As the countdown to election day enters its final week, Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) school officials made their case one more time Tuesday night for the funding referendum on the May 3rd ballot.  If passed, the measure would continue a 10 cents per $100 of assessed property valuation referendum rate that’s been in place for nearly 7 years and increase the operations referendum tax rate by 12.75 cents over the current operations referendum rate.

There were a number of questions posed to HSE administrators from the crowd of about 25 people.

One person in the crowd questioned why the school corporation is proposing to use some of the referendum revenue to fund assistant principal positions in the elementary buildings, in light of the fact that several more teachers could be hired with that money. HSE School Superintendent Allen Bourff replied that with the large enrollments in these elementary buildings, the teachers cannot be properly evaluated with only one administrator, the principal, handling that duty along with many other administrative tasks.

Several questions were asked about the number of referendums in place now, both for operating expenses and building projects.

One person in attendance reminded everyone that some state legislators are up for election this year and the school funding system is controlled by state lawmakers.  Bourff praised local State Representative Todd Huston for his work at the Statehouse advocating for HSE school funding, but added that Huston says more than half of the state’s school districts are losing enrollment.  That means most elected officials at the state level are working to keep their local schools funded in light of declining student populations, which makes it much more difficult to make the case at the General Assembly for growing school systems like HSE.

According to information from the Advance HSE Political Action Committee, which is advocating a yes vote on the referendum, a home in the HSE School District valued at $100,000 would pay an additional $41.76 per year in property taxes if the referendum is approved.  For a home valued at $250,000 would pay  an extra $166.07 in property tax each year.  A half-million dollar home would pay $373.26 in extra property tax per year.