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The Indianapolis teachers union will support a property tax referendum to fund the city’s district and charter schools, after initially voting to oppose it earlier this month.
In a statement on Friday, the Indianapolis Education Association said its members had voted overwhelmingly to support the referendum, which is expected to generate around $95 million in annual revenue split between Indianapolis Public Schools and around 60 charter schools that have opted to participate.
Key to this decision were discussions about the extent to which the district’s future budget cuts will lead to layoffs. IPS expects to make about $20 million in cuts even if the referendum passes — a sticking point that led to the union’s earlier opposition to the referendum.
IPS leaders said the district’s “current reduction plan does not include a district-wide reduction in force for educators,” the union said in its statement.
“Our responsibility was to ensure that educators would not be the first solution to the district’s financial challenges,” said Ronald Swann, IEA’s president, in the statement. “The conversations with Superintendent Johnson and IPS leadership demonstrated that our concerns were heard and that protecting educators, classrooms and students must remain central to the district’s financial decisions.”
IPS confirmed to Chalkbeat that it’s not planning on district-wide layoffs as part of the $20 million in spending cuts.
“While the district aims to avoid RIFs regardless of the outcome, individual schools may still face selective staffing adjustments to manage enrollment declines,” IPS said in a Monday statement. “Those decisions will ultimately depend on specific student needs, localized enrollment, available funding, and existing commitments.”
If the referendum doesn’t pass in November, the district expects to make more-drastic cuts of about $40 million.
The district has already taken steps to trim its budget, including $17 million in central office cuts in May that eliminated 28 positions, and $7 million in school-level budget cuts in March that cut 36 teachers and 23 classified staff.
Earlier this month, the district also left the Enroll Indy universal enrollment platform in part to cut costs.
The union’s statement said district leaders agreed on other approaches to manage costs rather than eliminate teaching positions, including advocating for increased special education funding from the state and evaluating school mergers and consolidations.
The union and district leaders also discussed evaluating the district’s current agreements with its Innovation Network schools, where IPS provides services like transportation but the schools have control over instruction and staffing.
Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.
