With increased home values and new students, most Johnson County Schools will have more money to work with in 2025.
Center Grove Community School Corporation, which has the largest population of students, has the most money to work with. School officials submitted a $117.7 million budget for approval by the Department of Local Government Finance. Edinburgh Community School Corporation, with the least amount of students, will have a much more modest amount to work with, sending a $14.4 million budget to the DLGF for approval. The figures come from Indiana Gateway, the state’s budget reporting website.
Every year, school corporations are required to publish and adopt their budgets for the following school year. School boards approved the proposed budgets for Fiscal Year 2025 in October. The DLGF will review the budgets, make final adjustments and approve them in February.
With millions of dollars to spend and many needs to be met, schools have to figure out how best to use their funds to fulfill the corporations’ needs and wants. Schools begin publishing and adopting their budgets in October. Each school has three or more buckets to budget for, which pay for various school needs, including salaries and wages, debts, supplies, building maintenance, and more.
In 2019, the state of Indiana adopted a new structure for school budgets that includes three major categories: the education fund, the operation fund and the debt services fund. The education fund is funded from the state funding formula, while the operations and debt services funds are funded from property and local taxes.
School budgets are based on the calendar year: Jan. 1, 2025 through Dec. 31, 2025. To view school budgets line by line, visit Indiana Gateway at gateway.ifionline.org/.
Education fund
The education fund mostly covers the salaries of teachers and other building-level employees, such as instructional assistants, principals and assistant principals. The education fund’s money comes from the state tuition formula, which awards schools funds based on the number of students they have and other factors, including the percentage of those students receiving free and reduced-price lunch.
The proposed education budgets range from Edinburgh’s $7.1 million to Center Grove’s $65.9 million. The six school districts all have the education fund as the largest fund in their budget, taking up close to or more than half of the total amount, according to state data.
Center Grove’s Education fund increased by $2.7 million from last year’s budget. With the increase, the district funded a 1% salary increase for administrators and support staff and a 1.43% increase for teachers and will add 13 new classroom teachers.
Indian Creek schools submitted a smaller budget after increasing their education fund by $9.4 million for the 2024 school year. The education fund decreased from $29.7 million in 2024 to $22.8 million in 2025. Enrollment at Indian Creek increased by about 60 students, which helped bring in additional money for the district, said Matthew Prusecki, superintendent.
Despite a decrease in the education fund, Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School Corporation was able to give teachers about a 5% raise, Prusecki said. That raise increased the district’s starting salary from $42,000 to $47,000, he said.
“We’re at least trying to be competitive,” Prusecki said. “We know we have some work to do still, because there’s some districts that are paying a lot more than that, we’re going to stay within our means and budget responsibly.”
An increase in student enrollment also allowed Clark-Pleasant Community School Corp. to increase their education fund by about $8 million, said Timothy Edsell, superintendent. The district submitted a $59 million budget to be approved by the DLGF, an increase from 2024’s $51 million budget. The increase in education fund allowed the district to provide a 3.2% raise to certified teachers and allowed the district to pay for curricular/textbook materials for students and fund the planned K-5 behavior program at the old Sawmill Woods Elementary School, Edsell said.
There is a Woodman tradition of conservative financial management at Greenwood Community School Corp., Katy Dowling, chief financial officer said at a school board meeting. In-district enrollment has trended downward for Greenwood schools but is still stable due to transfer students. They hope that allowing more out-of-district students and investment changes will increase revenue in the future, she said. The education fund increased slightly by $1.1 million from $34.4 million in 2024 to $35.5 million in 2025.
Operations Fund
Local property taxes fund both the operations and debt service fund. An increase in assessed home values, or AV, increases the amount brought in by schools. The majority of the operations budget covers salaries for district-level administrators, including superintendents, assistant superintendents and finance directors, as well as non-educational employees such as bus drivers, food service workers and custodial staff. Some of the operation budget covers minor construction projects, land acquisition, bus purchases and utilities as well.
Proposed operations budgets ranged from $2.3 million at Edinburgh schools to $24.6 million at Center Grove schools. While five districts increased their proposed operations budget from the 2024 to 2025 fiscal years, Edinburgh decreased its operations fund by about $53,000.
Center Grove schools saw a nearly 10.5% increase in their AV, which helped to expand the operations fund and debt service capacity.
Clark-Pleasant is still seeing a continued increase in utility costs, transportation costs, inflationary expenses for transportation and maintenance repair and property insurance premiums, Edsell said. The operations fund increased by $1.5 million, totaling $24.5 million in 2025.
Greenwood School’s operation fund increased slightly by a little over half a million. In 2024, the operations fund was budgeted for $13.8 million, while in 2025 it is budgeted for $14.4 million.
Debt Services Fund
The debt services fund consists of debt from various major projects school leaders have decided to fund. Projects may include the construction of new school buildings and major renovation projects. The debt is usually paid off over time, with school leaders replacing debt that’s been paid off with new debt to raise the property tax rate.
Edinburgh Schools have the least amount of debt listed at $1.7 million, while Center Grove Schools have the most at $35 million, an increase of $4.6 million from last year.
Clark-Pleasant’s debt service capacity increased by more than $3 million to $28.8 million in 2025.
Greenwood schools don’t carry a lot of debt and try to repay it as quickly as they can, Dowling said. Greenwood school’s debt service capacity also increased by $756,600, totaling $5.9 million. The anticipated debt for the district is $750,000, but will probably be reduced, Dowling said.
Indian Creek’s debt service total increased from $6.5 million in 2024 to $7.5 million in 2025. About $565,000 of that is budgeted for payments on bonds and other debt principal and $928, 913 budgeted towards interest on debt. The remaining $6 million is budgeted for lease rental bond payments.
Additional funds
Some school districts have a rainy day fund in addition to the three major funds.
The rainy day fund is money reserved for emergencies or unexpected expenses.
Of the four districts that list a rainy day fund in their budgets, Edinburgh schools had the least with $32,931 while Greenwood had the most with $2.5 million, according to state data. Franklin and Center Grove schools do not have rainy day funds. A fifth fund, the referendum fund exists for three districts: Franklin Community School Corporation, Clark Pleasant Schools and Edinburgh Schools.
All three districts had their referendum fund increase from previous years. Franklin schools, which has a referendum of 23 cents for every $100 of assessed value for employee benefits and repairs and maintenance, saw the largest increase from $5.5 million in 2024 to $7.8 million in 2025. Clark-Pleasant, which has a referendum property tax increase of 10 cents for every $100 of assessed value saw a nearly $800,000 increase from $2.5 million in 2024 to $3.3 million in 2025. Edinburgh schools, which have a referendum of 40 cents for every $100 in assessed value, increased from about $789,000 in 2024 to more than $1 million in 2025, according to state data.
Daily Journal news editor Noah Crenshaw contributed to this report.
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