Students implore voters to keep Northeast schools open
Parents, teachers and alumni of the county’s smallest school corporation filled the Northeast Dubois High School cafeteria with blue Tuesday night.
In a show of support, those attending encouraged the school board to take the first step towards a referendum that will hopefully save the cash-strapped corporation.
Any detractors to the proposed increase to property taxes in the corporation remained silent as several parents and students stood to address the crowd in support of the school.
Celestine Elementary second grader Matthew Messmann seemed small as he held the full size microphone in his hand and read from a prepared statement. In a testament to the superior academics of the small school, Matthew never faltered and his pronunciation was perfect as he implored those in the crowd to support the school he wanted to graduate from.
“I may not be able to vote yet but I would like to tell you what I think,” Matthew started. “I am proud to be a Jeep because we are like a family.”
He told the crowd how important being part of the school was for him. He thanked all of his teachers and told the crowd about a butterfly project his class was taking part in.
“I would be very sad if our school closed because we did not have enough money,” he said. “Please support our school when you vote because I can’t. Thank you.”
He was the fourth student to stand up and speak on behalf of the school corporation’s bid to ask property owners in the corporation to pay an additional 18 cents per $100 of assessed value.
Graduating seniors Aubrey Knies and Kennedy Neukam told those attending they wanted to bring their children back to the area to continue the tradition of Northeast alumni in their families.
Dubois Elementary second grader Adam Dooley began the outpouring from students when his dad, Shawn Dooley, invited him to speak. With no notes, Adam simply held the microphone and with a little show of support from his dad, told the crowd to please vote yes for the referendum. “I am in the second grade and I would like to graduate as a Jeep,” he said to immediate applause.
Dooley is the chairperson for the political action committee Save the Jeeps. He spoke briefly about the group’s efforts to ensure correct information was being disseminated to the public. He and his wife Angie have four children in the corporation.
Among the adults who spoke, Heidi Ehrhard told the crowd she and her husband Dr. Robert Ehrhard moved to this area for a job at Memorial Hospital about 12 years ago. “When we came into Jasper, everyone encouraged us to live in the Jasper school district,” she said. “My husband looked at the school district and said ‘no, we are choosing Northeast Dubois.'”
Ehrhard added that of those she had heard were against raising property taxes, many were against it since they didn’t have children in the school corporation. “My understanding is we have the lowest tax rate in the county. Even with the referendum, we will still have the lowest tax rate in the county,” she said. “Ultimately, if we choose not to pass the referendum and our school fails because of a lack of funds then we will get absorbed into Jasper. And then we get to pay Jasper’s tax rate which is significantly higher.”
Although the specific option of Jasper absorbing the school corporation has not been discussed, if the corporation does close, it could be divided into the other existing corporations. Property owners’ tax rates would reflect those corporations’ rates.
In all ten people spoke in support of the referendum with absolutely no dissent from the crowd, making it easy for the the Northeast School Board to approve placing the matter on the November ballot.
If passed, the increase recommended by Brookston-based Administrator Assistance will help to staunch the loss of revenue in the school corporation’s general fund. That fund, which covers operational costs including salaries and benefits for teachers and staff, is solely supported by student enrollment in the school.
The other funds — transportation, capital projects, pension debt, debt and bus replacement — cannot be used to fund the general fund. If a new air conditioner system is added to the 40-year-old high school, that money comes from the capital project fund.
The rainy day fund can be used to bolster the general fund and the school corporation has been using it for that purpose as revenue has steadily fallen. But, it is unsustainable.
During a feasibility study completed earlier this year, Administrative Assistance reported that enrollment is expected to continue to fall in the foreseeable future. Currently standing at 879 students, a drop of 20 students over the previous school year, enrollment is projected to continue to fall as low as 835 by the 2019-20 school year.
Superintendent Bill Hochgesang reported that the corporation will graduate 71 students but only welcome in 56 kindergarteners in the coming school year. This is a loss of about $75,000.00 for the corporation and he expects the trend to continue again for the the 2018-2019 school year.
In a recent post on a Facebook page dedicated to Saving the Jeeps, Hochgesang published a list of cost saving steps the corporation has taken in the past four years as revenue for the general fund has continued to drop.
- Hired all teaching staff at the beginning salary regardless of experience.
- Reduced classified staff (teacher aides) by four people prior to the start of 2015-16 school year.
- Required two maintenance employees to drive bus routes and moved portions of their wages to the transportation fund.
- Transferred salaries from general fund into other funds.
- Raised the deductible for administrators and board members insurance prior to 2014-15 school year.
- Eliminated paying for board member benefits.
- Reduced the amount paid for administrator benefits March 2016.
- Allowed sports participation to count as P.E. credit.
- Increased potential revenue in vocational areas by sharing our teachers/programs with other schools.
- Encouraged students to travel to area schools for classes we can’t afford to offer or do not have in our curriculum.
- Collaborated with Dubois Rural Electric Cooperative to create savings in utilities.
- Applied for, received and administrated grants to support current programs.
- Required all fundraising to pay 5 percent of profits to the general fund.
- Required cafeteria account to pay for staff utilized during lunch periods, cafeteria is its own bucket.
- Increased pre-school costs.
- Utilized parent teacher organizations and booster clubs to provide funding for supplies and equipment.
- No employee raises the last four years.
During last night’s meeting, the board also approved reducing Hochgesang’s insurance benefits by 25 percent; saving the corporation an estimate $5,000. The move puts his own benefits package in line with that offered to the rest of the staff and teachers at the corporation.
Hochgesang said the move needed to be done despite the board’s reluctance to do so.
If passed, the referendum will be in affect for seven years. The school corporation is hoping that within the time offered by the temporary solution, a permanent solution to maintaining the operation of the school can be found.
“We are hoping the referendum will give us time to get a handle on things in the next seven years,” Hochgesang said.
Hochgesang is a graduate of Northeast Dubois, Class of 1983. “It’s very important to me,” he said. “I graduated from here. My kids graduated from here. My son and daughter-in-law bought a house in this district and God-willing, I want my grandkids to have an opportunity to go here.”
Here is how the school is funded.
[gview file=”https://duboiscountyfreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/funding-buckets-2015-feasibility-study.pdf”%5D
I had no idea NE Dubois was in that much danger of being a going concern. It’s sad, because the short time I worked there as substitute teacher (6 straight weeks and several one day gigs at the high school) I was impressed by the students’ high-level math skills and the vocational offerings, such as the Agriculture program and STEM type opportunities. The students knew who they were and where they were headed.
Isn’t that cute? Well, I have an entirely different opinion on this. I think it’s downright shameful – maybe bordering on a form of child abuse or juvenile manipulation – to coach if not coax children of that age to read “prepared statements” (prepared by whom?) essentially masquerading as adult stand-ins to get what the adults want but who themselves are afraid to stand up and make their case on their own. Since when do parents and maybe other overly passionate-for-a-cause cohorts with such desperate, bird-brained ideas put these kids into adult roles to play on the heartstrings of authorities? And don’t tell me these kids on their own just wanted to go and speak in favor of the school. I think it smells and was entirely inappropriate – maybe even a case for the larger authorities such as child protective services to investigate the home environments that these children are subjected to on a daily basis. Children should be children at this age – don’t try and grow them (up) too fast – leave them out of it.
I completely agree with Mrs. Green. It is disgusting that people can’t express their concerns without trying to pull heartstrings and only using emotion to affect decisions. We shouldn’t let children run our country. We need to use logic.
I would also like to add that it is irresponsible to put parent’s identity insecurity issues above students’ education. Many schools in Southern Indiana are shrinking and cannot provide the resources that consolidated schools can. Larger schools can provide more skilled teachers, especially in math and science areas, and at a lower cost. People need to do what is best for the children and not worry about if a school they attended 30 years ago still has the same name.
I was shocked to read this as I had no idea there was a funding problem. I graduated from DHS in 1971 with many fond memories. This school has produced so many succesful people for its size, business leaders, optometrists, TV personalities, successful teachers, etc. I was fortunate enough to stand next to President Reagan on a Secret Service detail. Hopefully the referendum will pass and this outstanding little school corporation will remain viable.
What TV personalities are from Dubois, Indiana? Most people I know to Evansville with a good portion of their class, graduate from USI, and move back to Dubois.