In the last week, thousands of students have headed back to school, and in the coming days, so will thousands more.
As the school year begins, more than 1,600 teachers are going back to work. And thousands of vehicles — including hundreds of buses — are heading back out onto local streets for daily drop-off and pick-up.
Local schools are some of the county’s largest employers, rivaling local manufacturing facilities and even Johnson Memorial Hospital.
And they also are one of the largest expenses on your property tax bill — with budgets for the six public school districts totaling more than $283 million annually.
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By the end of next week, nearly 30,000 students will have started classes again in the county’s six public school districts and five state-accredited private schools.
Preparing for the school year to begin takes months of work from all school staff, from the bus drivers to the teachers and administrators and cafeteria staff.
Getting students to school and back home requires hundreds of buses and drivers that travel the entire county, planning where and when students will be picked up and dropped off and how to manage the behavior of dozens of children while traveling increasingly busy streets.
Food service directors plan and prepare thousands of meals each school year, and track where students’ lunch accounts stand, along with making sure the nearly 36 percent of children receiving free- and reduced-price lunches are also fed.
Teachers and administrators spend hours in training each year, making sure their students are best prepared for life after graduation and that they are meeting their needs. Five of the county’s six public school districts have either an early release or late start time giving their teachers more time to work together on planning and their curriculum, including Franklin schools that is starting its new schedule this school year.
And 30 elected school board members, with a five-member board for each of the six public school districts, meet monthly to review all the details needed to keep the schools running, from reviewing and hiring the superintendent, setting the annual budgets, approving teacher contracts and overseeing multi-million dollar construction projects. This fall, 15 of those board seats will be on your ballots.
Enrollment at most schools continues to grow each year, with hundreds of new students moving into the county or starting school for the first time, which is a key topic of discussion at schools across the county.
That growth leads to an increase in spending, with Center Grove building a new $42 million elementary school set to open next school year, and Clark-Pleasant officials looking to build a new elementary school in the coming years. Both schools would likely also need to grow their annual budgets to pay for the costs to operate the new schools and staff them with teachers, counselors, maintenance workers and administrators.
Schools make up half or more of most property tax bills, and school officials have been working to keep their tax rates steady, even when facing building projects.
Of course, for parents, school costs go beyond just your tax bill — after clothing, supplies and book fees that often reach into the hundreds.
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Here is a look at education by the numbers:
Students enrolled;29,773
Public school teachers;1,640
Total budgets 2017-2018;$283 million
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