State Senator Says WCS Should 'Go Slow'
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
ATWOOD - Warsaw's state legislators were on hand at Atwood Elementary Thursday to set the record straight on their support of education.
State Sen. Kent Adams and Rep. David Wolkins attended Thursday's meeting in part because of a comment by Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Dave McGuire at a meeting Tuesday at Silver Lake Elementary; McGuire said "our common enemy is ignorance on the part of our legislators."
McGuire is talking to patrons of the four elementary schools slated for closing - Atwood, Claypool, Jefferson and Silver Lake. He spoke to Jefferson parents last week, Silver Lake patrons Tuesday and Atwood parents last night.
He is proposing closing the four schools and building two new four-section schools - one in Winona Lake on what is now Grace College's practice soccer field, and one in Prairie Township near the northwest intersection of Ind. 15 and U.S. 30.
McGuire said he believes the two new schools can be built for a maximum of $30 million. WCS also recently incurred another $30 million in debt to pay for additions and renovations to Warsaw Community High School.
Adams warned that because of the state's shaky economic status, this is not a good time for a school corporation to incur more debt.
"The state is having serious financial problems," Adams said. "When the times are tough, you go slow. So what if you have to delay [the building program] a year. ... We have to be careful how quickly we move."
He said he has 14 school districts in his senate district, and "neighborhood schools are what it's all about."
McGuire explained his proposal to the approximately 60 people who attended Thursday's meeting, and said his plan is based on financial reasons only. This spring WCS was forced to lay off teachers and counselors, he said, "and I can guarantee that if we don't take action to correct the operating deficit, the smaller schools, which I love, are a luxury we can't afford."
He later added, "The problem is a chronic, systemic problem - we have too many buildings. ... If we go down this lane even further, there will be even fewer teachers to serve [students]. That's not a threat."
A remonstrance would delay the project, he said, which he does not want to do. There is no remonstrance process for closing schools, and if the remonstrators win, Atwood, Claypool and Silver Lake schools still could be closed by a simple majority vote of the school board. In that case, sixth-graders would be moved into middle schools.
But the position of closing four schools and building two to save money was opposed by former school board member Dan Robinson, who said the proposed building program would solve the district's general fund problems for only the short term.
Robinson said if the school corporation borrows $60 million at 4 percent interest over 20 years, "that's a payment of $363,000 a month," and total interest payment of $27 million.
"We'll never save enough money to pay the interest alone," he said, and if four schools are closed, the corporation will have to buy more buses, fuel and insurance and hire more bus drivers.
"So the taxpayers are spending a fortune so that we can save some money in the general fund," he said.
Ron Yeiter, the school board member who represents the Atwood district, said he disagrees with McGuire on the project.
"I don't really consider it a proposal, I consider it a mandate. He says either you do this or else."
Other options have not be explored, he said, such as putting fifth- and sixth-graders together in a separate school building, which has been done in other Indiana school districts.
Yeiter also said previous meetings "have made remonstrance sound so negative. A remonstrance is not a negative. It's a way of vocalizing your opinion."
Robinson and several patrons questioned why the entire school board was not present at the meeting, and McGuire said if they were, it would be considered a board meeting, and would have to have an agenda posted and be advertised in advance.
Lisa McCoy of Silver Lake asked where the students of the closed schools would attend, and McGuire said that wouldn't be determined until redistricting was done after the new school issue was decided.
"You refuse to tell me where you're going to send my child so you force me to remonstrate," she said. "Why don't you redistrict, then decide where the schools should be based on that?"
Another patron asked how the school corporation would save money (McGuire estimates that closing four schools and building two will save approximately $200,000 per year) if more teachers will have to be hired to staff a four-section school, and McGuire said the savings will be primarily in administration and support.
An Atwood mother said she was afraid the quality of education would suffer if her child was forced to attend a bigger school.
"You can make it pretty, you can make it big, you can make it economically feasible, but you cannot give my child a better education," she said.
Ben McKrill, Clay Township trustee, and his wife, Sally, challenged McGuire's statement that the proposed building program won't result in increased property taxes.
"How do you know how much the tax payment will be when you don't know what the tax rate will be?" she asked.
"I think this is a poor time to be putting on a $60-million debt when you don't know what the assessed valuation is going to be," she said. "I've seen it. I know what it is - it's high. The rate has to fall for the amount of assessed valuation that's going up, If it doesn't fall, we're all in trouble."
McGuire said, "Bottom line - I know this hurts. I'm not asking you to like it. If I were in your position, I'd hate it. I'm just asking you to understand my position."
Yeiter said the school board as a whole "really needs to set priorities."
"We need to emphasize academics over athletics," he said.
Warsaw Schools cut $50,000 in academics, he said, but didn't cut athletics.
"We need to re-evaluate and make some hard decisions," he said. "I think we need to get our priorities straight."
• Superintendent says building plan won't increase taxes
The bottom line for most taxpayers in the Warsaw School Corp. area is whether or not their property taxes will increase.
They won't, according to Superintendent Dr. Dave McGuire.
"We can do this [close four elementaries and build two] and still have a flat tax rate for the next 20 years," McGuire said Thursday at the Atwood Elementary meeting.
Because the debt incurred when the school corporation built Eisenhower and Harrison elementaries and Warsaw Community High School is now being reduced and will be paid off within the next decade, the debt for the new buildings will be plugged into the Debt Service Fund and will simply replace the old debt, McGuire said. There will be no reason to increase property taxes to pay for the new buildings as well as the high school's football stadium, auditorium and other additions and renovations.
But that may not be the last word on the topic.
Financing of school corporations is divided into five funds - the largest, the general fund, pays for salaries, teacher benefits and supplies; the capital projects fund pays for building maintenance and building acquisition and construction; the transportation fund pays for school buses and related expenses; the debt service fund pays off bonds and loans for buildings and buses; and the smallest, the preschool fund finances preschool projects.
In the past, school corporations were not allowed to move money from one fund to another. Last year, when Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon ordered an education cut of $119 million, districts were allowed to use money from their capital projects funds to pay bills because the Legislature would not let them raise taxes to make up for the shortfall.
This year, however, the General Assembly is not only letting schools take money from the CPF to pay for utilities and property insurance, it also is allowing districts to raise property taxes. Added to that is the fact that legislators also reduced state funding for school bus transportation and for paying off debt, and that could result in another property tax increase statewide.
State Sen. Kent Adams said Thursday at Atwood Elementary School that the state is allowing school corporations to transfer 3 percent over two years into the general fund. That will amount to approximately $2 million for Warsaw Community Schools over the next two years, he said, and statewide, will translate into approximately a $280 million property tax increase.
"The state's not going to pay that. You're going to pay that," he said.
The property tax reassessment is another factor to be considered, Adams said, "and no one knows that that'll mean. ... We're not going to know the answer on reassessment until sometime in the fall."
He also reminded those present at the meeting Thursday that if a school corporation builds one or more new schools, the state allows that corporation to increase its general fund to cover operating expenses for the new schools, and this also could mean a tax increase.
• Remonstrance procedures outlined
Warsaw schools patrons who are against the proposed building program have hinted they may file a remonstrance to stop it.
Any remonstrance against Warsaw Schools' proposed building program must follow a specific set of rules prescribed by state law.
According to Indiana state code, after the school corporation gives formal notice that it intends to start a building program, a petition starting the remonstrance process must be signed by at least 250 property owners in the Warsaw Community Schools district and filed with the Kosciusko County Auditor within 30 days of the notice of "preliminary determination." In the case of Warsaw Schools, the notice date would be June 16, the date of the 10-28 hearing, if the board approves the project on that date.
The auditor then must verify that the signers of the petition are indeed property owners in the correct area, and after the verification, the remonstrators must publish notice of their intent to remonstrate.
Then the race begins. The remonstrators and supporters of the project have 30 days after date of publication in which to circulate their own petitions, either for or against the building project. After those completed petitions are turned in to the auditor and again verified, the side with the most signatures prevails. [[In-content Ad]]
ATWOOD - Warsaw's state legislators were on hand at Atwood Elementary Thursday to set the record straight on their support of education.
State Sen. Kent Adams and Rep. David Wolkins attended Thursday's meeting in part because of a comment by Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Dave McGuire at a meeting Tuesday at Silver Lake Elementary; McGuire said "our common enemy is ignorance on the part of our legislators."
McGuire is talking to patrons of the four elementary schools slated for closing - Atwood, Claypool, Jefferson and Silver Lake. He spoke to Jefferson parents last week, Silver Lake patrons Tuesday and Atwood parents last night.
He is proposing closing the four schools and building two new four-section schools - one in Winona Lake on what is now Grace College's practice soccer field, and one in Prairie Township near the northwest intersection of Ind. 15 and U.S. 30.
McGuire said he believes the two new schools can be built for a maximum of $30 million. WCS also recently incurred another $30 million in debt to pay for additions and renovations to Warsaw Community High School.
Adams warned that because of the state's shaky economic status, this is not a good time for a school corporation to incur more debt.
"The state is having serious financial problems," Adams said. "When the times are tough, you go slow. So what if you have to delay [the building program] a year. ... We have to be careful how quickly we move."
He said he has 14 school districts in his senate district, and "neighborhood schools are what it's all about."
McGuire explained his proposal to the approximately 60 people who attended Thursday's meeting, and said his plan is based on financial reasons only. This spring WCS was forced to lay off teachers and counselors, he said, "and I can guarantee that if we don't take action to correct the operating deficit, the smaller schools, which I love, are a luxury we can't afford."
He later added, "The problem is a chronic, systemic problem - we have too many buildings. ... If we go down this lane even further, there will be even fewer teachers to serve [students]. That's not a threat."
A remonstrance would delay the project, he said, which he does not want to do. There is no remonstrance process for closing schools, and if the remonstrators win, Atwood, Claypool and Silver Lake schools still could be closed by a simple majority vote of the school board. In that case, sixth-graders would be moved into middle schools.
But the position of closing four schools and building two to save money was opposed by former school board member Dan Robinson, who said the proposed building program would solve the district's general fund problems for only the short term.
Robinson said if the school corporation borrows $60 million at 4 percent interest over 20 years, "that's a payment of $363,000 a month," and total interest payment of $27 million.
"We'll never save enough money to pay the interest alone," he said, and if four schools are closed, the corporation will have to buy more buses, fuel and insurance and hire more bus drivers.
"So the taxpayers are spending a fortune so that we can save some money in the general fund," he said.
Ron Yeiter, the school board member who represents the Atwood district, said he disagrees with McGuire on the project.
"I don't really consider it a proposal, I consider it a mandate. He says either you do this or else."
Other options have not be explored, he said, such as putting fifth- and sixth-graders together in a separate school building, which has been done in other Indiana school districts.
Yeiter also said previous meetings "have made remonstrance sound so negative. A remonstrance is not a negative. It's a way of vocalizing your opinion."
Robinson and several patrons questioned why the entire school board was not present at the meeting, and McGuire said if they were, it would be considered a board meeting, and would have to have an agenda posted and be advertised in advance.
Lisa McCoy of Silver Lake asked where the students of the closed schools would attend, and McGuire said that wouldn't be determined until redistricting was done after the new school issue was decided.
"You refuse to tell me where you're going to send my child so you force me to remonstrate," she said. "Why don't you redistrict, then decide where the schools should be based on that?"
Another patron asked how the school corporation would save money (McGuire estimates that closing four schools and building two will save approximately $200,000 per year) if more teachers will have to be hired to staff a four-section school, and McGuire said the savings will be primarily in administration and support.
An Atwood mother said she was afraid the quality of education would suffer if her child was forced to attend a bigger school.
"You can make it pretty, you can make it big, you can make it economically feasible, but you cannot give my child a better education," she said.
Ben McKrill, Clay Township trustee, and his wife, Sally, challenged McGuire's statement that the proposed building program won't result in increased property taxes.
"How do you know how much the tax payment will be when you don't know what the tax rate will be?" she asked.
"I think this is a poor time to be putting on a $60-million debt when you don't know what the assessed valuation is going to be," she said. "I've seen it. I know what it is - it's high. The rate has to fall for the amount of assessed valuation that's going up, If it doesn't fall, we're all in trouble."
McGuire said, "Bottom line - I know this hurts. I'm not asking you to like it. If I were in your position, I'd hate it. I'm just asking you to understand my position."
Yeiter said the school board as a whole "really needs to set priorities."
"We need to emphasize academics over athletics," he said.
Warsaw Schools cut $50,000 in academics, he said, but didn't cut athletics.
"We need to re-evaluate and make some hard decisions," he said. "I think we need to get our priorities straight."
• Superintendent says building plan won't increase taxes
The bottom line for most taxpayers in the Warsaw School Corp. area is whether or not their property taxes will increase.
They won't, according to Superintendent Dr. Dave McGuire.
"We can do this [close four elementaries and build two] and still have a flat tax rate for the next 20 years," McGuire said Thursday at the Atwood Elementary meeting.
Because the debt incurred when the school corporation built Eisenhower and Harrison elementaries and Warsaw Community High School is now being reduced and will be paid off within the next decade, the debt for the new buildings will be plugged into the Debt Service Fund and will simply replace the old debt, McGuire said. There will be no reason to increase property taxes to pay for the new buildings as well as the high school's football stadium, auditorium and other additions and renovations.
But that may not be the last word on the topic.
Financing of school corporations is divided into five funds - the largest, the general fund, pays for salaries, teacher benefits and supplies; the capital projects fund pays for building maintenance and building acquisition and construction; the transportation fund pays for school buses and related expenses; the debt service fund pays off bonds and loans for buildings and buses; and the smallest, the preschool fund finances preschool projects.
In the past, school corporations were not allowed to move money from one fund to another. Last year, when Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon ordered an education cut of $119 million, districts were allowed to use money from their capital projects funds to pay bills because the Legislature would not let them raise taxes to make up for the shortfall.
This year, however, the General Assembly is not only letting schools take money from the CPF to pay for utilities and property insurance, it also is allowing districts to raise property taxes. Added to that is the fact that legislators also reduced state funding for school bus transportation and for paying off debt, and that could result in another property tax increase statewide.
State Sen. Kent Adams said Thursday at Atwood Elementary School that the state is allowing school corporations to transfer 3 percent over two years into the general fund. That will amount to approximately $2 million for Warsaw Community Schools over the next two years, he said, and statewide, will translate into approximately a $280 million property tax increase.
"The state's not going to pay that. You're going to pay that," he said.
The property tax reassessment is another factor to be considered, Adams said, "and no one knows that that'll mean. ... We're not going to know the answer on reassessment until sometime in the fall."
He also reminded those present at the meeting Thursday that if a school corporation builds one or more new schools, the state allows that corporation to increase its general fund to cover operating expenses for the new schools, and this also could mean a tax increase.
• Remonstrance procedures outlined
Warsaw schools patrons who are against the proposed building program have hinted they may file a remonstrance to stop it.
Any remonstrance against Warsaw Schools' proposed building program must follow a specific set of rules prescribed by state law.
According to Indiana state code, after the school corporation gives formal notice that it intends to start a building program, a petition starting the remonstrance process must be signed by at least 250 property owners in the Warsaw Community Schools district and filed with the Kosciusko County Auditor within 30 days of the notice of "preliminary determination." In the case of Warsaw Schools, the notice date would be June 16, the date of the 10-28 hearing, if the board approves the project on that date.
The auditor then must verify that the signers of the petition are indeed property owners in the correct area, and after the verification, the remonstrators must publish notice of their intent to remonstrate.
Then the race begins. The remonstrators and supporters of the project have 30 days after date of publication in which to circulate their own petitions, either for or against the building project. After those completed petitions are turned in to the auditor and again verified, the side with the most signatures prevails. [[In-content Ad]]