and $20.8 million for operations each year. The money would be used to fill teaching vacancies, increase salaries and maintain programming, according to the district website.

It would also offset an anticipated $16.6 million loss next year, in part because the county’s 10-year exemption from property tax caps will end.

Taxpayers wouldn’t see the full increase in their bill because the measure would largely neutralize expected savings from the property tax caps. According to the district’s tax calculator, the monthly property tax bill for a home valued at $110,000 would increase by about $13, from $68.25 to $81.33.

As for innovation schools, Cummings said the idea isn’t entirely off the table.

“We’re open to options that help us turn our schools around,” he said. “So as we get past June 2 [Election Day] and we look at the academic needs on the table, we are open to doing what is best for students.”

IPS is in a stable financial position for now, but it could be hard hit by a recession

2020-05-01T02:21:35+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools says it is in a strong financial position in the short term, despite the upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But the district could eventually be hard hit by the deepening recession.

The state’s largest district is more financially stable than many school systems across the country for several reasons: The state has not cut this year’s education funding, voters recently approved a referendum to boost local dollars, the district has access to bond funding, and the Indianapolis economy is strong, said Weston Young, the district’s chief financial officer.

“IPS is positioned well, in my opinion, for the short term to navigate the recent historic and severe COVID-19 economic impacts,” Young said during a media briefing ahead of an IPS board meeting Thursday. The district will also receive about $21 million in federal coronavirus aid, which can be used to cover a wide range of costs.

Over the long term, however, the financial implications for the district are far less certain. Unemployment in Indiana has surged, while sales and income tax revenue have fallen in recent weeks.

Although it’s unclear how bad the recession will be or precisely how it will impact the school system, the district may need to begin making decisions to save money to build a cushion for the future, said Jason O’Neill, a consultant with Policy Analytics who is advising the district.

“The impact of a recession on school finance is not immediate, at least the majority of the impact is not immediate,” O’Neill told the IPS board, “but preparations should be made in the short term.”

Noting that state revenue is “going to diminish significantly,” IPS Board President Michael O’Connor said at Thursday’s meeting that the district must “be prepared to make some very conservative, very difficult decisions about preparing for those cuts.”

Indiana school budgets are particularly vulnerable in recessions because districts get much of their funding from the state, which relies on income and sales tax — a less stable source of revenue than property tax.

If tax revenue continues to decline, the state may cut budgets for schools next year or the years after, Young told the board. “A state can’t pass dollars to schools that it doesn’t have.”

Some Indiana districts have raised concerns that they could also lose state funding, which is awarded on a per-student basis, if parents decide to keep their children home in the fall due to health concerns.

As the pandemic unleashes turmoil across the country, many school systems are facing severe financial challenges. The Los Angeles Unified School District estimates that it has shouldered $200 million in emergency coronavirus costs. As New York City grapples with severe drops in revenue, schools could see $827 million in budget cuts. And in Denver, district officials said the pandemic would cost its schools about $10.5 million this year — a figure that includes the unplanned cost of purchasing about 9,000 laptops for students.

In the early weeks of the crisis, IPS has not taken a severe financial hit. In fact, it spent less than anticipated because school closures reduced costs in some areas, such as transportation, extracurricular activities, and facilities, Young said.

The district, however, is in the midst of making a huge investment in technology. Amid fears that schools could be closed in the fall or the need for some form of social distancing could continue, IPS is spending about $12 million so that every student has a device. That will pay for 14,000 Chromebooks, 7,000 iPads, and 9,000 mobile hotspot devices for students without broadband at home. The purchases will be funded with several sources, including reserves and philanthropic giving.

What if students don’t come back? Indiana schools pitch a radical way to protect their budgets

2020-04-29T20:31:34+00:00

As Indiana school districts begin preparing for the fall semester, some school leaders are hearing a concerning message from parents: They don’t want their children to come back.

It’s unclear what school will look like in August, after the coronavirus shut down classrooms across the state through the end of this academic year. But there are growing worries among school officials that the fallout will mean fewer students return. And in a state where funding is doled out per student, a drop in enrollment would mean an immediate financial hit to schools.

Amid the pandemic, fear of contracting the coronavirus could prompt more parents to start homeschooling long-term or transfer to a full-time virtual school. Registration could also be a hurdle. It’s more difficult to recruit families without seeing them in-person, or when they have more pressing priorities, some superintendents said.

“We will have a significant number of families who would want their children to continue to be at home trying to learn remotely,” said Wayne Township Superintendent Jeff Butts. “We already heard some of that.”

In response, school business officials are asking the state to consider freezing districts’ enrollment counts in the fall — a radical new idea. But it seems unlikely to gain traction in a state where the prevailing funding philosophy is having money follow the student.

The idea, pitched by the Indiana Association of School Business Officials, is meant to offer some financial stability by not penalizing districts for teaching fewer students. Executive Director Dennis Costerison said the freeze could work like a “hold harmless” exemption, so districts are protected from a drop but could still receive a boost in funding if they see an increase in students compared to last fall, or an increase in students who qualify as low-income.

That would help if parents choose to keep their children at home through the September count date, when schools log their official enrollment to lock in funding, but later decide to re-enroll as the coronavirus crisis evolves, Butts said.

“At some point those children most likely will come back and we will need to make sure that we are properly staffed for them,” he said. “That would be one less thing that we would have to really be worried about… as we look forward to what we anticipate to be a pretty tough budget year.”

State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick acknowledged concerns about fall enrollment earlier this month during a webinar for educators. But she didn’t say whether the freeze had garnered any support from lawmakers or the governor’s office.

“I have not had any indication that there is going to be a freeze on [enrollment counts],” McCormick said. “But I know that conversation has been requested.”

When Chalkbeat told Republican House Education Chairman Bob Behning about those hoping for an enrollment freeze, he called it a “pipe dream.” The state has “always prided ourselves on dollars following the kid,” said Behning, a top education policymaker.

A hold harmless on enrollment would potentially mean the state is giving out funding for one student twice, he said — once to their former district and once to their new virtual program.

“I think it’s way too premature for us to make any type of decision as far as that is concerned,” Behning said. “I can guarantee you, unless your economy has a rapid pick up ... the state is not going to have the resources to hold harmless.”

Education makes up about half of the state budget, which leaves schools particularly vulnerable to the expected hit to both sales and income tax after the coronavirus shut down parts of the economy and sent unemployment claims soaring.

So far, Butts said Wayne Township has 20% fewer students registered for next school year from outside the district compared to this time in previous years — an early indicator because out-of-district families typically enroll their children sooner. It’s a number he’s watching closely as administrators try to prepare for multiple potential approaches to school in the fall.

Gov. Eric Holcomb has not announced whether school buildings will be allowed to reopen, or what new health or safety stipulations they will have to meet. That decision will likely come later this month, Holcomb said. In the meantime, districts are preparing for everything from continuing remote learning to bringing students back in waves to reopening with social distancing.

Pike Township Schools is among the districts in Indiana considering continuing remote learning even if schools are allowed to reopen by creating a voluntary online school option for families who may want to keep their children home.

It’s an option many districts are considering, and even prior to the coronavirus shutdown some school systems had some form of online offerings for students. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is also encouraging states to expand virtual education.

With the summer to plan, Superintendent Flora Reichanadter said teachers will be able to offer more rigorous online learning five days a week, compared to the three days a week students are doing now.

But it’s difficult to plan for that scenario and decide how many teachers are needed if you don’t know how many students will show up or what your budget will be, Reichanadter said.

“It is not on people’s minds right now ... to go register for the next school year,” she said. “Parents really want answers to things I can’t give them right now, and they are frustrated about that. And I understand.”

Indiana school districts seeking referendums in June face higher stakes, steeper challenges

2020-04-24T19:26:41+00:00

The last time voters approved two property tax increases for Beech Grove City Schools five years ago, volunteers knocked on 5,000 doors.

With the state under a stay-at-home order — and with social distancing practices likely to continue during the coronavirus health crisis — that in-person outreach isn’t possible this time around. And it could end up costing the Beech Grove district $22.4 million.

“We can email things out. We can make phone calls to people. But what’s really going to be missing is that personal touch of going door-to-door,” said Superintendent Paul Kaiser.

Around the state, school finance experts are unsure what the coronavirus will mean for new property tax referendums to fund local schools. According to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, 14 districts will put a referendum on the ballot in the primary.

It’s a critical moment for Indiana districts to pass a referendum, as school systems face down the economic fallout from the coronavirus.

With the May election postponed until June 2, school leaders have more time to rally support. But the coronavirus has put a halt to in-person campaign efforts, causing concern that voter turnout will be low. Meanwhile, convincing voters to agree to a tax increase may be a tougher sell as the state’s unemployment numbers reach a new peak.

“In times when you’ve got potentially 18% unemployment, when you have a lot of people who aren’t working, are they going to go out to have their taxes increased?” said Dennis Costerison, Indiana Association of School Business Officials executive director. “The circumstances have made it harder to have a referendum pass.”

School budgets rely heavily on state sales and income taxes, which experts said leaves schools particularly vulnerable after the coronavirus closed much of the local economy. Property taxes are more stable, and passing a referendum allows districts to boost their collection above the state cap.

A district that has passed a referendum will be in a better position if the state later makes cuts to education funding, Costerison said. But many schools have found they aren’t easy to pass. Even under friendlier economic circumstances, only 77 of the state’s more than 300 districts have successfully passed such an increase, and less than half have tried at all.

If both the construction and operations questions pass, Kaiser said Beech Grove, a Marion County district with about 3,000 students, will build a new early childhood center, hire additional school safety officers and give teachers a $2,000 raise.

“This may be the only raise [teachers] get in the next two years, which is going to be really hard for teacher retention,” Kaiser said. “It’s even more critical now that we win. But we also know it’s now going to be more difficult because people are out of jobs, and people don’t want to go to the polls.”

If it fails, state law requires districts to wait at least a year before putting another referendum on the ballot, and they can’t make the same ask twice.

Referendums typically are more successful in May, according to Indiana University Center for Evaluation, Policy, & Research data. Purdue University professor Larry DeBoer, who studies school referendums, said he believes that’s because November elections are often more high-profile, and therefore draw more voters who know little or nothing about the school referendum question.

That means districts’ success in June could depend heavily on who shows up to vote and how easy it is to get mail-in ballots, DeBoer said.

Given the ongoing health crisis, everyone in Indiana is allowed to request an absentee ballot, which allows them to vote by mail. The deadline to request one is May 21. Marion County will spend around $1 million to automatically mail ballot applications to each registered voter in the county.

How likely people are to approve a tax increase during a recession, is less clear. The current system for school referendums, which now sees a success rate as high as 73% when on a May ballot, was just beginning during the last recession about a decade ago. So DeBoer said it’s impossible to tell whether the majority of referendums — 15 out of 21 – failed in 2009 because the economy or simply that these asks were unfamiliar for schools and voters.

“We’ve got an experiment now,” he said. “We are going to find out.”

South Bend Community Schools, serving more than 16,000 students, is asking voters to approve two referendums that would bring in $54 million for updates to career and vocational schools and around $166 million over eight years for day-to-day operations, including teacher salaries.

It’s the district’s first attempt at a referendum. Superintendent Todd Cummings said it is essentially asking voters to keep their property taxes steady, rather than seeing a drop as the state cap goes into effect in St Joseph County this year. It was one of two high-poverty counties that was given a 10-year adjustment period before caps went into effect.

If the referendum fails, Cummings said it will mean fewer teachers, larger class sizes, and closing more schools.

“It’s pretty bleak,” he said.

That’s on top of any cuts that could come if state funding is lowered. State officials have repeatedly said they will continue with the 2020 budget with no plans to suddenly change education funding. But if the state revenue drop is as steep as experts are predicting, it will be difficult to avoid cutting education funding when the state sets its next two-year budget in 2021. Education funding makes up around half of the state budget.

The state missed its March revenue forecast by $70 million and has started dipping into its $2 billion reserves, which experts say could quickly be depleted if taxes continue to come up millions short each month.

And districts like South Bend, where there are a large number of low-income students, could lose more. Nationwide, high-poverty districts have been hit harder during recessions as state funding disproportionately goes to poorer areas – and that funding is being cut.

In South Bend, 68.8% of students rely on free or reduced-price lunch, a common measure of poverty. Cummings said administrators are trying to prepare for a “worst case scenario” of funding cuts, looking at what cutbacks would be least harmful to students. The referendum money will be used as promised, he said, and wouldn’t be enough to offset a drop in state funding.

“We’re going to keep those cuts as far away from teachers and students as possible,” Cummings said. “We plan for a worst case scenario, but right now that’s a crystal ball that not even the governor has.”

Indiana teachers fought for better pay. The coronavirus could mean cutbacks instead.

2020-04-08T18:56:06+00:00

Indiana’s teacher unions planned to use April to gear up for the primary election. Riding the momentum from a massive Statehouse rally months earlier, they were going to push members to get to the polls and continue demands for better pay.

Instead, the coronavirus has postponed the primary and created uncertainty as teachers are scrambling to educate their students remotely. The most pressing education issue in Indiana quickly shifted from increasing teacher salaries to mitigating how much progress students will lose with school buildings shut down through the end of the academic year.

Within weeks, educators went from well-poised to argue for more funding in a state with seemingly plentiful reserves to facing a likely recession and much steeper competition for diminished state dollars. Experts say Indiana’s schools are left particularly vulnerable, which creates the potential for future budget cuts and layoffs.

“I just think the momentum is gone,” said Ashlyn Nelson, an Indiana University professor who studies school finance.

Indiana’s revenue has already started to decline after the coronavirus closed a long list of non-essential businesses and prompted an ongoing stay-at-home order. The state has started dipping into its $2 billion reserves, which experts say could quickly be depleted if taxes continue to come up millions short each month.

Schools won’t immediately feel the financial impact. State officials have repeatedly said they will continue with the 2020 budget, with no plans to suddenly change education funding. But if the revenue drop is as steep as experts are predicting, it will be difficult to avoid cutting education funding when the state sets its next two-year budget in 2021.

“I don’t think any part of the [state] budget can expect to emerge unscathed by this,” said Chris Watts, president of the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute, a not-for-profit governmental research organization.

School funding in Indiana largely comes from state sales and income tax, Nelson said. Most other states rely more on property taxes, she said, which are slower to change in a recession.

In a controversial move more than a decade ago, the state capped property taxes to offer relief to property owners and took over the majority of the responsibility for funding the districts’ budgets from state revenue. Lawmakers said having the state dole out school money would create more equitable funding statewide. But some worried about the long-term impact on the district budgets and questioned the reliance on a less stable tax source.

Sales and income tax revenue depends entirely on how much people spend and how many people are employed — two factors that change quickly when the economy downturns.

“In situations like right now, where people aren’t buying anything and a huge share of our tax base is unemployed, we aren’t going to generate income and sales taxes,” Nelson said.

The same year the caps went into effect, the new system was put to the test as the state felt the effects of the 2008 housing market crash. Schools took a huge financial hit. Then-Gov. Mitch Daniels cut $300 million from education on the last day of the year to address a $1.8 billion deficit, saying it was necessary because education made up more than half of the state budget. As district funds dried up, thousands of teachers were laid off.

Now experts are projecting the financial fallout from the coronavirus to be much steeper than in 2009. Unemployment fillings are pouring in at a much faster rate, state officials said. The state missed its March forecast by $70 million, officials said Monday, but is still ahead of its forecast for the year. State officials said April revenues will give them a better idea of what financial losses the state will face.

By the end of the calendar year, if Indiana’s revenue continues to decline at its current rate, the state’s loss will match the drop in 2009, Watts said — this time happening months faster.

And with the added strain on the health system caused by the pandemic, schools could be put on the backburner for funding while the state prioritizes health. Medicaid costs, for example, are expected to increase, Watts said.

“I think we are going to have to have a serious discussion in the state about the funding source for education and is the current system too vulnerable to ups and downs to the state’s economics,” said Keith Gambill, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association.

Gambill said the state’s largest union will continue its Red For Ed movement, which for now includes monitoring the long-term impact and potential economic recovery time. He declined to talk about financial hypotheticals or projections.

“We‘re going to have to recognize that our future depends on the education of our children,” Gambill said, “And that is what has been the primary focus of Red For Ed and will continue to be our focus.”

Earlier this year, lawmakers kicked conversations about increasing teacher pay to next year, when the state’s next two-year budget will be set. The state’s Republican supermajority rejected a series of Democrat proposals that would have allocated more money this year.

But lawmakers did approve other demands from teachers, including making optional an externship previously required to earn a teaching license and decoupling test scores from teacher evaluations.

And, prior to the state’s first coronavirus case, Gov. Eric Holcomb promised to free up an additional $50 million to put toward teacher pay in 2021 by tapping into its more than $2 billion in reserves to pay down the state’s teacher retirement fund. He also formed a Teacher Pay Commission tasked with finding other ways to increase salaries.

Commission chairman Mike Smith said the group is still finishing its report and will release the findings “as soon as is practical and useful.” Holcomb previously said the report would be completed this spring.

Some of the recommendations may change as a result of the coronavirus and its impact, Smith said. He declined to say what ideas the commission is considering, but said some are “economically durable” and still make sense.

“I’m thinking carefully about these recommendations in this new context,” Smith said. “We have lots of things to think about in these circumstances.”

Federal stimulus money is coming to Indiana schools. Jennifer McCormick says it isn’t as much as it seems

2020-03-31T18:18:25+00:00

Financial help is on the way for Indiana public schools to educate students remotely during coronavirus closures. But State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick cautioned school leaders not to get too excited.

Indiana will receive $215 million of the $13.5 billion that the federal government is handing out to states, McCormick said. That stimulus package may sound big, but it’s not a lot compared with the $9.6 billion the state spends each year on schools.

During a webinar on Tuesday, McCormick said no one is going to “get rich” with the extra money. It can be used for things like buying technology to get remote learning off the ground, sanitizing school buildings, and starting summer learning programs.

“The money goes quickly and it’s not as much as we might think it is,” said the state’s Chief Academic Officer, Robin LeClaire.

The stimulus funding will be distributed based on the number of low-income students in each district. That will give those districts an additional payment worth about three-quarters the federal money they usually receive each year to serve poor children, LeClaire said. The money can be used for any of their schools.

For Indianapolis Public Schools, three-quarters of its 2019-20 federal fund pot, known as Title I funding, would be about $18 million. IPS receives some of the highest federal funding in the state, which aims to boost high-needs schools. For Lawrence township, three-quarters of its Title I funding would be around $2 million.

The state will also receive $60 million for higher education, early childhood education, and some of the districts hit the hardest by COVID-19. Gov. Eric Holcomb will distribute that money.

State leaders previously said state funding for schools will remain steady this year even though tax collection has been postponed and buildings are closed due to coronavirus. Schools will receive the state funding budgeted for 2019-20. Districts are still paying teachers and other staff during the closures.

For next school year, McCormick said that federal funding for schools could change, depending on the economic impact of the coronavirus.

The state has urged Indiana districts to track unexpected or additional costs due to the virus and emergency closures. All schools in Indiana are mandated to close through at least May 1 — an order that could potentially be extended through the end of the school year.

State officials do not know exactly how many schools are providing students with computers and e-learning opportunities during closures. In Indiana, those decisions are left up to individual districts.

McCormick said a survey of school districts and charter schools showed, as of Monday, 91% of respondents were offering some kind of educational opportunity for students. But that doesn’t necessarily mean those students are doing assignments and talking to teachers online. Some districts are using paper packets of work or more generic lists of activities for students to complete on their own.

Nearly all school districts — 97% — responded to the survey. Only about half of the state’s more than 100 charter schools participated, McCormick said.

The survey also showed that 2% of respondents are offering child care, something McCormick said more districts may need to be prepared to offer for the children of essential workers. And 95% of respondents are doing something to get food to families during the closures.

As for other questions from school leaders about teacher evaluations, spring referendums, summer school, and graduation requirements for seniors, McCormick provided few answers. She said the state will issue more guidance as quickly as possible.

How coronavirus school closures will affect pay for Indiana teachers, bus drivers, custodians

2020-03-17T21:23:11+00:00

For one nerve-wracking weekend, Luanna Martz didn’t know whether she would lose three weeks of pay. As a nursing office health assistant for La Porte Community Schools in northern Indiana, she was one of the state’s many hourly school workers who were left wondering what weeks-long district closures would mean for them.

Nearly all of the schools in the state were closed by Monday, most shutting their doors through at least spring break in an attempt to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. Teachers’ salaries are covered by their contracts, and the state waiver allowing schools to cancel classes without makeup days means teachers will be paid even while campuses are closed.

But it’s up to each district to decide whether to pay hourly workers — including bus drivers, custodians, food service employees, and paraprofessionals who assist in classrooms — who are typically paid only for days when students are present.

“We’re kind of out there floating on our own, and sweat bullets for a while, because we don’t ever really know how things are going to go for us,” said Martz. She found out on Monday that La Porte will continue paying all employees during the closure.

Several districts, including Decatur Township, Wayne Township, Pike Township, and Indianapolis Public Schools, have already committed to paying their hourly workers. But some school officials said they remained uncertain of whether they would continue to do so if the state or federal government recommended longer closures to combat the quickly spreading virus.

Administrators are making decisions “a day at a time, a week at a time,” said Decatur Township Superintendent Matthew Prusiecki, whose workforce includes some 500 hourly employees.

At most districts, some essential hourly employees, including custodians and maintenance staff, remain at the buildings to keep schools clean and sanitized. Wayne Township staff who are considered critical were given the option to work, whether cleaning buildings or helping to package and distribute meals, said Superintendent Jeff Butts. Those who volunteered are being paid an hourly stipend of $5 above their regular wage.

The stipend, however, likely isn’t sustainable for the district. Butts said school officials plan to pay hourly employees through the end of the school year, but would have to reevaluate offering the stipend if closures are extended.

And extensions seem possible, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Monday that events with 50 or more people be canceled for the next eight weeks — well after schools in Indiana are tentatively expected to return. Unlike most other states, Indiana has not mandated or encouraged schools to close statewide.

Should state or federal money become available, Butts said the district would apply for reimbursement for any unexpected costs related to its coronavirus response, including the stipend.

For Martz, the future is still on her mind despite the relief of knowing she will be paid for the next few weeks. She is doing as much as she can from home, including preparing vaccination notices to be distributed to parents. But there’s not much she can do, she said.

“Will they continue to be able to do this for us? We don’t know,” she said, noting how rapidly the situation and guidance is changing. “We’re still all thinking ahead. How can you not? Everywhere you go, that’s all you’re hearing about.”

This article answers questions raised by our readers. Share your coronavirus-related questions, concerns, and ideas below, and keep up with our reporting on COVID-19 here.

Indiana lawmakers open a door for charter schools to share referendum funds

2020-03-02T23:34:11+00:00

In a last-minute amendment Monday, lawmakers reopened a door to allow charter schools to access property tax money raised through school referendums.

The proposal, tucked into a bill dealing with a number of tax issues, would allow traditional public schools to share tax increases approved by voters with charter schools in their district boundaries.

Charter schools currently do not receive local property taxes, nor do they have the option to put a referendum on the ballot. Instead, they receive an additional state grant.

A similar idea was raised last year but failed early on. This year, lawmakers waited until the week before the session is set to end to put the language into an amendment, which circumvented any public comment on the measure.

While the new proposal doesn’t impose a mandate on districts, the last-minute move shows lawmakers’ continued support for charter schools to have access to property tax dollars. The amendment passed the Senate in a 26-to-25 vote, with Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch acting as a tiebreaker. It was an unusual divide, with some Republicans voting against the measure and a Democrat voting in favor.

Supporters argued that cooperating with charters could help schools successfully pass referendums and see better voter turnout, if parents of students in charter schools had a stake in the outcome.

“I find this amendment very creative,” said Sen. Jim Buck, R-Kokomo. “The host school has total autonomy over the agreement whether to do it or not, but if that host school thinks they’d have greater success passing that referendum… I guarantee you it’s the best interest of all the children within the purview of that host school.”

But Democrats raised concerns that the proposal would set lawmakers up to later tweak the law to be a requirement to share referendum funds rather than an option. They worried the provision would take funding away from traditional public school districts, which are increasingly relying on referendums that can help pay for teacher salaries, building renovations, and day-to-day operations.

The proposed measure specifically excludes virtual charter schools. The amendment’s author, Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger, said given the recent alleged $86 million virtual school fraud, those schools deserve more scrutiny.

Indianapolis Public Schools is currently grappling with how to share the tax money it won in a 2018 referendum with its 14 innovation charter schools. The referendum is expected to raise an additional $27.5 million per year over the next eight years.

Earlier this session, lawmakers also briefly considered limiting schools to only running referendums in November elections, in an attempt to ensure better voter turnout for the local questions. That proposal was stripped out last week.

The bill still has one more vote in the Senate and the changes would need to be approved by both chambers.

Indianapolis Public Schools cancels busing Friday after ‘rogue’ drivers call in sick

2020-02-28T20:13:12+00:00

Fewer than half of Indianapolis Public Schools students showed up to school on Friday after the district was forced to cancel bus service because too many bus drivers called in sick, officials said.

The district canceled all bus service after 95 of the district’s roughly 550 drivers and monitors said they could not come to work, according to IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson. The driver shortage came about a month after the school board approved a controversial plan to outsource all of its transportation.

The union representing bus personnel, however, said it did not support or organize Friday’s sick-out.

“We strongly condemn the actions of these rogue employees who chose to make this decision, despite the guidance of their union leadership to not move forward with these actions,” Johnson said at a press conference Friday. “Their lack of concern for the safety of students in elementary through high school in the middle of winter is disappointing.”

The district buses about 22,000 students each day.

Schools remained open Friday, but with only about 14,000 of the district’s 31,800 students reporting to school, those who did not show up were not marked as absent.

District officials are talking with leaders from the union, AFSCME, to ensure that drivers show up for work on Monday, said Johnson.

David Robertson, executive director of AFSCME Council 962, said drivers were not demonstrating as part of an organized union action. In a written statement, the union said that “the leaders of our affected locals assured us that there was no union endorsed effort to disrupt operations.”

The union statement acknowledged that many of its members have been disappointed with the district’s decision to contract out routes. As a result, “some employees may be acting independently based on these feelings,” it said. “However, two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Last month, the Indianapolis Public Schools board approved a contract with a new outside transportation provider, First Student, which is expected to replace the current combination of buses run by a contractor, Durham, and district-managed buses. District officials said that outsourcing would save Indianapolis Public Schools about $7 million annually. Current drivers will need to reapply for jobs with First Student. The new contract goes into effect on July 1.

At a school board meeting before the board approved the contract, dozens of bus drivers and union members turned out to oppose the change and plead with district leaders not to outsource transportation.

The outsourcing decision is part of a broader IPS push to reduce spending in non-academic areas. The district embraced the approach two years ago in order to garner support from the Indy Chamber for a tax increase to pay for higher teacher salaries.

Amid pushback, Indiana lawmakers abandon restrictions on school referendums

2020-02-27T22:35:33+00:00

After receiving pushback from teachers, lawmakers scrapped a proposal that would have limited when school districts could ask voters to approve a tax increase — a move that some feared would lower the chances of future measures passing.

The proposal, which the Senate elections committee quietly added to a bill earlier this month, would have restricted schools from running a referendum in May, forcing them instead to put the question on the November ballot. It was removed after reaching the full Senate on Thursday.

The bill now would only limits schools from holding special elections to run referendums.

This isn’t the first time referendum restrictions have come up at the Statehouse. Those who favor limiting these votes argue that timing the public question with the general election will ensure better turnout, since fewer voters show up for primaries.

“I think it’s important when there’s a public question that can end up resulting in a tax increase that the maximum number of voters possible weigh-in,” said Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton, an elections committee member.

But school advocates say the restriction would have hampered traditional public school districts by chipping away at their only option for increasing revenue above the state’s property tax cap. The Indiana State Teachers Union said limiting districts to a November vote is “unnecessary,” saying on its website there is no evidence the current system is being abused.

Referendums have seen higher rates of success in May, according to Indiana University’s Center for Evaluation & Education Policy, which tracks these votes. Since 2009, 73% of the referendums attempted in May have passed while 56% passed in November.

“Now that (schools) are winning, they want to put handcuffs on it,” said Paul Kaiser, Superintendent of Beech Grove Schools. “It shouldn’t be the General Assembly telling what’s best for Beech Grove… we have elected officials on the school board who should decide.”

With schools largely reliant on state money for operating expenses, a growing number of districts are appealing to voters. More than 115 of the state’s nearly 300 districts have put education referendums on the ballot in the past decade.

More than 100 referendums have been run in the spring over the last decade, while 66 have been on the ballot in November. This May, voters in 11 districts will consider 14 referendums.

Beech Grove will vote on two such referendums in May. If passed, they would bring in an additional $16 million for construction and $800,000 for operations each year for eight years.

The district has previously passed referendums in both the fall and spring, Kaiser said. They chose May this year to allow more time after school began to give voters information.

“When you do it in the fall you don’t have as much time to meet with people,” he said. “For us, it was really more of the timing and having more time to hold community meetings.”

The state already adjusted its referendum process to encourage districts to stay within the regular election cycle. Some districts held special elections at their own cost during off years in order to renew their seven-year operational referendums, which are generally used for teacher pay and programming. Those measures now last for eight years.

Will the Red For Ed teacher rally spur change in Indiana? Here are 5 things to watch.

2019-11-20T20:42:21+00:00

Tuesday’s Red For Ed rally at the Indiana Statehouse saw thousands of teachers attend, but what happens next?

The one-day demonstration ended without any promises from lawmakers, but the state’s top Republican legislator suggested the massive gathering could lead to changes down the road.

“We get it,” said House Speaker Brian Bosma, addressing teachers from the House chamber. “We get that you’re frustrated. We get that you are concerned.”

The rally marked the state’s first large-scale demonstration amid a wave of teacher activism nationwide. Indiana State Police said more than 5,000 people were inside the statehouse, not counting the number of people amassed outside. The Indiana State Teachers Association, the state’s largest union, estimated around 20,000 teachers attended, and said that 146 school districts across the state canceled classes.

The state teachers union is asking the General Assembly to do three things: allocate part of the state’s more than $2 billion surplus to schools, pass a hold-harmless provision to protect teachers and schools from any negative consequences related to low 2019 ILEARN test scores, and repeal new licensing requirements mandating teachers to do 15 hours of professional development related to their community’s workforce needs.

Teachers who were there also demanded higher pay, smaller class sizes, less standardized testing and more respect, among other things.

It remains to be seen how many of their asks will find support among the General Assembly’s Republican supermajority, especially when the state’s budget is already set through 2020. Here are five things to watch as the story unfolds:

1. Lawmakers will consider decoupling teacher evaluations from test scores.

Bosma said lawmakers need to take a “hard look” at separating teacher assessments from test scores. Currently, standardized test scores factor into teacher’s rating, which affects whether they are eligible for raises or bonuses.

Education advocates, including State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick, have called for decoupling the two for years, arguing that the standardized test in Indiana has become too high-stakes. But until now, the idea has not seen support from lawmakers, such as Bosma, who backed previous education reforms aimed at increasing accountability.

“Maybe that doesn’t make as much sense as it seemed to 20 years ago,” the House Speaker said during a legislative preview Indiana chamber hosted on Monday.

2. A hold-harmless provision is expected to pass quickly.

Passing a hold-harmless provision to protect teacher evaluations and school’s A-F grades from potential negative consequences of low ILEARN scores remains among lawmaker’s top priorities, Bosma said Tuesday. Calls for the one-year exemption started pouring in from schools and state leaders — including Gov. Eric Holcomb — even before the 2019 scores were publicly released. And districts were already given permission by the state to finish teacher evaluations with 2018 grades so they can get their bonuses on time.

The General Assembly is expected to formally pass hold-harmless legislation quickly after the session starts in January.

3. The budget may be opened, which would also create the opportunity for increasing education funding.

It’s not yet clear if lawmakers will need to open the budget this year. Bosma previously said he does not want to, but also that he is interested in using some of the state’s $2 billion surplus. Democrat lawmakers argue that would mean opening the budget — which could mean putting some of that money toward education.

The Indiana teachers union, ISTA, wants the state to give schools $75 million of the estimated $400 million the state will bring in this year above its expected revenue, President Keith Gambill has told Chalkbeat.

Republican lawmakers, however, don’t seem interested in using the surplus for education. Bosma and Rep. Bob Behning, chairman of the House Education Committee, have both said using a one-time influx of cash would be irresponsible because that revenue stream could not be sustained going forward. Bosma said he wants to use the surplus to pay down the state’s long-term debts.

4. Lawmakers may dial back on the list of required training for teachers, including 15-hour “externships.”

ISTA is asking lawmakers to repeal a new licensing requirement that has teachers doing unpaid “externships” in local businesses to get 15 hours of professional development related to their community’s workforce needs.

At a legislative preview on Monday, Bosma said he sees the value in the requirement for high school teachers, but questioned whether it was worthwhile for elementary school teachers — signaling his openness to changing it.

Bosma said Tuesday that the General Assembly should also revisit the long list of state-required trainings for teachers. Earlier this month a state committee charged the department of education with recommending how to consolidate or trim the list.

5. Indiana could see more action from teachers.

Multiple speakers at Tuesday’s rally called on teachers to continue the momentum.

“This is Day One of many days,” McCormick said when addressing teachers on Tuesday. “This can’t start and end today.”

Becky Pringle, vice president of the National Education Association, called on teachers to do “whatever it takes.” Meanwhile, Randi Weingarten, National President of the American Federation of Teachers, said Indiana’s teacher were experiencing the same anger she’s seen in other states where teachers went on strike for better funding or higher pay, such as West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.

No one called for Indiana teachers to strike — Weingarten called that a “last resort” — but they did encourage them to meet with lawmakers, write letters, and turn out for the 2020 gubernatorial election.

‘This can’t start and end today’: Thousands of teachers flood the Statehouse in Red For Ed rally

2019-11-19T23:38:59+00:00

Music teacher Jill Weaver woke up at 4 a.m. and drove two hours to the Indiana Statehouse Tuesday, bundled against the cold in a red jacket, scarf, and gloves. That’s how eager she was to convey her message to lawmakers.

“What I see happening with education … is terrifying. It’s terrifying for my grandkids,” said Weaver, a Rochester Community Schools music teacher who held a sign reading, “Here’s a note: Rural Schools Matter too!”

Weaver’s urgent tone was echoed by educators across Tuesday’s Red for Ed rally, a one-day demonstration of force by Indiana teachers described as unprecedented by its organizers. Several thousand educators rallied on the ceremonial opening day for the legislative session to demand more funding, higher pay, less standardized testing, and smaller class sizes.

More than 5,000 people entered the statehouse for the event, according to Indiana State Police, although that doesn’t account for some of the crowds who gathered and marched outside. Indiana State Teachers Association estimated around 20,000 teachers attended, with 146 school districts canceling classes for the day.

The rally — which filled the lawn on the south side of the building in a sea of red before splitting up to meet with lawmakers or march — marks the state’s first large scale demonstration amid a wave of teacher activism nationwide.

Teachers rally because other methods of telling their story have been “ignored, dismissed or discouraged,” Randi Weingarten, national president of the American Federation of Teachers, told Chalkbeat after addressing a crowd of teachers. She said she’s seen the same thing in states where teachers have gone on strike for more funding and higher pay, including West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Arizona.

“This is what happens when you don’t know what else to do,” she said. “You get really angry.”

Weingarten was one of two national union leaders to attend the rally. Becky Pringle, vice president of the National Education Association, also addressed teachers, alluding to taking bigger action in the future.

“What are you prepared to do?” Pringle said, then answered the question for Hoosier educators: “Whatever it takes.”

Weingarten echoed local unions’ calls for lawmakers to use some of the state’s $2 billion surplus to help fill gaps in education, such as a teacher shortage. Afterward, she told reporters that teachers in Indiana seem particularly betrayed by lawmakers.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten addresses a crowd of Red For Ed rally participants at the Indiana Statehouse on Nov. 19, 2019.

Some teachers criticized Gov. Eric Holcomb for missing the rally and attending what his office said was a previously scheduled Republican Governors Association meeting in Florida. Holcomb released a statement Tuesday saying the rally was a “great opportunity” for educators to express their voice.

“I remain committed to finding long-term sustainable solutions to increase teacher compensation,” he said. “That’s why I created the Next Level Teacher Compensation Commission and signed our recent two-year budget that included historic levels of increased funding for K-12.”

The state’s largest union, the Indiana State Teachers Association, is calling for lawmakers to take three actions: allocate part of the state’s more than $2 billion surplus to schools, pass a hold-harmless provision to protect schools from any negative consequences related to low 2019 ILEARN scores, and repeal new license requirements requiring teachers to do 15 hours of professional development related to their community’s workforce needs.

“The purse strings start at the state,” ISTA President Keith Gambill said Tuesday morning. “We hope to hear from lawmakers that they are ready to take bold action. If they don’t, elections are coming in 2020.”

Some Republican lawmakers said they were open to some of the teachers’ causes, though it remains unclear exactly how their concerns could be addressed — especially if the state doesn’t reopen its budget, which is set through 2020.

The General Assembly sent more money overall to schools last year and relieved pension expenses for districts with the goal of freeing up money for teacher salaries — accomplishments Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma pointed to while making his scheduled statement for Opening Day.

During his address, Bosma — sporting a red tie in support of the teachers — acknowledged that legislative action over the past decade has not “moved the needle” on teacher pay, but continued to place responsibility on local districts by pointing out that they negotiate and set salaries.

That sentiment was met with a “Red For Ed” chant from a crowd of rally participants watching the chamber proceedings from the hallway. When Bosma brought up that the state replaced the widely-criticized ISTEP exam with ILEARN, the crowd boo-ed.

“That’s too bad,” Bosma said as the booing continued, pausing and appearing to skip forward in his planned comments.

Thousands of teachers attend a Red For Read rally at the Indiana Statehouse on Nov. 19, 2019.

Republican leaders largely laid low during the rally, with the notable exception of State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick.

“Indiana kids deserve to have adequate and equitable funding,” she said during a press conference. “It’s easy to shift the blame. It’s easy to blame local superintendents … It starts upstairs in the Statehouse.”

McCormick made an unscheduled appearance at AFT’s gathering, surrounded on stage by Democrat lawmakers. She and Democrat gubernatorial candidate Eddie Melton walked out together to greet the crowd Tuesday morning.

“This is Day One of many days,” McCormick said when addressing teachers. “This can’t start and end today.”

While there was high energy at the rally and multiple calls for teachers to continue its momentum, speakers stopped short of suggesting a strike.

Striking is always a “last resort,” Weingarten said to Chalkbeat, because it invites criticism. And she hinted that teachers may not reach that point in Indiana after Tuesday’s showing.

“Frankly what we are seeing across the country is that when teachers speak, communities listen,” she said.

Indianapolis Public Schools board signs off on $31 million in raises for teachers, support staff

2019-11-13T03:20:12+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools has approved $31.2 million in raises over the next two years for teachers and support staff. The school board voted unanimously to approve the salary increases at a Tuesday evening meeting.

A 2018 voter-backed referendum funded this latest round of pay increases. Some teachers will see their salaries go up by as much as $9,400 this year, a significant increase designed to account for years of recession-era pay freezes.

Starting teachers salaries will go up by more than $2,600 to $45,200 in 2019-2020. The top of the current scale will rise to $82,800, up from $74,920. During the second year of the contract, pay for starting teachers is set to increase to $47,800 and the top of the scale would reach $90,000. The contract, which the Indianapolis Education Association negotiated, covers roughly 1,900 educators.

Support staff represented by AFSCME Local 661 will also receive pay increases, ranging from an average of $450 for food service workers to an average of $2,350 for custodians.

All of the pay raises will be retroactive to July 2019.

“We talk a lot about teachers and educators, but it’s a school family,” said Indianapolis Public Schools Board President Michael O’Connor. “The board is committed to making sure all of our school family feels appreciated and compensated fairly.”

Tina Ahlgren, a teachers union negotiator and district math teacher, has been fighting for years to ensure pay in the district is competitive with nearby school systems.

“For me, it’s always been about teacher retention and wanting the best people in front of our students,” Ahlgren said. “Our students deserve the best in the city.”

The size of each teachers raise will depend on their evaluations and experience, as well as whether they have a high-demand focus, such as special education.

Leaders expect the raises to help boost teacher and staff retention across the district.

“When you are putting in a classroom a teacher who feels valued through their compensation … there are very real impacts on the ability of a student to make progress academically,” said Superintendent Aleesia Johnson.

Teachers, we want to hear from you: Will you rally at the Indiana Statehouse on Nov. 19?

2019-11-11T17:06:33+00:00

So many teachers asked to take Nov. 19 off to rally at the Statehouse that some 30 districts across Indiana have canceled school or scheduled e-learning days. Both the Indiana State Teachers Association and the American Federation of Teachers Indiana plan to show up in force on the ceremonial opening day of the legislative session.

Teacher pay, education funding, passing a hold harmless exemption, and repealing new license requirements are all issues union leaders said are priorities.

In advance of the rally, Chalkbeat wants to hear from teachers themselves. What are you doing on Nov. 19 and why?

5 things to know about school referendums in Indiana

2019-10-24T20:49:22+00:00

School districts in Indiana are increasingly appealing directly to residents for more money for everything from teachers salaries to new school buildings.

With schools largely reliant on state money for operating expenses, and with local dollars capped and primarily covering transportation and facilities, more than 115 of the state’s nearly 300 districts have put education referendums on the ballot in the past decade.

2019 Referendums: See which districts are putting referendums on the ballot and how much they are asking for.

With 10 Indiana school districts asking voters to approve a tax increase on Election Day next month, here’s what you should know about Indiana education referendums, where they are passing, and how they impact local districts:

1. Districts in the state’s poorest and wealthiest areas are most likely to attempt a referendum.

A new report by the Legislative Services Agency found that districts in wealthy areas — with per capita incomes in the top 20% of the state — have attempted and passed the most referendums. While districts in poor areas — with per capita income in the bottom 20% — have attempted and passed the second largest amount of referendums in the state, nearly double the number that have been passed in areas that fall into the middle income brackets.

Districts in wealthy areas often rely on referendums to offset their lower state funding under a formula that provides additional dollars to districts per student considered to be living in poverty. By contrast, districts in low-income areas typically run referendums to make up for lost money as its enrollment declines and property taxes are capped.

2. Only one type of school referendum can be used to increase teacher pay.

There are three types of referendums available to schools in Indiana. One for construction projects, one for safety features and one for day-to-day operational costs. Only operational referendums, which last for up to eight years, can be used to increase teachers’ salaries.

But operational referendums don’t have to be used for that pay. In fact, the state has recently seen a growing number of districts using operational referendums to address school shooting concerns — adding security measures and mental health supports.

3. Teachers in districts that passed a referendum see larger salary increases.

Since 2014, teachers in districts that passed a referendum specifically to attract or retain teachers saw larger salary increases than teachers at districts that didn’t attempt a referendum, according to the LSA report. Teachers in those districts also started with a higher average salary before the referendum.

Two years after their districts passed the referendum, teachers saw their combined average salary increase by 3.7%, jumping to $53,563, from $51,441. Teachers in districts without a referendum comparatively saw their combined average salary increase by 1.8% during the same two years, rising to $50,059.

4. A school referendum has been attempted in less than half of the state’s counties.

While the number of districts attempting referendums has continued to grow, voters in more than half of the counties in the state have never seen one on the ballot. At least one referendum has been attempted by a district in 37 of Indiana’s 92 counties, according to the Department of Local Government Finance.

5. Marion County has attempted the most referendums, and seen the highest success rate.

School districts in Marion County have both attempted and passed the most referendums in the state. Twelve of the 14 such ballot measures attempted since 2009 were successful. The county has 11 school districts, including the state’s largest, Indianapolis Public Schools, which passed a $222 million operational and $52 million construction referendum last year.

In November, Lawrence Township will be the only district from Marion County with such an education measure on the ballot. The district is seeking a construction referendum worth $191 million to expand and renovate school buildings.

IPS teachers could see raises as high as $9,400 under tentative contract deal

2019-10-22T20:26:52+00:00

Mid-career teachers in Indianapolis Public Schools could get “catch up” raises as large as $9,400 if school board members approve a tentative contract for the next two years.

Teachers across the district would see substantial pay increases under the proposal, with the district’s starting salary for teachers rising to $45,200 this school year, according to a union official.

The sweeping raises are the result of a tax referendum approved by the voters last November — with the promise of higher teacher pay — that will inject about $27.5 million a year into the school system for the next eight years. The raises also mark a significant and potentially reinvigorating victory for the Indianapolis Education Association, a teachers union that has been weakened by scandal and the district’s growing collaboration with charter schools.

A union official confirmed that the contract was ratified by teachers. It will now go to the Indianapolis Public Schools board for approval.

Tina Ahlgren, an Indianapolis Education Association negotiator and an IPS math teacher, described the new contract as the culmination of years of advocacy for increasing pay for educators in Indianapolis Public Schools.

“This is not just a few days, or a few weeks, or even a few months worth of work. This contract is the result of over a decade’s worth of work, some of it in the public eye and much of it behind the scenes,” Ahlgren told a room full of teachers Monday night at a union ratification meeting, much of it streamed on Facebook by one of the educators. “This is the biggest step by far in a long term strategy that has played out over the last five years.”

Roughly 1,900 educators would be covered under the union-negotiated contract with Indianapolis Public Schools. Most teachers at the city’s innovation schools, which are part of the district but run by outside managers, are not covered under the contract. About a quarter of the 33,000 students in Indianapolis Public Schools attend innovation schools.

IEA President Ronald Swann did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An Indianapolis Public Schools spokeswoman said district officials would not comment on the contract until it is finalized.

Under the proposed agreement, which has not been made public or posted online, the district’s starting salary for teachers in 2019-20 would go up by more than $2,600. The deal also brings a reward for teachers who are at the top of the current scale. The highest rung on the pay scale would go to $82,800, up from $74,920. In the second year of the contract, pay for starting teachers would increase to $47,800 and the top of the scale would reach $90,000.

(Many longtime teachers in the district also earn additional pay for advanced education, but teachers who joined the district more recently are not eligible for that extra money.)

More experienced teachers, many of whom endured years of pay freezes, could see significant increases in pay. Educators with more than three years of experience in the district could see “catch up” raises of as much as $9,400. Teachers in the middle of their careers would be eligible for the largest raises because union leaders say they are significantly underpaid relative to teachers in nearby districts.

A new state law requires the board to hold a public hearing on the tentative agreement before the school board votes, so it will be several days before the deal becomes official.

Indiana lawmakers look for better ways to identify students living in poverty

2019-10-15T22:55:53+00:00

Indiana lawmakers, facing criticism that they are underestimating the number of students living in poverty, are looking for a better way to identify these children.

The Indiana General Assembly’s interim study committee on tax and fiscal policy asked for ideas from the public and heard over two hours of testimony on Tuesday.

Some schools saw funding drop this year as fewer students qualified as low-income under the state’s new poverty measure. While Indiana previously used eligibility for free and reduced-price lunch to calculate extra funding for districts, lawmakers decided in 2015 to shift to the number of students in foster care, or whose families receive food stamps or welfare payments.

That’s a narrower — and poorer — group of students, which previously led some experts to say lawmakers could be undercounting students. And fewer students who qualify means less money for schools. Lawmakers, however, cushioned districts’ losses for two years by increasing the amount schools receive per student living in poverty.

In 2019, the state allocated more than $750 million to schools with students identified as living in poverty. In 2021, it’s expected to spend around $690 million.

It will likely be another two years before lawmakers take any new action. But ideas at Tuesday’s hearing included counting students who receive Medicaid or whose parents report a salary below a certain level on their state tax returns. Robert Toutkoushian, a University of Georgia professor who previously worked at Indiana University, said either of those options could simplify counting and ensure that families and schools aren’t affecting the numbers.

The state could also return to a tiered system, which could weigh additional factors, such as living in a single-parent home. Or lawmakers could add a measurement of area’s poverty or home values to the funding calculation.

Few poor families receive welfare, so Indiana is largely relying on food stamps to count how many students in poverty schools serve. But the maximum income for families to qualify for food stamps is much lower than it is to qualify for discounted school meals. And only about 83 percent of Hoosiers who are eligible for food stamps received them in 2017, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Amber Seibert, a teacher in Washington Township Schools, said some of her students have families who are worried about being deported and therefore don’t apply for federal programs. (In August, the Trump administration announced that immigrants who receive government benefits could have a harder time getting legal residency status — federal courts have blocked this rule.)

Seibert said she’s seen the impact that free meals and school supports have on her students — noting that “for many of my students who are food insecure,” Fall Break meant going hungry.

This debate is taking place as the state grapples with how to fairly fund schools. Research shows that students who grow up in poverty often enter school behind their more affluent peers.

Indiana is among 11 states that use the federal programs to count poverty, NCSL data showed. Most states — 32 — still use free and reduced-price lunch, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But that number has gone up since the federal government allows entire schools to receive free lunches if 40% or more of its student body qualifies for subsidized meals, according to testimony Tuesday.

The handful of remaining states rely on annual data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which experts said can measure poverty by neighborhood but may get complicated if students are able to attend a school outside of their designated district.

These Indiana districts are asking voters to approve a tax increase for more school funding

2019-10-11T21:06:05+00:00

One Marion County district is among 10 in Indiana that will ask voters to approve a tax increase on Nov. 5 to supplement state funding for local schools.

Lawrence Township is seeking a construction referendum, which would generate an additional $191 million and is not subject to the property tax cap. The funds would be used to expand and renovate school buildings. This vote marks the first school referendum for Lawrence Township, adding it to the growing number of cash-strapped districts in Indiana that rely on appealing directly to residents.

More than 115 of the state’s nearly 300 districts have put at least one referendum on the ballot since 2009, and they have been increasingly successful in passing them, according to data from Indiana University’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy.

More than 100 such referendums have been approved statewide, about 62%. This is especially true in cities and suburbs, which are more likely to pass than those in rural areas and towns. Recently the state has seen a growing number of districts using the funds to address school shooting concerns — adding security measures and mental health supports.

If approved, Lawrence Township’s referendum would fund renovations and expansions at Lawrence Central and Lawrence North high schools, as well as at the district’s four elementary schools and its four early learning centers. Renovations would involve replacing roofs, updating cafeterias, adding security cameras and renovating science classrooms, according to the district website.

The referendum would raise taxes on property owners by 25 cents per $100 of assessed value. For a house worth $145,000, that’s about $162 per year, according to the Department of Local Government Finance.

Nearby Center Grove Community Schools is seeking a referendum that would generate $3.1 million per year for eight years. While that money could technically go toward a range of operating expenses — from teachers’ salaries to technology — the district plans to use all of the money for security. Center Grove wants to hire more school police officers, add live monitoring to their security cameras, and increase mental health supports for students.

If approved, taxes in Center Grove would increase by about 12 cents per $100 of assessed value, or about $75 per year for a house worth $145,000.

For the first time this year, districts also have the option to run a safety referendum, which lasts for a maximum of eight years and is capped so schools can only ask for a maximum increase of 10 cents per $100 of assessed value. So far Carmel Clay School is the only district to put one on the ballot.

Here’s a round-up of all the districts that will put a tax increase on the ballot in November, including a couple of school districts with both construction and operational referendums:

MSD Lawrence Township

Type of referendum: construction
Estimated revenue: $191 million
Tax increase: $0.2499 per $100 of assessed value
How it would be used: The project includes expansion, restoration, and renovation at both of the district’s high schools, four elementary schools, and four early learning centers.

Center Grove Community Schools

Type of referendum: operational
Estimated revenue: $24.8 over eight years
Tax increase: $0.1150 per $100 of assessed value
How it would be used: The funding would go toward live monitoring of building cameras, additional school safety officers, and added mental health and classroom supports for students.

Carmel Clay Schools

Type of referendum: safety
Estimated revenue: $40 million over eight years
Tax increase: $0.05 per $100 assessed value.
How it would be used: The funding would be used for hiring and paying a school resource officer for each school, putting in place programs on mental illness, and implementing school safety professional development for teachers and administrators.

Danville Community Schools

Type of referendum: operational
Estimated revenue: $12.8 million over eight years.
Tax increase: $0.20 per $100 assessed value.
How it would be used: The funding would be used for transportation, teacher salaries, to lower class sizes, enhance security, and maintain its agricultural and fine arts programs.
Type of referendum: construction
Estimated value: $53 million
Tax increase: $0.6845 per $100 of assessed value
How it would be used: The project includes renovations to the academic, agricultural, and fine arts areas of Danville Community High School, Middle School, and North and South elementary schools. The district also plans to purchase new technology.

Hamilton Community Schools

Type of referendum: operational
Estimated revenue: $13.8 million over eight years
Tax increase: $0.44 per $100 assessed value
How it would be used: The funding would allow the district to maintain its current programs, including its transportation and safety features.

Huntington County Community Schools

Type of referendum: operational
Estimated revenue: $8 million over eight years
Tax increase: $0.06 per $100 assessed value
How it would be used: The funding would go toward academic programs, managing class sizes, school safety initiatives, and teacher salaries.
Type of referendum: construction
Estimated revenue: $68.48 million
Tax increase: $0.3381 per $100 of assessed value
How it would be used: The project includes renovations to Huntington North High School.

Scott County School District Number 1

Type of referendum: construction
Estimated revenue: $20 million
Tax increase: $0.9085 per $100 of assessed value
How it would be used: The project includes building a new elementary school to hold about 650 students and repurposing the former high school swimming pool into a multipurpose room.

Vigo County Schools

Type of referendum: operational
Estimated revenue: $7 million over eight years
Tax increase: $0.1622 per $100 of assessed value
How it would be used: The funding would go toward transportation, school safety initiatives, a reduction in class sizes, and teachers’ salaries.

Washington Community Schools

Type of referendum: construction
Estimated revenue: $38 million
Tax increase: $0.4829 per $100 of assessed value
How it would be used: The project includes building a new middle school and making district-wide security improvements.

Zionsville Community Schools

Type of referendum: construction
Estimated value: $89 million
Tax increase: $0.2580 per $100 of assessed value
How it would be used: The project includes building a new elementary school and renovating and expanding “many [of the district’s] existing buildings.”
Type of referendum: operational
Estimated value: $64 over eight years
Tax increase: $0.244 per $100 of assessed value
How it would be used: The funds would replace an existing operational referendum with a higher levy and be used for academic programs and managing class sizes.

‘No need to wait’: Indiana Democrat pitches a teacher pay plan, but it could be a hard sell

2019-10-08T00:11:03+00:00

An Indiana lawmaker is pressing forward on teacher pay — even though a state commission’s recommendations on the issue aren’t expected for nearly a year.

Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, put forward a plan Monday to raise teachers’ salaries. Among his proposals: give districts incentives to set minimum pay at $40,000, and freeze corporate tax rates to pay for it.

DeLaney, who sits on the House education committee, knows his ideas will likely face an uphill battle with the state’s Republican supermajority, but said it’s important that the conversation around teacher pay not fade into the background while the governor’s commission mulls its recommendations.

“There is absolutely no need to wait for two years,” said DeLaney, who wants to see lawmakers take action sooner. “We are not creating rocket science here, we are simply trying to put money into a complex system.”

Indiana is so far behind neighboring states in teacher compensation that it would cost an estimated $658 million to make salaries more competitive, according to a January report. In 2016-17, Indiana teachers made an average salary of $50,554, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, compared to $61,602 in Illinois and $57,000 in Ohio. Starting salaries in Indiana, however, can be as low as $30,000.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb tasked a special commission with tackling the teacher pay question. But the 14-member group — composed of former corporate executives, a philanthropist, and nonprofit leaders — isn’t expected to finish its report and make recommendations until Aug. 2020, in advance of the next legislative session that sets the state budget for two years.

DeLaney wants to give school districts that raise their minimum teacher’s salary to $40,000 grants equivalent to about $100 per student. The state educates about 1 million public school students, so the incentives could cost as much as $100 million. Increasing starting salaries is a good place to start, he said, and pay increases would “ripple up” to more experienced teachers.

He proposed the same idea in a bill amendment in February, but it failed. This time around, DeLaney has a plan to pay for it: by freezing corporate tax rates, rather than lowering them as usual. Such a move would generate an additional $229 million over four years, DeLaney said.

His plan also suggests freeing up funds in school budgets for salaries. It would do this by providing additional state dollars for school counseling services since the ratio of counselors to students is well below the national average. Additionally, he wants to give more money to districts that receive less property tax revenue.

Andy Downs, a political scientist from Purdue University Fort Wayne, said the idea of a $40,000 minimum salary may appeal to voters and school districts because it leaves the decision to increase salaries up to local schools. But he said lawmakers are typically unwilling to open the budget when it has already been set. They will also likely oppose a tax freeze that could make the state less business-friendly.

“Those who do not want to increase teacher pay right now can say we are waiting on the rest of the analysis [from the governor’s commission],” Downs said. “That’s the easy excuse to not do anything.”

Rep. Bob Behning, an Indianapolis Republican who chairs the House Education Committee, did not respond to requests for comment Monday evening. He has previously said he will look at additional ways to “cut overhead costs and drive more dollars to teachers’ pockets” in the upcoming legislative session.

“We need to look at long-term, sustainable solutions to increase teacher pay,” Behning told Chalkbeat last month. “I will consider all sustainable options to increase teacher pay.”

Last session lawmakers pumped more money into schools overall — an increase of 2.5 percent — and freed up $70 million each year in retirement payments, which they hoped would send more money into teachers’ pockets. But the impact of the additional funding varies across districts and there’s no guarantee salaries will increase.

The state’s largest union, the Indiana State Teachers Association, has called on lawmakers to allocate more from the state’s surplus, an idea Behning previously said wasn’t sustainable. The union’s vice president, Jennifer Smith-Margraf, said in an email Monday that ISTA is looking forward to learning more about DeLaney’s proposals. The union’s goal is to reach a statewide average teacher’s salary of $60,000.

“I’m happy to hear legislators acknowledging that teacher pay and public school funding is a pressing issue,” she said.

‘This is not rocket science’: Indiana educators bring ideas for raising teacher pay to Holcomb’s commission

2019-08-20T02:51:36+00:00

When Robin Robinson stood in front of the governor’s teacher pay commission on Monday, she came prepared with a script: a paper listing her salary, year by year.

As the eighth-grade social studies teacher for the Monroe-Gregg School District recited her annual salaries, a trend became clear. She has been teaching for more than 30 years, but around 15 years ago her salary stopped growing. Then it started shrinking, landing below $60,000.

The seven-member commission panel — made up of former corporate executives, a philanthropist, and non-profit leaders — heard many similar stories as teachers offered their ideas and pleas for better pay.

The suggestions put forth over more than two hours largely reiterated familiar calls: to reallocate funding from charter schools to public schools, strengthen teachers’ power to bargain their contracts, and bring back a pay scale that guarantees more pay for teachers each year they work.

Many teachers said they were thankful for the opportunity to be heard — but said they had shared these suggestions before.

“There are so many seemingly obvious solutions,” said Marydell Forbes, an English teacher at West Lafayette Jr./Sr. High School. “With all due respect, this is not rocket science. And while we are passionate, we are not the Peace Corps.”

Monday night was the public’s first chance to provide input to the state commission tasked with making recommendations for how to improve teacher salaries. Until now the group has only met privately — a decision the state’s public access counselor previously said was legal although it stirred controversy, especially among educators.

Monday’s meeting — the first of three scheduled this month around the state — was also the group’s first opportunity to provide a public update on its work.

Commission Chairman Mike Smith didn’t say exactly what changes the commission is considering. He opened the meeting by saying the group has met at least once a month for more than six months, reviewing national and state data and sifting through more than 2,000 suggestions from at least 800 teachers that were submitted online. Members also met individually or in small groups with state Superintendent Jennifer McCormick, he said.

Both current Indiana State Teacher Association president Keith Gambill and former president Teresa Meredith were among those who called for the state to allow districts to reinstate salary schedules that would allow them to set a predetermined pay increase for teachers each year, or with each added degree or certification.

Mark Hodson, a language arts teacher at Anderson High School in Anderson, said he started teaching in Indiana prior to 2011, when lawmakers abolished salary schedules in favor of tying teachers’ raises to their evaluations.. Knowing that his pay would increase helped when his starting salary was low, he said.

“I had a plan,” he said. “I knew that one day I would be all right. I could buy a home, I could buy a car, we could send our kids to school.”

Teachers also called for the commission to consider the rising cost of insurance. In May, Robinson said teachers in her district got a raise. But after insurance costs increased, Robinson said she ended up taking home $21 less per paycheck.

One teacher suggested having one common insurance plan for all public educators in the state to try to keep costs to teachers lower, an idea that Smith told Chalkbeat afterwards is “worthy of review.”

More ideas included trying to use money from the Hoosier lottery, large tax breaks for teachers (one teacher suggested protecting $20,000 of teachers’ earnings from being taxed), and making bargaining public so teachers would know what is being negotiated.

Hoosier teachers’ discontent over low pay has recently boiled up, like in many states around the country, with some rallying for bigger paychecks. It’s a critical issue that has become contentious for public school teachers against the backdrop of Indiana’s fiscal conservatism and proliferation of school choice, which some criticize for drawing dollars away from school districts.

Indiana has consistently ranked among the lowest states in teacher pay, lagging so far behind neighboring states that it would cost nearly $658 million to increase teacher salaries to competitive levels, a report by Stand for Children Indiana and Teach Plus Indiana found.

The National Center for Education Statistics reports that Indiana teachers made an average salary of $50,554 in 2016-17. Some of the state’s lowest-paid teachers make closer to $30,000 a year.

“We’re not asking to be rich,” Forbes said Monday. “We’re asking to be treated as the college-educated professionals that we are, and to have a living wage with which to raise our families.”

The majority of the crowd of about 100 people had taught for more than 20 years, according to a show of hands.

In an effort to help districts boost teacher salaries, this year lawmakers sent more money overall to schools and relieved pension expenses for districts. But the funding increase is expected to keep education spending about on track with inflation, and there was no requirement that districts put any savings from pensions toward teacher pay. A proposal to raise the starting salary for Indiana teachers to $40,000 was also shot down.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb introduced the commission and its advisory council during his January State of the State address. The commission is expected to submit recommendations to the state legislature by its next budget-writing session in 2021.

Two more public meetings are scheduled:

10 a.m. (Central Time) Saturday, Aug. 24, at the Central High School auditorium, 5400 First Avenue, Evansville
7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 27, at the Concord Jr. High Cafeteria, 59397 County Road 11, Elkhart

Smith said the commission does not have plans for any other public meeting, but said the commission will continue traveling the state and talking to teachers.

Who’s on the Next Level Teacher Compensation Commission:

Commission Chairman Michael L. Smith (Indianapolis), former chairman, president, and CEO of Mayflower Group and former executive vice president and CFO of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield
Jená Bellezza (Gary), COO of Indiana Parenting Institute
Tom Easterday (Zionsville), former senior executive vice president, secretary, and chief legal officer for Subaru of Indiana Automotive
Marianne Glick (Indianapolis), chair of the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Family Foundation and board member of the Gene B. Glick Company
Bob Jones (Evansville), recently retired chairman and CEO of Old National Bancorp
Katie Jenner (Madison), senior education advisor to Gov. Holcomb
Nancy Jordan (Fort Wayne), senior vice president of Lincoln Financial Group

Who’s on the advisory council:

Melissa Ambre (Noblesville), director of the Office of School Finance for the Indiana Department of Education
Lee Ann Kwiatkowski (Greenwood), director of public education and CEO of Muncie Community Schools
Emily Holt (Arcadia), math teacher at Westfield High School
Dan Holub (Indianapolis), executive director of the Indiana State Teachers Association
Denise Seger (Granger), chief human resource officer for Concord Community Schools in Elkhart
David Smith (Evansville), superintendent of Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation
Rebecca Gardenour (New Albany), member of the New Albany-Floyd County Board of School Trustees and member of the Indiana School Boards Association

Why IPS wants high schoolers to take IndyGo instead of yellow school buses

2019-07-26T21:08:31+00:00

Indianapolis Public Schools is launching a district-wide pilot this year that will give more than 5,000 high school students access to free bus passes. But public buses won’t be replacing yellow school buses anytime soon.

The pilot aims to help the district, which has long provided its own bus service, determine whether the public IndyGo system can transport high schoolers — and potentially save the schools more than $11 million each year, according to district officials. It’s an essential prong of the financial overhaul Indianapolis Public Schools began last year to win support from the Indy Chamber for a tax measure to increase school funding.

It remains uncertain, however, how many high school students will be able to rely on the city’s long-starved transit system to get to school if the district eventually stops providing buses.

Indianapolis is a car city, and years of under-investment in public transit and car-centric planning have made it challenging to serve all neighborhoods with buses, said Bryan Luellen, Vice President of Public Affairs for IndyGo. Some areas are not pedestrian-friendly or dense enough to support frequent routes, he said.

City buses don’t fit every context, Luellen said. “We’re focusing on where mass transit makes sense.”

“Potentially, there are always going to be some kids who aren’t located in a place where they can safely walk to a bus route,” he said. “We’re really working to mesh the two services…so that we are not duplicating each other.”

Indianapolis Public Schools officials specifically raised concerns that the Northwest and Northeast sides of the district won’t have adequate service.

Still, the public transit system is in the midst of a massive expansion that district and city leaders hope will enable it to adequately serve high schoolers. Voters approved a tax hike to support public transit, and construction is almost complete on the Red Line, the first of three planned bus rapid transit routes to help speed up service in the coming years. At the same time, IndyGo is aiming to significantly increase frequency on other routes.

For many students, public transit will likely be a reasonable route to school. Buses stop at least every half hour at all four traditional Indianapolis Public Schools, and three of the schools will be served by planned rapid transit lines, Luellen said. About 80% to 85% of students live within a reasonable walking distance to an IndyGo stop, he said.

The district ran a smaller IndyGo pilot last year, but there was no strategy for encouraging students to use the buses, said Dennis Tackitt, the district’s chief of transformation. This year, the district aims to boost ridership by doing more outreach to parents and students, he said.

“We want to build ridership,” Tackitt said. “We want to help our community understand that this is a viable option not only now but well into the future.”

Cutting transportation costs is key to balancing the district’s budget in the long term. Busing is unusually costly in Indianapolis Public Schools compared with other school systems, in part because the district ferries students to specialized schools throughout the city.

The district spends about $12 million each year busing high school students, district officials said. In contrast, relying on public buses would cost about $500,000 per year, according to estimates.

But there are potential pitfalls to the switch, including inadequate access and low participation, and district leaders want more data before deciding. Over the next two years, high schoolers will be able to ride city buses for free anytime, including taking public buses to and from school. If the pilot goes well, the district would consider eliminating or reducing yellow bus transportation for high schoolers in 2021-22.

“I don’t want to understate the complexities,” Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said. “There’s a lot to do, which is why I think having a two-year pilot is going to give us the runway we need to be able to decide — is this something that we can implement at scale?”

Dogged by money trouble and low enrollment, Tindley will downsize its charter network

2019-06-05T20:22:26+00:00

Prominent Indianapolis charter network Tindley Accelerated Schools will consolidate its five schools to three amid continued financial hurdles that have cast a shadow over the organization in recent years.

The move comes as Tindley continues to struggle to attract students in an increasingly crowded charter field, shrinking to serve 1,300 students this year — one of its lowest enrollments since the longtime local charter network began expanding in 2012.

Tindley has made several recent changes to try to draw in and retain more families, including loosening its notoriously strict discipline policies. But with decreasing enrollment and hefty loan payments, Tindley has been put on notice by its charter oversight agency to deal with its financial problems and make significant changes.

“It’s really about trying to put a model in place for long-term stability,” said Tindley Interim CEO Edreece Redmond, who took over in January after former leader Kelli Marshall stepped down.

The consolidation plan will close Tindley’s separate middle school, Tindley Collegiate, and merge the middle school with the network’s high school. That comes on the heels of last year’s decision to collapse two middle schools into one, abandoning a single-gender middle school model.

Tindley will also close one of its three elementary schools, shuttering its Tindley Genesis location near Ivy Tech Community College. Tindley will re-brand its elementary school in Avondale Meadows with the Tindley Genesis name and keep Tindley Summit running on the far-east side.

“Ultimately what’s spurring the changes is our need to make sure we’re financially stable for years to come,” Redmond said. “There’s a lot more competition out there, and we just have to do things better and more efficiently.”

Redmond said he’s “very excited about the future of Tindley.” The consolidation will relieve some facilities’ costs, and Tindley will still have the capacity to serve just as many students.

The network will likely face some layoffs with the consolidation, but Redmond said he hopes to minimize cuts to teaching positions. He did not have an estimate for the number of layoffs.

Still, some families are concerned that the effort only feeds instability that could dilute the culture they chose for their children.

“I know we can’t come up with millions, but there has to be some idea we can come up with in order to keep this school,” said Tracy Wright, 50, while waiting Tuesday afternoon to pick up her granddaughter, 13-year-old LaTaviana McMillan, from Tindley Collegiate Academy. “Our black children need a school like this. They just do.”

Wright said she’s a believer in “the Tindley way” and in the role the network plays in encouraging underrepresented students to grow academically and socially.

Although she’s concluded its extreme “College or Die” approach might not work for all students — her youngest son, Oscar Wright, attended Tindley for a time before dropping out of high school — she said the network has created a home for her family that she doesn’t intend to leave.

“Of course, at the end of the day, kids make their own choices,” Tracy Wright said. “But I want [LaTaviana] at Tindley until the day she graduates.”

Still, with the latest move, Wright worries high school students could have a bad influence on younger students, classrooms would be overcrowded, and teachers would be stretched thin.

Pam Johnson, 63, joined in this concern. Overfilled classrooms and a lack of specialized help from public school educators for her granddaughter, 15-year-old Cherika Sanford, was what spurred her to choose Tindley in the first place.

“We have our children in these schools because there are so many students in the public schools as is,” Johnson said. “You can’t have 35, 40 students in one classroom. That’s never going to be a good thing.”

Both Wright and Johnson said they did not realize the full extent of the consolidation process until their interviews with Chalkbeat, but said the details may have been lost amid frequent notices and messages from Tindley schools. Redmond said families were notified on May 17.

Though each family voiced their skepticism about the latest Tindley development, Johnson and Wright also said Tindley’s programs are one-of-a-kind in a now-crowded field of charter schools, a reality Tindley leadership said is a driving force behind the consolidation.

Tindley launched in 2004 among Indianapolis’ first charter schools, quickly garnering acclaim for its college prep model and rigorous academic and behavioral expectations for low-income black students in Avondale Meadows. It grew to six schools — walking away from plans for a seventh school in 2016 — but the network has weathered a series of challenges in recent years.

In 2015, news broke that founding CEO Marcus Robinson used the nonprofit’s dollars to fund lavish hotel stays and first-class flights on his work-related travels while the organization’s board scrambled for loans to cover the schools’ financial needs. Tindley also pulled out of running Arlington High School in 2014, saying the takeover effort was too expensive.

A 2017 audit submitted to the state shows the network owed $12.7 million in loans. Tindley sought a waiver for meeting some of the terms of the loans, then went into forbearance. Redmond said the network is working on refinancing its debts.

Tindley schools are performing well in general, with three of its locations earning A grades from the state in 2017-18. The other two — Tindley Renaissance and Tindley Summit — scored Cs. And in 2016, four of the network’s schools ranked as top 10 charter schools on ISTEP passing rates in Indianapolis.

But reports by the mayor’s office, which oversees the Tindley schools, show the schools struggle with teacher and leadership turnover, and families have said they’re frustrated with school leaders’ lack of communication.

A site visit by the mayor’s office last year to Tindley Renaissance noted that the network is stressing a message of long-term investment to teachers, students, and parents: “To teachers the message has been: ‘If you have been with Tindley longer, you are a better teacher.’ To parents: ‘The longer you’re here, the better your child will be.’”

The site visit, however, along with a site visit to Tindley Collegiate, showed that relaxing the network’s discipline policies — rules that the previous Tindley CEO admitted were “militaristic” and potentially harmful to enrollment and student retention — hasn’t had an immediate payoff. Instead, teachers reported it was more difficult to control student behavior without strict consequences.

At Tindley Collegiate, middle school students continued to face staggering out-of-school suspension rates despite the changes and were “on track to have a record-breaking year,” according to the December site visit report. In 2017-18, Tindley Collegiate reported 363 total out-of-school suspensions, involving 138 students, according to the state.

Redmond said network leaders are reviewing policies and could make adjustments “where there are opportunities to improve.”

Stephanie Wang contributed reporting.

Indiana lawmakers will scrutinize school funding, but virtual schools aren’t on the agenda this summer

2019-05-21T19:01:21+00:00

Indiana lawmakers have decided how they’ll spend their summer vacation: taking a closer look at how schools use money from property tax measures and how the state funds education for students in poverty.

Legislative leaders chose those topics Tuesday for interim study committees, which will meet over the summer and fall ahead of next year’s legislative session. They have not yet assigned which lawmakers will sit on the interim study committees.

One topic will be noticeably absent: virtual schools’ finances. When lawmakers passed new regulations on Indiana’s troubled online schools in an attempt to make sure students remain engaged in classwork, they also asked for a panel to look at virtual schools’ spending. Legislative leaders ignored that request.

Through a spokeswoman, Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, said lawmakers fielded more than 150 study topic requests and didn’t have time for all of them.

Indiana’s fast-growing virtual charter schools post poor academic results while collecting millions in state funding — most of which is funneled to for-profit operators, including online education giants Connections Academy, which is part of Pearson Education, and K12 Inc.

A 2017 Chalkbeat investigation of Indiana Virtual School also showed how the school paid millions to companies linked to the school’s founder — while hiring barely any teachers.

Lawmakers will also continue to examine career counseling in K-12 schools, weighing the effects of new graduation pathways meant to help better prepare students for careers after high school. Under the new requirements, districts are offering more ways for students to gain experience and skills in different careers.

But lawmakers are looking at whether districts have enough money to support career counseling, and whether graduation pathways are putting too much work on career counselors.

In general, Indiana already faces a problem of school counselors being overloaded, shouldering responsibilities for academic and career advising, social and emotional support, and administrative tasks. In 2014-2015, Indiana had an average of 543 students per counselor, above the national average and significantly higher than the American School Counselor Association recommendation of no more than 250 students per counselor.

The closer look at funding for students in poverty comes after years of discussion over how much extra money high-poverty schools should receive, and how big of a gap that causes with wealthier suburban schools. Indiana’s Republican majority has favored spreading money more evenly between schools, causing funding to stagnate for high-needs districts. That controversy reignited this budget cycle, leading lawmakers to put more money toward students from low-income families than they initially planned.

The examination of school referendums is also timely. In Indiana, public school funding mostly comes from the state, and some school districts were hit hard by controversial property tax caps. So some districts, including Indianapolis Public Schools and other Indianapolis districts, have turned to asking voters to approve tax hikes to generate more money for schools.

But voters don’t always want to see their property taxes increase. For example, voters turned down four school referendums earlier this month. And last year, Indianapolis Public Schools had to substantially cut its two referendums in order to garner local support. The referendums were ultimately successful.

Lawmakers want to examine how schools are spending those extra funds, including how referendum dollars could affect teacher salaries — a critical issue facing the state.

Virtual schools see major budget cuts under Indiana Senate plan

2019-04-11T14:26:10+00:00

Indiana’s virtual schools would see budget cuts in a proposal from state Senate lawmakers that would also cap how much the controversial schools can grow.

Amid mounting scandals surrounding two of the state’s virtual charter schools, state House lawmakers this year did not suggest upping virtual charter school funding from 90 percent of what brick-and-mortar schools receive to 100 percent as they have in the past.

But the Senate plan, voted out of the Appropriations Committee on Thursday, would reduce the funding for virtual charter schools further, to just 80 percent of what traditional schools receive. It would also cap state spending on virtual charter schools at the current $80 million level. Virtual schools within school districts, which have so far received the same funding as traditional schools, would also see their funding reduced to 80 percent.

Some lawmakers said they were trying to send a message to the troubled schools.

“The 80 percent kind of gets their attention,” said Sen. Ryan Mishler, chairman of the Appropriations Committee. “I realize that sometimes they deal with kids who are more at-risk than some of the other schools, but I think there still has to be accountability.”

Senate lawmakers have traditionally been more skeptical about virtual schools than their House counterparts, but the severity of the proposal still comes as a surprise given Indiana Republicans’ typical strong support for charter schools. Senators are also eager to cut costs wherever they can, and recent scrutiny of virtual schools make them an easy target.

Mishler said he had originally considered cutting funding even further, but he thinks it is more significant that the Senate’s plan makes virtual charter school funding a separate $80 million budget line item. He said he’s heard that there are students who enroll in virtual schools and “they just get lost and (Indiana) just pays for a kid that goes and doesn’t do anything.”

“I’m OK if the student doesn’t get an A or 100 percent, but at least show some kind of involvement and effort,” Mishler said.

Sen. Eddie Melton, a Democrat from Merrillville who proposed a bill earlier this year that would have set strict enrollment limits for the schools and change how they are monitored, said the bill was a step in the right direction but that more regulations are needed to ensure students are learning

“We’ve seen the majority of our virtual charter schools have not produced the outcomes the General Assembly has seemed to expect,” Melton said.

The funding changes could put the brakes on virtual schools’ explosive growth by removing financial incentives to drive up enrollment. Virtual charters have swelled to more than 13,000 students, with two schools that Chalkbeat investigated in 2017 alone enrolling 6,000 students — many of whom never earned a single credit, according to a recent analysis by their authorizer.

If the budget plan becomes law, the state education department would determine a maximum enrollment for virtual charter schools within the $80 million-per-year cap and a corresponding per-student dollar amount.

Lawmakers also said they want to look into factoring schools’ performance into their funding but offered no details about how that might happen.

The education department did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Melissa Brown, head of schools for Indiana Connections Academy, said she was disappointed by the Senate budget plan, which she said doesn’t recognize the improvement happening at her school. Recent state data shows that students at Connections are more likely to receive a full course load of credits than at other Indiana virtual charter schools, and the school also rose from an F to D in last year’s state grade.

“Painting all virtuals with such a broad brush does a disservice to the virtual schools who are working hard to serve and save kids every single day,” Brown said.

Chalkbeat’s investigation of Indiana Virtual School led the state to launch a review committee of virtual schools in the state, which have historically posted dismal academic results with test scores and graduation rates far below state averages.

More recent allegations against Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, have also sparked debates in the statehouse. The school’s authorizer, the Daleville district, says the schools have thousands of students in the past couple years who have not completed classes or earned credits, as well as issues with giving state tests and serving students with disabilities.

The budget plan next heads to the full Senate for amendments. Lawmakers will ultimately have to come to a compromise between the House and Senate version before session ends in three weeks.