The dust is beginning to settle and 8 school corporations in Indiana asked their voters for local tax support in the 2022 primary election cycle.  Six of those school districts saw their voters pass the local referendum while two did not.  I sifted through those results to see if there are any clues as to how our local Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School District will handle a referendum vote in 2023.

HSE has an operating referendum that is due to expire.  Indiana law says such referenda only last for a certain number of years.  It had been seven years, but a recent law change made the length eight years.

An operating referendum normally supplements the state support for teachers salaries and number of staff members.  In HSE’s case, the 2016 referendum was aimed at providing more competitive pay for the teaching staff, lower class sizes (mostly in the lower grades) and also finance a mental health program.

The HSE School Board has several decisions to make in the 2023 operating referendum.  Will the board place the item on the primary or general election ballot?  (In 2023, Fishers will conduct a city election, with the mayor’s office and all 9 council seats up for election).  Will the board choose to ask voters to keep the current operating referendum property tax rate, or will the requested rate be more or less than the current rate?  Will the board choose to hire an outside firm to help manage the referendum campaign?

I have leaned on some very good reporting by Arika Herron and M.J. Slaby of the Indianapolis Star (two excellent journalists) and reporters from the non-profit news organization Chalkbeat, for a look at what has happened to school referenda in Indiana this primary election cycle.

Of the eight school districts with a referendum on the ballot, six were approved, two were voted down.  All six approved were operating referenda, with the two losing were tied to capital projects (school buildings.)

One losing referendum was in Marion County’s Franklin Township.  That district asked voters to provide funding for a renovation and expansion project for their growing student population.  Franklin Township has a history of voting-down school referenda and it happened again in 2023.  School officials there say they will do the best they can, but the challenges of keeping an old building going with increasing student counts will not go away.

The other referendum in the state to lose was in Terre Haute.  There is a long history here, but suffice it to say the voters in Vigo County chose no on a school building project there.

Close to Fishers, Lebanon and Perry Township Schools saw their voters approve their operating referenda by comfortable margins.

So, what does this portend for HSE Schools in their 2023 operating referendum renewal vote?  There is only one conclusion I can draw, based on what very good reporters have written and experts have said.

The fear that a new convoluted language requirement on the referendum ballot did not have the adverse impact that many educators had feared.  Many pundits opined that a number of Indiana lawmakers were of the opinion that too many school referenda were passing in the state.

The results in May of 2022 show that voters appear willing to fund teachers and staff to support their local schools, even if it means property tax bills will go up (or remain the same).  It also illustrates that if the local school district explains what is at stake, and just how the referendum would impact tax bills, the public is willing to listen.

We are many months away from a local HSE operating referendum vote, but what is happening now around the state can provide some clues.  And another important election is coming up later this year…four of the seven HSE School Board seats are up for grabs in the November general election.