HSE Schools Chief Financial Officer Katy Dowling was careful not to alarm staff members and the local community, but a budget task force will be convened after the March 8 regular school board meeting.  This allows the district to prepare “just in case” voters choose not to approve a school referendum tax rate.

School board members had plenty of questions for administrators during a Tuesday morning work session.  Administration staff had some answers, others will require more research.

Board members did not provide any specific views on how to move forward on the referendum question.  The current referendum property tax rate is 0.2275 and expires at the end of 2023.  Dowling provided operating referendum rates for neighboring school districts:

Noblesville  0.3700

Carmel         0.2400

Zionsville   0.2400

Westfield   0.1700

Dowling also reviewed some expenses that cannot be reduced, such as utilities and insurance, while going over other expenses that could be evaluated.

The last time the school district had a budget task force in place was in 2020 when there was a loss of 800 students (largely related to the COVID pandemic) that reduced state support and led to a $5 million reduction in spending.

One unknown in the budget mix is how the Indiana General Assembly will handle school funding in the 2-year budget that will likely not be known until late April, according to Dowling.

School officials say in terms of per-student funding from the state, HSE Schools is third lowest.  The only districts lower are Zionsville and Carmel.

The preliminary draft agenda for the March 8 board meeting includes an action item on the planning for the referendum that, if approved, would most likely appear on the November general election ballot.