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Brown Co. school corporation urges residents to vote 'Yes' on referendum

By Clayton Baumgarth

Posted April 23, 2024

Sign encouraging residents to vote 'yes' on the referendum. (Clayton Baumgarth - WFIU/WTIU)

With two weeks to go until election day, school officials in Brown County are working to convince voters to approve a referendum to increase student and staff salaries within the school corporation.

In a presentation to community members Monday evening, superintendent Emily Tracy said passing the 10-cent referendum is crucial to keeping talent within the county.

“There's an incredible gap in what we're able to provide our teachers, and we're losing the best of the best because they can drive 15 minutes away and they can make $20,000+ more,” she said.

Last November, the school corporation attempted to renew a referendum that was approved in 2016. That vote failed by 333 votes, and on December 31^st of last year, the referendum expired.

An example of how the referendum would affect taxes. Courtesy of the Brown County School Corporation.

The school board said that continued wage freezes, larger class sizes for students and cuts to athletics, academics and the arts are on the chopping block if this referendum fails. Ongoing funding issues could cause the corporation to dissolve and existing schools to be redistricted.

Parents in support of the referendum like Kelli Finley said those who oppose the measure aren’t looking at the issue deep enough.

“They're strictly looking at the dollar signs of the miniscule amount that's going to increase their taxes,” she said. “And if they had the education behind that increase; one, they would see that it's very minimal. And two, they would see that it's worthwhile.”

Tracy said the biggest cause of confusion among voters is how the public question is phrased on the ballot. It says ‘the average tax paid to schools per year on a residence would increase by 28.16 percent,’ which represents the increase of the school’s portion of the tax bill, not the increase to an individual’s property taxes.