Brown County Schools
Superintendent:David Shaffer
Student population: 2,089 in the 2014-15 school year
Schools: One high school, one junior high school, one intermediate school, three elementary schools, and one career resource center for adult education.
Grade: A in 2013-14
Website: www.brownco.k12.in.us
Source: The Indiana Department of Education
Brown County Schools will ask taxpayers to raise their property taxes when voters head to the ballot box for the May primary election.
In a unanimous vote, the Brown County school board passed a resolution to seek 8 cents per $100 assessed valuation from property tax payers to support the school district's general fund. The property tax increase would give the school system about $1 million a year for seven years, according to the David Shaffer, Brown County Schools superintendent.
"I know its really hard to go to taxpayers and ask them to pay more than what they’re already paying," he said. "On the other hand, I would say, I don’t think we can make a better investment than in our schools and in the children of our communities."
The school needs the financial aid because fewer and fewer students are coming into the district, and the main source of revenue for a school's general fund is the per pupil funding provided by the state.
"We’re facing kind of an ongoing problem with declining enrollment. Since general fund finances are tied exclusively to enrollment, that’s been a challenge to us," Shaffer said. "We've been operating very close to capacity on our general fund."
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