The referendum being sought by the Monroe County Community School Corp. is the second in two years. Here’s a look at last year’s, the one on next week’s ballot, and some other issues.
On the 2022 referendum
Last October, the Monroe County Community School Corporation passed its 2023 budget, factoring in the operational referendum on the ballot that year.
The district passed its first operational referendum in 2010, following a $300 million cut to the state’s education budget from then-governor Mitch Daniels. Operational referenda are committed to covering costs like teacher and staff salary and benefits and academic programs.
The first referendum passed asked voters to approve 14 cents per $100 of assessed property value. It was reapproved in 2016.
In 2022, the operational referendum passed again but was increased to 18.5 cents per $100 of assessed property value. The district reported the increase would go to upping teacher salaries by $4,500 and increasing support staff staff pay by $2.25 per hour. Pay increases accounted for 87 percent of the operational referendum. The rest is committed to special education services, performing arts and STEM programming, and staff support services.
The district’s 2023 budget passed last October at $157,833,564, approximately $15 million more than the year before.
This year, the district is coming back to voters for the second year in a row with another operational referendum. But this one would be to expand early childcare education. The school’s website says it’s asking for 8.5 cents per $100 of property taxes approved, but the actual impact will amount to 3.5 cents. That’s because it’s lowering collection from the referendum passed last year.
Right now, MCCSC provides early learning programming for more than 260 preschool-aged children in the community.
State and federal programs like On My Way Pre-K and Head Start help fund programming for families. On My Way Pre-K is available to people at or below 127 percent of the poverty rate. For a household of four, that’s a monthly income of $2,755 – about $33,000 a year. It’s about the same to qualify for Head Start.
The district's superintendent, Jeff Hauswald, said this is an economic issue for the community.
“It's a workforce issue. But it's also, very importantly, a quality-of-life issue for our community and helping families get the early childhood education that they want. It just simply isn't accessible right now.”
The referendum would completely fund early learning programs for families at the 200 percent poverty level with a 3- or 4-year-old.
For families at the 300 percent poverty level, 75 percent of costs would be covered.
A family of four with an annual income of $60,000 is at the 200 percent level, according to the 2023 federal poverty guidelines.
The district’s plans involve expanding its own capacity for early learning programming and partnering with other community providers. Hauswald said the district heard concerns of becoming a competitor for local childcare providers.
“We want to be good partners," he said. "We definitely don't want to harm any local business or provider.”
This referendum for early childhood programming is another operational one and can’t be spent on construction or new property. Keri Miksza, chair of the Indiana Coalition for Public EducationMonroe County, said the lack of space for building expansion is another reason to partner with community providers.
“It's not a construction referendum. There are strict rules by the state in regards to which what kind of referendum you can pass," she said. "There's no budget here for building preschool classrooms, and the room in MCCSC is limited. It makes sense that this is the first step.”
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Heather Farmer is the parent of two MCCSC children who are 8 and 5 years old. Her daughter was born in 2018. A local artist, Farmer had to take a step back from her work then.
"Financially, it was going to be too much of a struggle to be paying for childcare for two children and also working," she said.
She stayed home with her kids during the beginning of the pandemic but wanted to continue her career. Farmer and her husband looked to register their daughter in an early learning program, and MCCSC’s was the most affordable option. They started her with MCCSC in August 2022.
Heather Farmer getting her business ready downtown, which she plans to open Nov. 10. (Bente Bouthier, WFIU/WTIU News)
“And I said, 'My business planning starts today, right now.'"
She plans to open her art business this month, providing tools and space for people in the community.
Farmer said when she heard about a referendum to expand early learning, she was in support because of the positive effect access to programming had for her family.
The Monroe County Republican Party’s criticisms of the referendum
But support of the second referendum hasn’t been universal. Critics have questioned the need to ask taxpayers for more money on the heels of last year’s referendum and have complained about a lack of transparency about the corporation’s plans.
Among the criticisms, the Monroe County Republican Party issued a statement last week that the district collected more than $60 million through its tax levy in 2023. Of that, about $17 million was referendum funding.
In 2022, the state portioned MCCSC more than $76 million in tuition support. That’s an increase of about $3.7 million from 2021’s tuition support.
This is funding portioned to all charter and non-charter schools by the state. It’s calculated based on a several different categories:
Basic tuition support, which takes a count on number of students in a district twice a year.
Honors grants, which allocates funding for each student who receives an academic honors diploma.
Special education grant, provides funding based on the number of students in special education.
Career and Technical education grants, for students in career and technical education. Funding allocated is based on labor market demand.
The Republic Party’s statement questioned the necessity of the referendum, given the local tax levy in place and state increases to the general fund for education seen in 2021 and 2023’s budget sessions.
Former Monroe County Republican Party chairman William Ellis said in a phone conversation that the necessity of the referendum is a difference in opinion, and the corporation doesn’t do enough to explain why it needs the extra funds.
MCCSC’s director of finance and logistics, Adam Terwilliger, said all the funding from the district’s 2022 referendum has gone to supporting academic programs and salaries. And the increases last year were essential to stabilizing staffing issues seen on bus routes and retention of teachers. He objected to the GOP’s contention that the funding wasn’t directed to students and teachers.
"To argue that monies are not being spent — in a wise way, I would say we didn't have these monies to spend," he said. "If we weren't a referendum community, I shudder to think what community we would be."
