Letter: Vote ‘Yes’ on Southeast Dubois School Corp referendum
Dear landowners in the Southeast Dubois School Corporation,
I am writing to urge you to vote “YES” for the operating referendum that you will see on your ballots this year. We need this referendum to pass or we risk potentially losing the schools that our community takes so much pride in.
I am a graduate of Forest Park, and my daughters attend Southeast Dubois schools now. We relocated to another community shortly after we got married, but we moved back to this area once we had children because it was important to us that our kids attend school here.
I love the small class sizes, the quality of the teachers/staff/administration, the programs, and the extra-curricular activities that are offered. I know the teachers here truly care about their students. They go above and beyond to find creative and innovative ways to teach our kids on a very limited budget.
You may be wondering how our school corporation found itself in this financial situation where we need a referendum to continue operating. The answer lies in the lack of state funding in recent years. The state funding formula has reduced the amount of money our corporation gets per student.
State government has also allocated more money to charter schools, thus reducing the amount of funding available for public schools. Small rural school corporations, like ours, have suffered because of this. Declining enrollment has also played a role since the money follows the student if they transfer to another school corporation.
Please educate yourselves on which candidates support public education when voting for governor, state representatives, and state senators. Electing the right candidates could positively impact our schools.
Voting “Yes” for the referendum will help our school corporation retain the wonderful teachers that we currently have. I have witnessed several amazing educators leave to take jobs in other corporations or leave the teaching profession completely as a result of the salary and benefits package not being competitive at Southeast Dubois.
I also want our schools to continue offering specialized classes such as band, chorus, robotics, art, theatre, and agriculture. Advanced placement and college credit courses are also a priority for many students. If these types of courses are not offered, our corporation will continue to see declining enrollment because families will send their children to schools that offer these programs. We want to keep our children in our community.
I have always been proud to be a part of Ranger Nation! We have so much support for our athletic teams, band, dance team, choir, and academic teams. If the referendum doesn’t pass, we risk losing our identity as Rangers since we may be forced to consolidate with another school corporation. Green and gold is all I know, and I’m not ready to give it up!
Please vote YES to support the referendum! Our kids and the future of our schools depend on it!
Thank you,
Tara Hopf, Schnellville
Maybe the superintendent and school board Should learn how to manage money. Instead of asking all the people that make their living off their land and small businesses pay more than their fair share.
Excellent point, Bill. Unfortunately, government never bothers with managing money because they know they have a piggybank from which they can simply take more money whenever they feel like it. That piggybank is called The Taxpayers.
The letters’ author makes just a poor case in favor of this tax increase as SE Dubois School Corporation does. So, Ms. Hopf, if you or your spouse had an opportunity to relocate to, say, Indianapolis for a better job and higher wages, you expect me to believe that you would turn that down just because, in your mind, green and gold is “where it’s at”? In this COVID economy? You must be joking.
And then there is the scare tactic of “well, we’ll have to merge with another school corporation if we don’t get our tax increase.” If this were truly the case, we would have been hearing a lot more about this possibility for some time now, instead of it being brought up only recently as just another excuse for…A TAX INCREASE.
Honestly, I have never understood the mindset of people who think they are not paying enough taxes and seriously WANT to pay more. To those of you of that mindset, I suggest you open your checkbook and write a nice fat donation to SE Dubois School Corporation to the tune of several thousand dollars. Then maybe you might feel good about yourself and leave the rest of us who do not want another tax increase alone.
Sorry, SE Dubois, but using an excuse of “Other school corporations are getting this much money from their taxpayers! It’s NOT FAIR that we don’t also!” doesn’t work with me.
I’m voting NO on the SE Dubois School referendum, and I hope more of you will join me in doing so.
The Southeast Dubois School Corporation has done nothing to create a shortfall in their budget. The State Legislature continues to underfund our local school corporations forcing schools to choose between cutting staff and increasing class size or having a referendum to raise taxes. In Dubois county we have two State Representatives, Shane Lindauer and Stephen Bartels. Both have voted in every budget session they have held office for the Education bill that lowered the amount of money going to the local schools. In the last session, the GOP leadership allowed a 10% increase for funding private schools that are mainly in large metropolitan areas (Indy, Ft. Wayne, Lake Co.) that cost nearly $30,000 per year. Your tax dollars and every resident of Dubois County contributes to those private schools while our public schools have to struggle to make ends meet. In 2019 Southeast Dubois was denied $192,701.23 in funds, and that is just for one year; and this shortage of money has been going on since 2010.
Don’t blame the school or the administrators. Ask your state legislators why they are letting our tax dollars pay for people to send their kid to a $30,000 per year Private school in Indianapolis.
Southeast Dubois School Corporation can afford to hire a consulting firm (Administrator Assistance of Brookston) to tell them they should ask for a tax increase. (1) Consultants are not cheap.
RangerStrong PAC sent out fliers to every individual voter within the SE Dubois district asking for a “YES” vote. (Yes, our household received two such fliers, both to our address.) Who controls RangerStrong PAC and from where are they getting their money? I don’t know – honestly asking here. I only question this because a portion of SE Dubois’ website is promoting this referendum (2). An informational PDF linked at the site also references RangerStrong PAC – so who is controlling this PAC?
The Baby Boom era ended in the 1960s. Declining enrollment is a fact of life. It is time to be responsible and plan for the future with that in mind instead of always thinking more money will solve everything. It doesn’t.
Ms. Kendall, I note you are running against Shane Lindauer for IN State Representative and I do sincerely wish you well in that race. The Indiana GOP supermajority needs to be done away with. At least District 63 has a choice. Here in District 74 we’re stuck with INGOP hack Stephen Bartels, running unopposed, who (in my opinion) only does what INGOP tells him to do.
But I digress. You and I will have to agree to disagree on the subject of higher taxes for SE Dubois.
(1) https://duboiscountyherald.com/b/se-dubois-pursues-property-tax-referendum
(2) https://www.sedubois.k12.in.us/Content2/20630
I agree that the expense of the PAC, the consultants, etc seem contradictory to the idea that “our school needs money,” but sadly that is the only way a referendum can succeed. I suggest we focus on what the actual cost for taxpayers is going to be, I am sure it will not be too expensive, but that determination is relative to each property owner’s situation. The other focus has to be breaking that GOP supermajority that forgets that Public Schools are the heart of small communities that are spread all over the state. I know that there are many State Reps in both parties that would like to improve our school funding formula, but sadly the two representing Dubois County are not in that category.
Before I comment, full disclosure; I am a candidate for State Representative, but I am a resident of Dubois county and I am concerned about theses numbers. According to the Indiana Department of Education, $192,701.23 in calendar year 2019, was diverted from Southeast Dubois Schools to pay for private schools in Marion, Allen, Lake, Vanderburgh and other counties. That is only one year. These funds have been denied to public schools since 2010 to fund Private schools that are not in Dubois county or anywhere near. The State controls the funds and State Representatives Stephen Bartels and Shane Lindauer along with State Senators Mark Messmer and Erin Houchin voted for the Education funding bill that took money away from local schools. This is one of the reasons why local school corporations need to have referendums to increase their funding, the State is starving schools of money while forcing them waste money on continuous tests and test prep.
Southeast wasn’t the only school corp that had money denied to them, Southwest had $286,914.38 diverted, Northeast Dubois $132,029.94, and Jasper $522,693.87 all sent to schools in other counties. That is a $1,134,339.42 for just one year. Please remember that number of tax dollars that should have gone to our local schools when you vote.