Bus services are at the center of a conflict between the City of Ft. Wayne and the Northwest Allen County school district. (photo credit: Kyle Stokes / StateImpact Indiana)
The City of Fort Wayne and Northwest Allen County Schools are disputing over money the school district could lose from the city’s annexation plan. The district’s school board voted Tuesday to eliminate bus service by 2018 if the city moves forward with the plan.
Superintendent Chris Himsel says the district has kept costs down over the years to maintain bus service after losing revenue due to property tax caps, but revenue loss as a result of annexation would be “untenable”.
According to the Northwest Allen County Schools website, the current amount of revenue lost to property tax caps is about $1.9 million. If annexed, that amount would increase to about $4.4 million.
The city issued a statement on Tuesday in response to the district’s bus service elimination, saying that that Himsel was using “scare tactics” to distress parents and students:
“As Dr. Himsel continues to place blame on the City’s annexation plan for the district’s budget woes, his scare tactics distressing parents and students is both disingenuous and fails to allow for a dialogue seeking collaboration on Fort Wayne and the region’s future,” the statement said. “Bussing challenges aren’t new to NACS and the City has met with Dr. Himsel on multiple occasions.
Fort Wayne’s City Council is expected to take a preliminary and final vote on the annexation’s funding plan Tuesday evening. If approved, discussion on the city’s annexation plan continues. If it isn’t, the city’s proposal fails.
State Board of Education members Steve Yager, Cari Whicker and Vince Bertram listen to the presentation about the growth tables at April\’s meeting.” credit=”Claire McInerny/StateImpact Indiana
The State Board of Education meets for its monthly meeting Wednesday, with a fairly light agenda to tackle.
The board will approve the changing of governing body procedures in MSD Washington Township and Kokomo, such as how the school board is elected.
The count for special education students will also formally be approved. Students in Indiana are counted twice a year so the state has an accurate perception of enrollment at schools. The count for special education students shows an increase between the December count and the April count, with 319 more students enrolled with a physical or cognitive disability.
We’ll also get an update on testing and accountability. IREAD-3 tests from 2016 are scored but not available yet to the public. The accountability part of the update will focus on summer training sessions for schools to learn about the new A-F system approved at the April meeting.
The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in Room 233 of the Statehouse. Reporters Claire McInerny (@ClaireMcInerny) and Peter Balonon-Rosen (@pbalonon_rosen) will be at the meeting so follow them on Twitter for updates.
A program that pays students and teachers for passing AP tests is seeing its funding stream shift. (David Hartman /Flickr)
A program that incentivizes students who enroll in Advanced Placement classes and pass the AP test is trying to continue without federal funding. The program has successfully increased the number of students taking and passing AP science, math and English classes in Indiana.
The program, AP-TIP IN, started in 2012 as a way to get students in districts with high numbers of minorities and students living in poverty to enroll in AP science, math and English classes. The program is through the National Math and Science initiative and the first three years in Indiana were funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
The way the program works is the AP-TIP IN staff, located at the University of Notre Dame, works with schools that meet certain income requirements and have a large population of minority students. They then work with the schools to set goals for how many students will enroll in AP classes and how many of those will pass the AP test.
AP-TIP IN provides professional development for the AP teachers as well.
In the first three years of the program, 30 high schools participated, and every year the program saw an increase in the number of students enrolling in AP classes as well as the number of students who passed the AP test at the end of the year.
The first cohort of nine schools were in the program from 2012-2015. They saw a 66 percent increase in enrollment in those classes and an 87 percent increase in the number of students that passed the AP test.
Karen Morris is the head of the AP-TIP IN program and says the point of the program is to get students enrolled and succeeding in AP classes who might not have ever enrolled.
“We use the AP Potential tool as a means to identify students who have the potential for AP success but may not be enrolled in that course because they many not have ever been in a rigorous course before.”
This potential tool is using a student’s PSAT score and consulting with the guidance counselor to identify students who might do well in an AP class.
Students enrolled in an AP class at these schools and then pass the test at the end of the year receive a $100 incentive. AP teachers can receive up to $1000 if more than 90 percent of their class takes the AP test and if they meet their goal of students passing the test.
This is the first year the program is existing without the federal grant, but many schools are continuing to administer it through local donors.
A grant from the Commission for Higher Education pays for the professional development portion of the program, but Morris says they no longer have funding for the incentive portion. But some schools are continuing this part of the program by looking to local donors.
Washington High School in South Bend recently joined the program and is receiving its incentive money from the St. Joseph Community Foundation.
Morris says she’d like to see more state funding to keep this program going, but the attitude toward it has shifted since they began in 2012.
“When we started the program we were under a different governor and a different state superintendent and there was a culture for college and career readiness that focused on AP, IB and dual credit,” Morris says.
Ballot referenda are becoming a more common way for school districts to get money lost to property tax caps and funding formula changes. (photo credit: auntneecey/Flickr)
Tuesday’s election brought forth a new crop of school districts asking voters to raise property taxes to sustain their schools.
As referenda become more and more common, more district superintendents are having to learn how to campaign.
David Shafer is the superintendent for Brown County schools, which posed a referendum in Tuesday’s primary. He says the community formed a PAC and spent a lot of time knocking on doors to spread the word throughout the community.
“It was enormously consuming as far as time and effort was concerned,” Shafer says. “I would concur that I don’t particularly like that, I don’t like going to the voters and asking them to approve a property tax increase.”
Ft. Wayne Community Schools chief financial officer Kathy Friend says she also formed a PAC and campaigned to pass her referendum.
“We spent about $40,000 getting our message out and it included mailers and social media,” Friend says.
The subject of educators campaigning came up during WFIU’s Noon Edition, where the conversation focused school funding.
School-related civil rights complaints are at a a record high in 2015. (Source: Department of Education)
School-related civil rights complaints leapt to a record high in 2015, with 10,392 grievances filed with the U.S. Education Department.
Nearly half of the complaints were filed on behalf of students with disabilities and about one in five grievances alleged discrimination based on race, color or national origin, according to findings released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
“OCR’s work over the last year has been absolutely pivotal to advancing the Department’s goal to increase equity and opportunity for all students,” John King, U.S. Secretary of Education, said in a statement. “We are committed to working with and supporting schools to protect students’ civil rights — and we will take action to secure those rights when necessary.”
In the past decade the number of complaints filed by the OCR has surged by 88 percent, even as its staff levels fell by 15 percent. In 2005, the department received 5,533 complaints. In 2015, the number of complaints reached a record high of 10,392.
The department says they opened more than 3,000 investigations to protect students’ civil rights in 2015.
Areas with large increases in civil rights complaints include appropriate supports for English learner students, restraint or seclusion of students with disabilities, access to technology for students with disabilities and sexual violence at schools. Here are some major findings:
21 percent of complaints were related to racial discrimination, with 1,862 complaints about exclusion, denial of benefits, racial harassment or retaliation in schools.
28 percent of complaints were related to sexual discrimination, with 65 complaints about sexual violence in elementary and high schools in 2015.
The number of complaints involving English learners has more than doubled in the past decade. In 2015, the OCR received 82 such complaints.
The report also highlighted trends found in U.S. schools during the 2011-2012 school year.
Black students are suspended and expelled at three times the rate of white students.
Students with disabilities are more than twice as likely to receive an out-of-school suspension than students without disabilities.
Black children make up 18 percent of preschool enrollment, but 42 percent of preschool children suspended once and 48 percent of preschool children suspended more than once.
Nationwide, one in five high schools lacks a school counselor.
These numbers provide a national snapshot of school investigations and monitoring work done by the OCR.
The U.S. Department of Education is expected to release state-by-state data from the 2013-14 school year later this year. We’ll take a look at Indiana’s numbers when that happens.
Taxpayers in eight Indiana school districts have voted to pay higher taxes to help pay salaries and classroom expenses in local schools.
On Tuesday’s primary ballot, 10 school districts appealed to voters to help fund public education in their districts. All but two passed.
Schools in Fort Wayne, New Prairie, Brown County, Hamilton Southeastern, Southwest Allen County, Noblesville, Speedway and Southern Wells had successful ballot referenda. Voters in Argos and Wabash voted not to raise taxes for extra funds to support their school districts.
Referenda have become increasingly more common as a method to fund public schools since 2008, when lawmakers implemented property tax caps. Since then, the portion of tax money that could be distributed to school corporations has shrunk.
Purdue professor of Agricultural Economics Larry DeBoer said he loves studying public policy, so he loves seeing what happens when schools ask voters to raise their own taxes to fund schools.
“Eight out of ten won,” said DeBoer. “And that’s above the percentage that we’ve seen even for May elections.”
School districts can present ballot referenda on May or November ballots. He says this year’s high scuccess rate, even with a contested presidential primary, will make future May school referenda more likely.
Since November 2008, 65 percent of school referenda on the ballot have passed. This year 80 percent did.
But it wasn’t good news for all.
As we’ve reported, Argos County Schools has lost over $1 million in funding since 2008. School officials hoped to raise $750,000 with their ballot item — but 59 percent of voters said no.
Argos County superintendent Michele Riise says student learning will be affected since the referendum did not pass.
“We’ll be looking hard at the budget. Inevitably we’re going to have to make some cuts,” said Riise. “It’s going to be hurting our programs and students now. We were hoping we would not have to get that far.”
Riise says that funding problems in the district stretch beyond Tuesday’s ballot. Instead she points toward a school funding formula that she says hurts districts across Indiana.
“We have seen it firsthand that the funding formula is not equitable, it is not in favor of public schools let alone, rural schools such as Argos,” said Riise.
DeBoer, the referenda enthusiast, says one thing is clear about the referenda: it pays to go before.
“Two of the three that had never tried a referendum before lost,” said DeBoer. “Everybody else had gone at least once before.”
There’s been an uptick in schools turning to ballots for funding since the late 2000s, when property tax caps and a new school funding formula when into effect.
Since referenda last for seven years, we can expect to see more referenda renewals on the ballot in coming years.
It’s primary day in Indiana, and 10 school districts around the state are posing ballot referenda asking voters to raise property taxes to help fund schools.
Referenda posed during primaries usually pass at a higher rate, because typically primary elections aren’t as interesting to the general population, meaning those that are passionate about the referenda question show up to the polls.
But as we’ve reported, Tuesday’s primary could be the exception to the trend. With the high stakes and highly publicized presidential primary, local questions like school referenda might not be on many voters’ minds, which could lead to a no vote.
As results come in tonight, reporter Peter Balonon-Rosen will be tweeting updates (@pbalonon_rosen and @StateImpactIN) and will also post stories here.
Below is a list of all 10 school districts posing school referenda. Click the name of the school district to learn more about what they are hoping to accomplish with the money and what led them to take the question to the ballot:
Voters in 10 Indiana school districts will decide on education-related referenda May 3. (Chris Phan/Flickr)
All week we are taking a closer look at the ten school referenda that will appear on ballots around the state May 3. A referendum asks voters in a particular area to choose whether to increase their property taxes to fund schools. We will follow all ten referenda and post results as they come in the night of May 3.
Ten school districts will ask taxpayers to funnel tax dollars into local schools on Tuesday.
In ballot referenda across the state, school districts hope to make up funds lost to property tax and a new school funding formula. Among those: Southwest Allen County Schools and Argos Community Schools.
Southwest Allen
For Phil Downs, superintendent of Southwest Allen County Schools, it’s also a way to maintain local control of schools.
“It’s probably the only tax you’re going to pay where you know where every penny goes,” Downs said. “The other taxes go down into the big kiddie pool down in Indianapolis and gets divided up. With this one, every penny goes right to the schools and into fifty people’s pay checks.”
Southwest Allen Schools will present a ballot referenda on Tuesday that, if successful, would continue to fund 52 positions across the district. A 2009 ballot referendum has given Southwest Allen $3.5 million annually for the past seven years.
That ballot referendum is set to expire this year. Downs is relying on taxpayers to renew it.
Otherwise, it could mean personnel cuts across the district. According to Downs, roughly 11 percent of the district’s 430 staff get their paychecks from referendum funds.
“We are one of the lowest funded districts in the state, by the funding formula,” Downs said. “In order to compete class size-wise and have class sizes at a level that our parents are comfortable with, that’s what this referendum has been for and that’s what we’re going to continue to use it for.”
Argos Community Schools
Argos County Schools superintendent Micehele Riis says her district has been rocked since school funding changes in the late 2000s. In an email exchange, Riis said the district has lost over $1 million in funding since 2008.
“We are operating with the ‘bare minimums’ which have not hurt our students or families in regards to the education,” wrote Riis. “If the referendum does not pass, we will need to make further cuts to the budget which may result in loss of programs, teachers, and classified personnel, as well as larger class sizes.”
A ballot referendum would give the district approximately $750,000 in generated tax revenue. Riis said that revenue would fund positions including a Math teacher, an eLearning Coach and extra curricular positions — like staff for cross country and robotics programs. She said it would also continue “paying for our contracted services of nurse, school psychologist, speech/language pathologist and vocational teacher.”
So far, the reactions have been mixed.
“We have many supporters who want to see the school remain within the community,” wrote Riis. “There are some that are opposed, and the voices that are heard are our farmers.”
Gov. Mike Pence and House Speaker Brian Bosma separately announced appointments to the panel that will recommend a replacement for Indiana’s current standardized test. (David Hartman /Flickr)” credit=”
The panel that will decide the future of Indiana standardized testing is now complete, officials announced Friday.
Gov. Mike Pence and House Speaker Brian Bosma separately announced appointments to the panel that will recommend a replacement for Indiana’s current standardized test, the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus or ISTEP+.
The announcements follow appointments earlier this week from other state officials.
“Today we take an important step towards moving away from ISTEP+ to create a shorter, more reliable test,” said Pence, in a statement. “This dynamic slate of education experts and stakeholders… will take the lead in developing the next iteration of assessment and accountability for our schools.
Under recent state law, the current ISTEP+ must end after the 2016-2017 school year. The 23-member ISTEP+ Review Panel will study alternatives to ISTEP+ and make recommendations for a shorter, simpler-to-administer test by December.
NIcole Fama, principal of IPS 93 in Indianapolis, will serve as chair of the panel.
Hiroko Murabayashi moved to Columbus, Ind. from Japan in August with her husband and two kids. They came for her husband’s job at Enkei, a Japanese wheel company with a branch in Columbus. Her children, Yoki, 9, and Rico, 7, attend Southside Elementary school in the Bartholomew County School Corporation and receive English language services. When they started the year they didn’t speak any English. (Claire McInerny/Indiana Public Broadcasting)
COLUMBUS, Ind. — Over the last five years, the number of English learners in Indiana grew faster than the national average. Today, five percent of all students in the state don’t speak English as their first language.
This growing population comes to Indiana from all over the world. The new Hoosiers bring more than 200 languages into schools. International companies in Columbus are attracting families from a handful of different countries, including Japan, India and China.
And while the majority of the district’s English Learners are native Spanish speakers, traditionally the largest population of EL students in Columbus, the second biggest group is Japanese students.
“There have been more Japanese students every year,” says English Learner teacher Tony Butiste. He says the number of Japanese students he teaches increased the most over the last three years. The district now teaches 84 Japanese-speaking students.
And with a growing number of students from one country, the school district is realizing they must adapt to help educate these students properly.
From Japan To Indiana, With A Few Road Bumps
Nine-year-old Yoki Murabayashi and his seven-year-old sister Rico, are almost done with their first school year at Southside Elementary School, and it’s been a school year full of change.
Yoki and Rico moved to Columbus in August, after their dad was transferred to the Columbus branch of Enkei, a Japanese wheel company.
Hiroko Murabayashi, Yoki and Rico’s mother, was very nervous when she enrolled them in school.
Nine-year-old Yoki Murabayashi reads a book in Japanese, his native language. (Claire McInerny/Indiana Public Broadcasting)
“They didn’t know anything, even the alphabet,” Hiroko says through a volunteer translator.
At first, that adjustment was tough for the whole family, including seven-year-old Rico.
“In the beginning she cried,” says Hiroko. “She didn’t want to go to school and every morning she cried.”
Hiroko recalls one time when her husband was out of town for work, she got sick and couldn’t get out of bed. Eventually there wasn’t any food in the house.
“In Japan kids can go to the stores, by themselves, even when they’re that young,” she says. “But here we can’t.”
So rather than sending the kids down to the store, they had to wait for a friend to find out Hiroko was sick and bring the family dinner.
But besides adjusting to the cultural differences between Japan and Indiana, the biggest challenge for the family has been learning English. Continue Reading →
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