Northeast Dubois counts down to referendum
With the referendum looming for Northeast Dubois County School Corporation, Superintendent Bill Hochgesang spoke about the brokenness of the Indiana school system at Tuesday’s board meeting.
He read from a statement:
“In three short weeks Northeast Dubois will know the fate of the referendum vote. Whether it passes or fails, Northeast Dubois will continue to make the necessary cuts and find cost savings. We will also continue to cautiously make the important decisions that affect our children’s education and future. We can only provide what our funding will allow. Our voters have an even greater responsibility when they go to the voting booth.
To truly support Northeast Dubois, I am asking all of them to do their research on the candidates and vote for candidates that will support public education and our students. We are in our present situation because of the system that has been put in place for us.
The current public education funding system is broken, and we have to continue make decisions that do not adequately support students completely. In spite of a positive result from the referendum vote, Northeast Dubois will still have to make difficult cost saving decisions that impact our schools and our students.
The public education testing system is broken, as state mandated tests are not providing feedback and data to inform instruction, but rather testing data is being used to rate and rank teachers, schools and school corporations. The testing data does not provide timely feedback to support the learning process. In fact, at Northeast Dubois, we really don’t need the state mandated testing data to know what our kids know.
The entire state accountability system is broken, as tests are used solely to cause failure in order to differentiate school grades. As mentioned earlier, the tests are given for the sole purpose of assigning grades to schools.
I encourage everyone to do their civic duty and vote. My hope is that we can vote candidates into public office that will work to support our most precious resource, our children. I hope we will elect candidates who understand that a good education is the most important aspect in a child’s future and that we can vote in candidates that will support all students in the state of Indiana.”
William G. Hochgesang
Superintendent, Northeast Dubois
It was the final meeting for the Northeast Dubois School Board before the referendum vote on November 8th. The corporation is asking the voters to support a property tax increase of .18 cents per $100 of assessed value to bolster the school’s lagging general fund.
A recent study determined without the increase the school corporation would have to take drastic measures to remain in operation.
The additional tax levy would create about $540,000 in additional funding for the school corporation. The extra funding would cover the current and projected operating deficit of about $200,000 and add about $140,000 to retain and recruit teachers. About $200,000 would go to continue the maintenance of Celestine Elementary, add music and drama programming, make a student service social worker a full-time position and maintain extracurricular and athletic programs.
The tax rate for 2015 was $0.81 per $100 of assessed value. The rates in 2015 for the three other Dubois County school corporations were $1.02 per $100 in Southeast, $1.08 per $100 in Greater Jasper and $1.21 per $100 in Southwest.
Also in the meeting last night, the board was reminded about the special referendum meeting to be held Monday, October 24th at 7 pm at the Dubois Middle School in the multipurpose room.
This last meeting before the election will give the residents in the area a chance to ask final questions about the referendum vote and the effect it will have on taxes on area property owners. The public is encouraged to attend.
Also at the meeting:
Maureen Luebbehusen, 2nd grade teacher at Dubois Elementary reported the school received a grant of $1,427.72 from Dubois REC which she used to purchase an educational assistance program from LEGO Education to help support learning and creativity in the classroom.
Luebbehusen says that the program encourages students to work together in constructing a wide range of items.
One of Luebbehusen’s students brought examples to show the board how he programs small devices that perform specific functions.
The board applauded the exhibition and thanked Luebbehusen for her work on the project.
Finally, the board acknowledged the Northeast Dubois Marching Band and wished them good luck as they prepare for their performance in the finals for the Scholastic bands at Lawrence Central High School at 11:00 am this Saturday.
Matt Crane contributed to this report
