Volunteers for the Advance HSE Political Action Committee gathered at Hub & Spoke in Fishers Tuesday night to begin organizing the campaign to pass Hamilton Southeastern Schools’ operating referendum on the November 3 general election ballot.
HSE is far from alone. Nearly a third of Indiana’s roughly 290 school districts are asking voters to weigh in on a referendum this fall — a wave driven by Senate Enrolled Act 1, the sweeping 2025 property-tax law. Beyond increasing homestead deductions that shrink the assessed value schools can tax, the law also limited school referendum questions to the November ballot in even-numbered years, giving districts just one shot every two years and pushing many of them onto this single election.
Advance Chair Laura Cole told the group the district has already cut roughly $7 million from its budget and will still need a new referendum to close the gap.
HSE Superintendent Dr. Matt Kegley explained that action by the Indiana General Assembly changed the rules underneath the district. By increasing property-tax deductions, the state reduced the net assessed value used to calculate what schools collect — meaning that even keeping the referendum rate voters recently approved would now generate less money than before. That shortfall is what’s driving the district to seek a new, replacement rate. The measure on the November ballot would replace the operating referendum HSE voters passed in 2023, with revenue earmarked for teacher recruitment and retention, school safety, student behavioral health, and classroom programs.
Guiding the effort is outside consultant Robin Winston, who recently advised the successful Avon Community School Corporation campaign that passed with roughly 65% of the vote. Winston laid out the timeline for volunteers: the election is 118 days away, but early voting begins in just 88 days — the real deadline the campaign has to plan around.
The math, Winston said, is straightforward. There are about 83,000 registered voters inside the HSE district. If turnout reaches 30%, that’s 25,000 to 26,000 votes cast — and the campaign’s job is to make sure enough of them are “yes.”
Winston pointed to the ground game that carried Avon. There, volunteers knocked on some 13,000 doors. When no one answered, the volunteer simply held a campaign sign up to the home’s security camera — turning a missed conversation into one more impression.
With the clock already running, Cole closed the kickoff by recruiting volunteers to chair the campaign’s key committees, putting the first pieces of the organization in place as Advance HSE turns toward the 88 days until ballots start being cast.
