Fremont Community Schools studying possible tax referendum

Salaries have been frozen since 2011, there was a reduction in force at about the same time and due to cuts in faculty, programming has declined, said Superintendent Lori Vaughn.

Salaries seemed to be one of the key areas that Vaughn and McNeal want to bring up.

“That’s one reason why we put it on (the agenda) for consideration,” McNeal said.

“Programming has suffered over the past few years because we had to RIF,” Vaughn said.

While salaries have been frozen, the district has been able to provide stipends to teachers to help with their incomes.

McNeal said if a tax increase were pursued, it was in the interest of “getting our ship right.”

As the school board and administrators study a possible referendum, Vaughn said in addition to required public hearings she wanted to be as transparent as possible with the public.

“We want to share as much as we know with everybody,” she said.

Vaughn and Penrod have been working on projections to determine the tax impact and what proposed increases would do for the school’s bottom line.

Vaughn said the target would be to put a referendum to a vote in November.

Since 2008 school districts have been able to put before voters referenda to raise taxes for construction plans or operating expenses. In Fremont’s case, it would be allowed the opportunity to put a measure to a vote because the district “cannot carry out its public educational duty unless it imposes a referendum tax levy,” said information from the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance.

If a resolution approved by the school board would pass muster with the DLGF, that information would then be forwarded to the county clerk so it could be put on the ballot.

Because there is not a countywide election this fall, Fremont would have to pay for the election. So far, the town of Fremont doesn’t have any contested races in this year’s municipal elections and none of the school board seats are up for election.

In 2012 Hamilton Community Schools passed a referendum to raise taxes for operating expenses. The measure carried with 74 percent voting yes. With the successful vote, Hamilton ended up with a tax increase of 44 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. For a house valued at $100,000 with no exemptions or deductions, the increase in the tax bill would have been $440.

Last November, East Noble Community Schools voters rejected a referendum on a school construction project, which is the other reason schools can put a referendum before voters.

In a financial report presented Monday by Fremont business manager Brandon Penrod, he pointed out the school district will end 2014-2015 about $240,000 in the red. Revenue will be just shy of $6 million while spending is projected to end at about $6.235 million.

In a phone interview earlier Monday, Vaughn said the district has been fortunate because it has been carrying a positive cash operating balance to cover shortfalls. Still, it has gotten to the point that the school must seek other options for revenue with declining funds coming from the Legislature.

“As you know, it has been a rough spring coming out of the Legislature,” she said. “We did not fair very well.”

Besides what was done by the Legislature to determining the funding formula for the next three school years, with declining enrollment at districts like Fremont, funding from the state declines.

Penrod pointed out that the school lost about $25,000 a month because of an enrollment decline on the winter student count. In April and May the school received $493,417 monthly compared to $518,299 the previous months, based on the fall count.

Penrod also told the board the school has had to use rainy day funds to pay utility bills.