Hello everyone.
If you are getting this email, it is likely because you asked to be on my mailing list or I knew you to be a Franklin Township resident and thought you’d like to be informed about things you might not know related to the School REFERENDUM vote in May. My name is Geoff Horen and I am a past Franklin Township School Board Member (2004-2008). These days, I’m just a Dad of two girls… one who cheers, plays basketball and softball in the 7th grade… and the other who is a show choir girl as a freshman in high school. In the coming weeks, I'm writing a series of emails focused on different issues surrounding the referendum vote. They will be polite, but they will not be politically correct. Quite honestly, I'll share the reality of how we got here and what happens if this referendum does not pass. I will also address the reasons why some may not support the referendum. I understand I may not ultimately gain any new friends from these emails, but that’s okay. In my 4 years on the school board, if I learned anything, I learned that you can try to do the right thing and still make a lot of people upset. So, if at any time you don’t want to get these messages any longer, just drop me an email and I will quickly remove you from the list. Conversely, if you want me to add someone, get me their email as well or have them send me a short note. By the way, I send a message out each Monday called my Monday Motivation. You may see it come through later in the day. I send that out to about 1,000 people, some of whom are already receiving it on this email list. It is easiest for me to send these out in the same system, so just delete the other messages if you don’t want to be “motivated”… and watch for more of these Referendum messages in the weeks to come.
As I begin these messages, since this is such a complex issue, I will start by sharing a bit of a history so people understand the dynamics of the funding problem.
In my opinion, there was a very short era in our school system in the early 2000’s where there was some overspending in areas that might not have been entirely necessary… and my frustration at the time was that the overspending was taking place when there were other needs such as getting kids out of portable trailers used for classrooms. We had experienced so much growth year after year with families moving into the township that we didn’t have enough classrooms for kids, so our school administrators were doing what they needed to do – they were building schools and trying to find places to put kids. As we placed $4.3 million dollars in the direction of the stadium, it became the face of the problem and a source of frustration for many. It was not because the facility didn’t need an upgrade… it did… just not to the point of gaining mention in Sports Illustrated. This frustration was one of the reasons I considered running for the board in 2004 – I felt some of the priorities were out of whack.
Now, having expressed my frustration with those events that took place more than 7 years ago, and to be fair they really only took place for a short period of time, we need to really put this whole perceived overspending in a proper perspective. Understanding these facilities get a tremendous amount of use by our students and our community yet today, in my personal estimation, our township schools at that time overspent by about 5 million dollars between the stadium, some excesses at the Administration building… and I will also throw Thompson Crossing Elementary in this category because of the inordinately large square footage for an elementary and the nice, but unnecessary, cherry wood wall paneling and doors. Everyone’s number could be different, and your overspending number may not even be as high as mine, but I am being overly critical to make a point.
To place this potential overspending in context, we have a total of $308,484,544.00 of total debt service at this time. This is based on all the construction of our schools over the last several years, all of which is a direct result of all of the growth our township has experienced. My overly critical 5 million dollar waste number is somwhere between 1% and 2% of the total “current” debt service. Now, you may choose not to believe that, but given what I know from having been there and involved in the details, this is my assessment. In my business, I would be pleased to experience only 1% to 2% waste. All in all, I think Franklin Township administrators have been a very good steward of the tax dollars.
Take into account that our total assessed valuation for Franklin Township is currently $1,715,166,186.00 and a challenge emerges. The 1% property tax cap presented by Mitch Daniels and passed by the State of Indiana has reduced the amount of dollars the school system has available to pay the debt service for all of our growth. The assessed valuation number is 50% of what it was and this is killing Franklin Township schools. The fact is without a referendum there will be no dollars left to pay for bus transportation after we pay the annual portion of the debt service on the $308 million described above. To cut through all of the numbers, just know that Franklin Township lost $9.7 million dollars in funding annually because of the 1% tax cap in the CAPITAL PROJECTS FUND, which facilitates buildings and funds the debt, etc. The loss of that $9.7 million annually means we barely have enough dollars to pay our interest on debt service from the schools constructed… and that fund is also supposed to also cover the utility bills for the school buildings. Oh, by the way, the law says we have to provide transportation for some types of students (IE – Special needs, etc.). Since we will not be getting enough money to have a Transportation Fund, we will now be paying for that transportation out of our GENERAL FUND, which is already 3.1 million underfunded. Are you getting the idea yet?
So, when someone tells you it is a dirty trick for the schools to cut bus transportation and they cannot do that… the reality is they will HAVE TO… not because they choose to but because they will have no money to fund it without a referendum being passed.
So, should you get mad at our current Superintendent, Dr. Bourke, for this? NO. How about getting mad at the current school board? NO.
Who should you get mad at? Well, I think Franklin Township should be furious with the state legislature and our Governor for their approach to funding education. If the state house wasn’t so crowded with union people protesting, I’d suggest a Franklin Township day at the state house where residents go to express their frustration. However, at this point, I don’t think it would even get noticed.
I will tell you what did get noticed… the lawsuit Franklin Township Schools and two other school systems brought against the State of Indiana for unfair funding. The state tried to get the case thrown out, but a judge reviewed the case and sided with the schools that there is a valid concern on behalf of the school systems… so the case moves forward. That is a very big deal and should let you know there is an issue.
Our school administration cannot control the 1% tax caps. Our school leadership cannot control the dollars the state distributes unevenly and unfairly per student across the state. Our school system had no control in getting only 75% of new student funding each year for years because we were being penalized for being a growing school system. We were one of the 3 fastest growing school systems in the state for several years, but only got 75 cents on the dollar for each new student we received… so you can imagine the funding impact that has had. How does Franklin Township, a growing school district for years and years, rank 306 out of 349 school systems in Indiana in terms of funding per student? How is it that if we were funded the same as IPS in per student dollars, we would have $26 million more to work with and we wouldn’t be talking about losing 81 teachers and all of the programs that will be lost?
To the state’s credit, they are working on adapting the funding formula so it does a better job of having the money follow the student. But, the compliments to the state stop right there. Did you know that as part of the funding formula the State of Indiana uses to determine what money schools get per student, there are grants being given to school systems whose base level of funding per student was reduced? They are called Restoration Grants and school systems get this because the funding formula changes dropped the dollars per pupil they get. So, follow me here… the state says you as a school system have been getting too much money for years, so we are giving you less money per student… but we feel bad for giving you less money so we are going to give you a Restoration Grant to make up lost funds. That’s interesting. Does Franklin Township get that? NO. Ask me why. Because we were already so poorly funded as a school system and the State was already giving us so few dollars per student as a school system that our funding levels couldn’t drop with the changes the state made… so we don’t get the extra dollars offered by a Restoration Grant because we weren’t getting sufficient dollars in the first place. It is sickening.
Along these lines, did you know that for each of my years on the school board… and it may well still be going on in some form… we could not get our funding sent to the school system in a timely manner. So, do you know what we had to do? We actually had to “get a loan” each year and use taxpayer dollars to pay interest on that loan while we waited on the taxpayer dollars to arrive. Can you fathom that?
It is an immensely broken system.
I could go on and on… and I will in the weeks to come on various issues.
But the point for today is this… quit blaming the Franklin Township School Board. Quit blaming the Franklin Township School Administration. Don’t think about blaming the teachers. It is not on any of them. Talk to your legislative representatives about the funding per student issue.
Let’s be clear - property taxes will increase - but, let’s be accurate. They will not increase to the levels they were before the 1% tax cap. Since 2004 when I was elected to the school board, I've watched the State of Indiana fund public education less and less… and while doing so they have pushed the decision making and the burden to the local communities. Essentially, they have pushed decisions down to the local level through insufficient state funding… then they have allowed the communities themselves to fund the added expense to make up the difference.
I have no problem with local control. I believe it is the right thing to do. Let the communities decide how their money is spent in their local areas. I have no problem with the referendum… as long as the proper information is presented and people understand WHY the money is needed.
Then, if a community such as Franklin Township votes against this again and places little value on education, the Franklin Township community will get exactly what it deserves.
You need to really start talking to your friends and neighbors about this right now. Feel free to forward these messages to anyone who might listen. If not, let me tell you what is going to happen. People will be apathetic. They won’t come out and vote and they won’t make a point to go and get registered to vote. You can be sure the opposition will come out and vote against it. They did the last time the referendum failed. So, for years to come, you will have the pleasure of sitting in 30 minute lines dropping your kids off for school each day… and another 30 minutes picking them up. Another Dad told me last night it will be like waiting to get out of a parking garage for a Pacer Game or a Colts Game… two times every day for an entire school year! Don’t think this won’t also impact the residents without kids in school. If you live near a school in Franklin Township… and how can you not live near a school… this is gonna impact you!
There are 8,945 students in the Franklin Township School System. That's a lot of potential YES votes if people are informed and they decide to do something about it… if they stop blaming the stadium and if they stop blaming school leaders for issues beyond their control.
Finally, I was at my high school daughter’s show choir competition this past weekend at North Central High School. I was sitting next to a Dad from Ft. Wayne Carroll High School. That school had come to a show choir competition hosted by Franklin Central the previous week. He was so complimentary of our school and facilities. They really enjoyed their time at FC. Here’s the funny part of the conversation. He said, “Man, that stadium is huge. How much did it cost?” I told him 4.3 million. He said, “Oh, that’s not bad. We just completed a $9 million dollar field house project for our school system.”
So, please keep things in perspective. At least we aren’t Ft. Wayne! We may have been the first to build a big athletic oriented facility, but there have been many, many schools since who have followed in recent years with monstrous athletic facilities… Warren, Carmel, Westfield and Franklin Community to name a few… oh, and obviously Ft. Wayne!
Have a great week everyone!
