The five school systems operating in Howard County are looking for ways to reduce costs and provide more funding for educational programs.
That was the message delivered by school officials to about 50 people attending the first of five public forums Wednesday at Indiana University Kokomo, hosted by the Citizens Committee for Consolidation. The meeting at 7 p.m. next Wednesday will deal with fire protection.
No one among the speakers or in the audience voiced support for consolidating any of the five school districts in the county.
Ryan Snoddy, superintendent of the Northwestern Schools, said schools will look different in the future and school systems are preparing students for careers that don’t even exist today.
Consolidation of the schools is not a decision that will be made by the superintendents, but the school boards, he said.
The school systems in Howard County will be operating with 4 percent less state funding over the next two years, Snoddy said.
“Indiana is driving the classroom decisions,” he said. “Lawmakers all backed off of school consolidation. It will be driven by funding.”
Snoddy said the state is eliminating funding to smaller school districts.
He warned that while consolidation can save a lot of money, it would erode quality quickly.
Jeff Hauswald, superintendent of Kokomo Center schools, said the state is creating new school district through the creation of charter schools that are spending 250 percent more on administrative costs than public schools.
He said there would be a negative ramification of consolidation when it comes to federal tax dollars coming to local schools based on the poverty guidelines.
“We provide a lot of teachers with federal dollars,” Hauswald said. “When the poverty level decreases, you lose federal dollars. If we would consolidate with another school district, we would lose millions of federal dollars.”
He said the community should be aware of the costs and benefits of consolidation.
A comparison done a few years ago of the schools in Howard County and Elkhart schools, with a student population of about 12,000, found that Elkhart had 20 more administrators than in all the districts in the Howard County, Snoddy said.
Northwestern is working with other school districts when it comes to group purchasing and has realized a savings in health and liability insurance, trash collection, teacher supplies and paper purchases, he said.
Michael Harris, chancellor of Indiana University Kokomo, said school officials need to think in terms of the region and not just Howard County.
Harris said he wouldn’t comment on the number of school systems the county should have, but said the biggest challenge is the structure of local government.
He said local government was created to fit the needs of the population at the time, which was when travel was on horseback.
“We need to think in terms of regions,” Harris said. “Talk about North-Central Indiana and develop a brand for the region.”