Warsaw School Patrons: 'No New Taxes, Except This One'
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Patrons at Monday’s hearing on a proposed $39.9 million building project touted their fiscal conservative values, yet all were in favor of Warsaw Community Schools’ tax increase referendum going on the May ballot. The proposed project includes building a new Lincoln Elementary School and renovating and expanding Washington STEM Academy and Edgewood Middle School. Evan McKinley, a Warsaw Community High School sophomore, said, “I despise all taxes, especially new ones being proposed. So for me to support something that would cause a tax increase, it better be for a good reason, but this referendum is a good reason.” As a student, he said he knows how much an environment you’re in affects how well you do. “Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that we need to invest in our future. In Washington, my generation’s future and the ones behind me – our futures are being stolen by a greedy and ineffective government,” McKinley said. “Other countries like China and Japan are passing us up in education. We don’t have to be a part of that problem. Let’s shoulder the load and give your children and mine a school they deserve. Let’s make Warsaw Schools the standard for education – not just in the state but in the country. Supporting this referendum is a stepping stone to getting there.” Lincoln School district resident Craig Nayrocker encouraged the board to vote for the referendum. “I’m very excited to endorse that,” he said. “I’m one of those people who consider themselves ‘taxed enough already.’ And it’s exciting to go against the usual grain of what my usual position might be of new taxes, higher taxes. I think we should go with this issue.” He said the two reasons are because the building projects need to happen and this is the only way for school corporations to do a building project in Indiana. Monica Boyer, Silent No More co-founder, said, “Typically, I’m the last person who would support a referendum. I think the ground shook a little bit when my letter to the editor went into the paper this week. Typically, I’m one to say raising taxes is not a good thing.” She said when speaking to Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert about the project, she asked if they had cut enough and done enough to not have to put the referendum on the ballot. “He didn’t hesitate to open the books for me. He answered every question I had,” Boyer said. She said she learned a lot in talking with him, including how the state funding formula worked. “We do have a very funny state funding formula. I had no idea how the funding formula worked in Indiana,” she said. She said the pictures of the deterioration at Lincoln made her shudder. She said she watched the school board watch every dollar and not be wasteful. “It’s an honor to stand before you and ask you to vote yes for this referendum to give this to the voters in May,” Boyer said. “I just ask for one thing. If this passes in May, and the building process begins, I ask that you continue to watch and squeeze every single dollar you’ve been entrusted, that goes into these schools that you’ve been entrusted with. And I have no doubt that you will. But I ask that you continue to be wise stewards of this money.” She also promised to do everything she could to help the board pass the referendum. Aaron Hoak also lives in the Lincoln school district and has three boys at the school, with a kindergartner at Washington. He and his wife also have a newborn. He said he was in favor of all three parts of the project, but limited his comments to Lincoln. “I’m not just here to tell you to do something, I’m here to tell you that I’m willing to do something,” Hoak said. With a newborn, if “God keeps us in Warsaw,” he said he and his family will be actively involved in Warsaw and Lincoln Elementary. “So we are willing to work to make Lincoln a great place. It already is. A school is more than a building, you all know that. Lincoln has some of the best faculty ... Our faculty, we think at Lincoln, are second to none, we think. It’s evident in the test scores that come out of Lincoln despite what you have seen tonight and previously,” Hoak said. He hoped the reasons to vote for the referendum outweigh the negative. Jason Gibbens, in Washington STEM Academy district, encouraged the board to vote in favor of the building project referendum “for our kids’ sake.” “We just need to have a safe environment,” Gibbens said. He also suggested improvements to the buildings could include geothermal and solar panels, which would save money in energy costs. After the public spoke, the board members then took turns to speak on the issue. They said they weren’t in favor of more taxes, but the project was necessary. The board voted unanimously in favor of it.
