Hello everyone.
This paragraph is my weekly disclaimer for new readers: 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 I thought you’d like to be informed on some 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 am going to write 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 will 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 email 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.
This is Message #2 being sent today. If you missed a previous message, fell free to drop me a note and I will send it to you!
Today’s message begins with a review of the response I received from all of you to Message #1 last week. I expected a decent amount of response, but I received far more than expected. If you replied to me, please know I have read it. Also, please know if you don’t get a direct response from me, I promise I will be addressing your questions or concerns in this message or a future message in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, I’ve got to make some money to feed my kids and this referendum writing gig I’ve created doesn’t pay any bills!
The most important thing last week’s response told me was that this issue of the referendum on May 3rd is very complex and different issues are important to different people. There are many moving parts to the referendum. Transportation, tax caps, funding per student, the state’s role in this mess, classroom performance, losing great teachers, class sizes… I can’t even begin to name all of the topics touched upon by readers. I received countless questions on various topics and I also received a number of opinions. It was very insightful and it’s given me much to respond to and write about in the coming weeks. People in Franklin Township clearly are interested in this issue, but many are uninformed or just a bit misinformed. I know that the school corporation has held countless meetings, but a lot of the information is missing a large segment of the FT population. That is to be expected at some level, and that is why I’m personally taking the viral, online approach to reach those who might be hiding! Please help me find those in hiding.
As you read these messages, please share them with others. People have to be informed in order to understand what they are voting on, which means having a place to ask their questions and get answers. Send those questions to me. If people do not understand, then they will not vote – or they may not vote to do the right thing! And, if they don’t vote, you get the honor of driving your kids to and from school for 180 mornings and afternoons a year… waiting in long lines of traffic, listening to the same songs over and over and over with your kids!
One of the emails I received this past week was from a very nice woman who said, “I’m giving you the opportunity to ‘win’ my vote for May and help me to understand this whole referendum and how it ‘should’ work for our kids.” So, now that I know there are open-minded people who want to understand, I will begin today’s message with the continued goal to give you information and plenty to think about… all in an effort to help you make an educated decision in May.
INTERSTATE WALLS AND SCHOOL BUILDINGS
How often do you drive on Interstate 465? Whether you drive on the west side, the northwest side, or even here on the east side of the city just north of Washington Street - we’ve all observed the miles and miles of concrete walls put up maybe 15’-20’ tall along either side of the highway. Millions and millions of dollars spent.
Did anyone ask you whether you wanted those walls constructed? After all, you are taxpayers and those were taxpayer funds used for the construction of those walls.
Who do the walls benefit? Well, I’ve thought long and hard about that. I’ve come up with 2 groups of people that receive benefit. The people that chose to build or purchase houses close the existing highway who now are protected from the noise (didn’t they know full well they’d hear the highway when they moved in?)… and the people who got paid to design, construct and install the walls.
I’ve been told the walls were constructed because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has some sort of designated noise level that was being exceeded by the growth in traffic on the interstate, so the walls became a requirement. I don’t know if it is true, but if so that’s interesting!
Franklin Township has also has had an issue, but the EPA wasn’t involved. Instead of a growth in highway traffic, we had a growth in the number of students… incredibly rapid growth, by hundreds of students every year. In the case of Franklin Township, we did not build walls for noise on the highway. We built schools.
So, let’s talk about that.
Let me take you back to the early 2000’s, when FTCSC (Franklin Township Community School Corporation) built the Kitley Intermediate School that could house 1,200 kids… and almost immediately that school was full of the 5th and 6th graders – to the point portable classrooms were installed outside the building a year after the place was opened. At the same time, Thompson Crossing was being constructed… and we were out of classroom space throughout many elementary schools in the township almost as quickly as Thompson Crossing was built. Actually, in fairness, some elementary schools were busting at the seams while some had a bit of capacity, but school populations weren’t balanced properly based on excessive growth on the east side of the township. And, finally, at yet about that same time, the only middle school at the time (now known as FTMS West) had a slew of portable classrooms sitting outside its building because of overcrowding. I need to make sure I don’t forget to specifically mention the portable classrooms at Wanamaker Elementary and Arlington Elementary, because there were actual assigned times for kids to use the bathrooms in those buildings based on overcrowding and too few bathrooms for the student population. Oh, I forgot to mention the high school, where growth was becoming such an issue that an entire second high school was being discussed.
Why did we have such problems regarding where to put those kids? Certainly it was just the school corporation wasting money… correct? That’s what I’ve heard several times in the reply to my first email message last week. If I’d quote, I believe the common phrase would be “If they’d just quit building all of them schools.”
Well, unlike the walls around the interstate, our school system HAD to build places to house the kids that came by the hundreds, year after year. Here’s a statistic:
Enrollment grew by 2,598 students from 2000-2007. It was an enrollment increase of 46% in seven years. We were the fourth fastest growing school corporation in the State of Indiana in that time period. When the previous administration initiated the last major construction project, no one could foresee the impact of property tax caps because they weren’t even a consideration.
Read that again. Our enrollment increased by 46% in seven years! And, they came at all ages. In my time on the board, we were seeing huge growth in the elementary school grades and they were increasing at a rapid rate each year. Then, this crazy thing happens – those elementary kids grow up – so they move on to our intermediate schools, then our middle schools and finally our high school… so we had to plan ahead and make sure we had a place for them. There was not one mention of a property tax cap when those projects were considered and approved.
Now, I know many might think since a house can be thrown up in 4 months, what’s the big deal about building a school? Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day… or so I’ve heard… and it takes about 3 years to get a school built and ready for kids from the first conversations to opening the doors. So, imagine sitting in a room in 2004 and looking at the landscape in the township. Portable classroom trailers at many buildings and no end in sight of new construction in the township. Hindsight may well be 20/20 for some of you, but we had to plan ahead with what we knew and continue to act. So we did… and we did it very responsibly.
We spent many evenings and many hours (away from our own kids I might add) talking to architects and construction managers and reviewing school designs and projected costs. We looked at firms that had already created real buildings (already in use) - we didn’t add to our cost for customization… so we used cookie cutter schools and we didn’t recreate the wheel. We looked at buildings that had the most cost effective price per square foot and asked if they would meet our needs, which they did.
We ended up partnering with companies we’d never before used in Franklin Township and we built the most cost effective schools offered in the marketplace. From these efforts, we ended up with the new South Creek Elementary, the new Edgewood Intermediate, the new Middle School East and the new Freshman Academy. If you go back to the minutes of school board meetings in those days, I promise you that in the minutes will be conversation after conversation about cost and efficiency and meeting our educational needs.
Ask me why we didn’t just build another Kitley Intermediate replica when we added the second 5th grade / 6th grade building? We didn’t because we could build the Edgewood Intermediate that you see in place today at a better price point. Ask me why we didn’t just replicate the Thompson Crossing Elementary we just completed? We didn’t because we found a building design and floor plan for South Creek that was a bit smaller and far more cost effective. As a brief side note, we were so conservative that we built the elementary gym at South Creek entirely too small (in my opinion). It was a mistake with good intentions, but it was a mistake.
You see, this is a large part of what infuriates me about this referendum process. People form opinions based on things they don’t know anything about. You can’t just say we shouldn’t have built those schools. YES, we should have and we absolutely did the right thing. Knowing what we know today about the recession and the absolute halt to the building industry, it might have changed a few things, but not too many. We still can’t fit all our middle school kids in one building. We still can’t fit all our intermediate kids in one building. We still couldn’t fit all of our high school kids in a building without the Freshman Academy… and the only reason Wanamaker and Acton Elementary schools would be closed is because we cannot afford to staff the buildings to keep them open if this referendum fails, so by combining the two elementary schools into one building, we can eliminate the support staff and administrative staff of an entire school building and achieve the savings the accompanies such a consolidation.
I understand you didn’t ask for the highway walls. I understand everyone doesn’t jump up and down at the cost of new buildings to educate our kids. But seriously, how important is education to this community? These kids are our future. We have a great thing going and I will bet most of you do not even know the educational successes FTCSC is experiencing.
Did you know our school district recently won the Lugar Education Patriot Award because of the efforts Franklin Township School Corporation in the areas of academic achievement and career preparation? Franklin Township was only the 3rd school district in Indiana ever to receive that award.
How did that happen? Well, Dr. Bourke, our Superintendent, assumed leadership of the district in 2006 and by July of 2007 he assembled a new administrative staff that was much smaller and highly focused on results. They poured over all of the data available and they changed programs. They worked with the outstanding teachers in Franklin Township who spend their days with your children and grandchildren… and in working together they made Franklin Township a district that ranked 2nd in growth of Mathematics scores and ranked 4th in growth of English / Language Arts… all in just 2 years.
In the spring of 2010, the gains made by Franklin Township Students exceeded the state average in every single content area and at every single grade level. Do you realize how difficult that is? They achieved this through creating a focus on a core curriculum, implementing assessment systems to make sure kids weren’t being left behind, they made decisions based on information that came from the assessments… and they supported the instruction taking place in the classroom. They implemented a K-12 writing initiative. They implemented an online student information system where parents could see their kids grades, they implemented a new K-6 math series, they differentiated learning to help kids who struggled in the traditional classroom structure, and they implemented a professional development plan that gave teachers the mentoring and support structure to help one another, which in turn allows them to better help their kids. As a side note, they did all of this while offering incredible opportunities for kids at all age levels in the arts and various extra-curricular activities. In short, they offered opportunities we as adults only wish we could have had at their age!
Right now, the performance of Franklin Township schools exceeds most other schools in the state of Indiana, in spite of the per student funding rank of #306 out of #349 school systems. Franklin Township Schools are ranked as High Growth and High Achievement school systems in the State of Indiana’s rating system.
And… in case you failed to notice... just this past week on Wednesday, March 9th, the Indiana Department of Education named its prestigious list of “Four Star Schools”. Out of 1,808 schools in Indiana, they named 188 schools as “Four Star”… and 2 of your Franklin Township schools were named to the list. Congratulations to South Creek Elementary and Kitley Intermediate schools!
Ironic isn’t it that these 2 school buildings… both buildings that people complain about having been built in recent years because they are newer and added to the debt service… these are the schools recognized by the Department of Education as among the state’s very best schools for our children.
So, FT schools really aren’t like the walls on the interstate… because you as Franklin Township Taxpayers get to decide what happens with your tax dollars here.
You need to understand very clearly that what you are voting on in the referendum on May 3rd is not the buildings themselves, but you are voicing your support for what is going on inside the buildings every single day with the kids of Franklin Township. These kids will be your future leaders. They will be the ones who will be making decisions that will affect you when you get old and somebody has to take care of you (and me)!
You don’t want to pay for buildings and buses and debt and so on? I get it at some level… but I find it extremely ironic that I, as an “almost” 40 year old man, have paid all of my working life into a social security program that funds the retirement of seniors… a program that I will most likely never see a dime of because it will be bankrupt… and I have never once complained about doing so. Yet, I hear so many in Franklin Township say “I don’t have kids in the schools and I shouldn’t have to pay for them.” I thought people of my parent’s generation and my grandparent’s generation wanted more for their kids. I thought they valued education and saw the benefits to the community. What am I missing?
I will end with one final topic. I’ve recently seen the list of 85 teachers who will lose their jobs.
It sickens me. There are a lot of great teachers on this list and a lot of great people who give themselves to your kids. Over the course of the next few weeks, I’m gonna tell you about a few of them and they don’t know I’m doing it. If teachers get mad at me for doing this, I apologize in advance.
Curtis Holland, FTMS East Middle School Tech Ed Teacher
Mr. Holland has taught kids in our township for 28 years. The Technical Education program will be eliminated at the middle school level, so this man’s career will be cut short in Franklin Township… not because he isn’t doing his job well - he is… but because your vote will be that a Tech Ed program at the middle school level isn’t important enough. Now tell me, how many kids benefit from what used to be Industrial Arts and now is Technical Education? Do you have any idea what these kids are learning to do with computers in the technical fields prior to high school? Did you get the opportunity to take a class like this in the last 20-50 years? I know the answer is yes. So, why shouldn’t your kids?
Brian Dunn, FCHS Creative Writing and 9th Grade English Teacher
You should see the email this teacher sent the parents of the cross country and track kids he coaches after school every day. The email was forwarded to me by a caring parent who is so upset at the idea of losing this great young teacher. I hear his creative writing class is fantastic… oh well… sorry, that will be gone with your NO vote. Do you know what he said to the parents?
“I also have a bit of bad news to share. As I expected, my name is unfortunately on the RIF list for the 2011-2012 school year. 85 other teachers and I confirmed the news Friday at 3:00 PM that if the referendum does not pass we are most likely out of jobs in Franklin Township next year… As bad as this news was to take on Friday, it was my XC and track family that raised my spirits after I checked the list… I'm not sure outsiders can ever really understand how special this program is to me, the other coaches, fellow alumni, and the boys. Sometimes we say we're like a family and it's never felt as true to me as it did on a rainy Friday… As you can well imagine, I want more than anything to stay in Franklin Township as a teacher and coach.”
Two teachers… one very experienced, one on the younger side… the loss of both would greatly impact our kids. Yeah, you’ll be able to save some money, but what is the education of our kids’ worth to you?
That’s enough for this week. Just know every week you are going to have a face to put to this vote because I am going to put the faces in front of you. This referendum vote is about people… primarily kids and teachers… not buses and buildings as some of you will make it out to be. Your tax dollars are paying for a product, but the product is the STUDENTS, not the buses and buildings. The buses and buildings are the tools used to help improve your product... the STUDENTS.
Have a great week! And, send me your emails… I’m ready for the questions and I am ready for the hate mail!
