Kokomo — The Northwestern School Board will join the Kokomo-Center board in requesting an emergency loan from the state rainy day fund because of delinquent Chrysler property taxes.
Superintendent Ryan Snoddy said Chrysler owes the corporation about $2.3 million, and he plans to ask for about $1.95 million in a state loan.
“We made some cuts and put off some things knowing we had this delinquency. We have been trying to be very frugal through this year,” he said. “Hopefully this will reduce some of our obligations and interest payments from borrowing the money.”
Chrysler is repaying the delinquent taxes over a six-year period, according to Kokomo Superintendent Jeff Hauswald. He told Kokomo’s board the state loan will be about 2 percent interest, which Chrysler will not have to reimburse.
In other business, Northwestern’s board agreed to pay vocational and special education tuition payments from its rainy day fund. Snoddy said the board had agreed to make the payments from that fund earlier in 2010, when the state reduced school funding by approximately 3 percent. He said there is still a balance in the fund, and this is the first large expenditure from it since the state authorized schools to have a rainy day fund.
The board also passed a resolution supporting a letter from John Glenn School Corp., which is asking the state legislature to look at equalizing per-pupil funding.
Snoddy said currently schools receive anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 per pupil in state support, depending on a funding formula. The formula takes into account factors such as percentage of at-risk students and socio-economic factors.
Snoddy said he agrees it does cost more to educate some students, but “I question the disparity of almost $5,000 difference between the low end and the high end.”