Joseph S. Pete, Daily Journal of Johnson County Staff Writer

Center Grove will ask voters to approve a property tax increase to hire new teachers, limit budget cuts and offset future state funding cuts.

School board members approved a ballot question for a property tax increase of 15 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, which would give the district an estimated $3.16 million.

The property tax increase would cost the owner of a $200,000 home about $147 per year and the owner of a $300,000 home about $244 per year.

With the increase, the district's property tax rate would rise about 14 percent to $1.17 per $100 of assessed valuation. The public will vote whether to approve the rate hike during a special election planned for July 13.

About $1.5 million of the property tax increase was planned by the school board to prevent cuts to teachers, support staff, administrators and costs such as supplies. The increase was part of a plan to make up for a $3.6 million budget shortfall because of state funding drops and cuts.

School officials do not have specifics for spending the remaining $1.66 million, other than saying they will use the money for technology, to offset future state funding cuts and to hire new employees including teachers, instructional assistants and support staff such as clerical workers.

Public support

The public likely would not favor the $1.5 million property tax increase alone, said Bruce Haddix, Center Grove Elementary School principal and member of the district's referendum committee. The board's plan for a property tax increase did not have enough money earmarked for positions that work directly with students, such as teachers aides and teachers, he said.

He suggested adding to the board's plan to ask the public to support more money for more positions that work with students.

The referendum committee decided to recommend about $1.66 million in addition to the $1.5 million planned by the board. They did not detail how exactly the dollars would be spent.

Instead, they decided on general areas they felt were important, based on the work of a separate group that met last year and outlined goals for the school district and plans to meet the goals:

• Hiring more employees, including teachers, instructional assistants and support staff such as clerical workers. The goal is to have more employees who work directly with students and to decrease class sizes.

• Absorbing future budget cuts. School officials expect another state funding cut later this year, and the cut could be another $1.9 million.

• Spending money for technology. Expenses could include technology in the classroom or money for personnel who work with technology.

More cuts to come?

Center Grove school officials anticipate further budget cuts later this year based on conversations with lobbyists and lawmakers, which makes it difficult to plan how exactly money from the property tax increase would be spent, said Jack Parker, principal at Center Grove and co-chairman of the referendum committee.

"Not knowing what the future picture will be with looming additional reductions, it would be difficult to put a finger on," Parker said.

If school officials planned to use a property tax increase to hire 20 additional teachers, for example, they might not be able to hire all 20 teachers because of additional state budget cuts, he said.

As of now, the best school officials can do is pledge to use the money to support the priorities outlined by the committee, as well as the specific expenses outlined by the school board, he said. The additional money won't be used for administrators or to restore permanent cuts the board voted to approve, he said.

School officials will have ongoing conversations to plan how money from a property tax increase will be used, he said.

"I think there is work to do," he said.

The public will need to see a detailed plan before they head to the polls in July, school board president Scott Gudeman said. The community wants to know how the school district will spend the money from a property tax increase, and residents will hold the school board accountable during the seven years the additional money is collected, he said.

He's concerned about future budget cuts from the state, but the public needs to see the district has a plan, he said. For example, he wants to know how many instructional assistants the property tax increase could pay for, he said.

All the money from the property tax increase will go into a separate account in the school district's general fund. The account will be budgeted, meaning people will be able to see how the new property tax dollars are spent.

Offsetting teacher losses

Referendum committee members discussed the possibility of using a property tax increase to make up for teacher losses in recent years, which would help make class sizes smaller.

"We're probably falling behind about three, four or five teaching positions every year," said Paul Gabriel, chief financial officer for the district and member of the committee.

If the district grows by 80 students, school officials should add about four teachers, but the district hasn't added teachers to keep up with the number of new students.

Committee member Ron Rose questioned whether the district would have classes available for new teachers to use.

The school district does not have much space available to add new teaching positions now that the school board has decided to close West Grove Elementary School, board member and committee member Jim Copp said.

Administrators' plans show the school district has room in its remaining five elementary schools for the 23 classes from West Grove. The district would have space for about six additional classrooms after the move, if rooms such as science labs and computer labs were converted into classrooms, according to the plans.

"We don't have that physical space we had before to have extra teachers and extra classrooms," Copp said.

The district could focus additional property tax money on classroom assistants instead, he said.

Breaking it down

The group's recommendation didn't specify how much money should be used for staff, how much money should be used to offset future state funding cuts or how much money should be used for technology. They guessed how much money could be needed for each of the three areas as a starting point to discuss how much total the referendum should ask voters to approve.

At one point committee members talked about the possibility a $4 million property tax increase, but most of them thought $4 million was too much, especially since the shortfall this year was a lower amount: $3.6 million.

They picked $3.5 million instead, but at least four of the 20 committee members thought this amount was too high too. So they dropped down to $3 million, but that was too low, so they picked $3.2 million instead.

Their final decision was to pick a property tax increase of $3.16 million based on a property tax rate of 15 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.