Franklin schools are asking residents to agree to a property tax increase to support teacher raises, hire mental health counselors and provide a reserve as the district continues fighting a looming deficit.
The request before taxpayers of Franklin Community Schools this spring comes as a last resort after the school district has faced years of property tax caps, stagnant student enrollment, changing state formulas for how schools are funded and a high debt payment to pay off the high school and middle school projects, Superintendent David Clendening and Executive Director of Finance Jeff Mercer said.
The school board will decide on Monday to ask voters to approve a tax increase of 23 cents per $100 of assessed valuation for the next eight years. The owners of a $128,500 home would pay $118 more per year, and the school district would bring in an additional $3.5 million per year. That money would be split among teacher and support staff raises, hiring mental health counselors and setting back a reserve. The salary increases could potentially bring Franklin to the mid-point in the ranking of pay of central Indiana school districts and other districts around the state that are similar to Franklin.
A starting teacher in Franklin schools makes $37,500. By comparison, Indianapolis Public Schools and Clark-Pleasant both pay $40,000, and Wayne, Warren, Plainfield, Decatur and Perry schools all pay more than $41,000 – $43,500.
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"I need great adults to help us grow our kids," Clendening said.
Class size has grown from 19 to 25 students at Franklin elementary schools in recent years. Twenty teachers were laid off in 2009. The school district is facing the ever-increasing prospect of losing experienced teachers who are invested in Franklin students and programs to other school districts in central Indiana who can pay higher wages and offer better benefits, because Franklin is at a disadvantage in the complex state formula that gives schools money per student.
Schools that get the most money are those that are the most diverse, have an increased percentage of low income students and have a growing student population.
While 42 percent of Franklin students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, Franklin schools gets $200 per student less than the state average in state funding. Property tax caps added to the Indiana Constitution after the high school was built and the middle school remodeled also means that the school district has been unable to collect more than $24 million in property taxes over the course of 10 years that district leaders would have anticipated when planning those building projects.
Every year, the school district has to take $1.3 million from its general operating fund to help make the debt payment.
At the same time, all school districts are facing a mental health crisis among students that could result in threats or danger at schools. While services are provided for students who meet poverty guidelines, estimates show another 300 Franklin students are in need of mental health services that the school district has no resources to provide.
Of the $3.5 million generated per year if taxpayers agree to the tax increase, about $1 million will go to increase teacher salaries. Support staff wages will cost an estimated $610,000, and adding mental health services will cost $750,000. The remaining money, about $1 million, would be set aside for the district’s reserves. Detailed projections of the district’s finances for the next years show that it’s reserves will drop to zero by 2022 and result in a massive deficit over eight years.
If the school board approves of the measure on Monday, voters of the school district that includes all of Union, Franklin and Needham townships will be asked to vote on May 7 when the city and town primary is conducted.
The school district has applied Six Sigma processes to all areas of operation, gotten creative by giving one school a part-time principal, partnered with Johnson Memorial Health to save money in nursing costs and received money from the city of Franklin for Chromebooks, among dozens of other steps, to try to put off asking the taxpayers for more money. But it can be avoided no longer, Clendening said.
"That’s our big question," Clendening said. "Will you partner with us?"
"I want to make sure we keep those teachers."
The current base teaching salary of $37,500 is lower than that of the Center Grove, Clark-Pleasant and Greenwood districts, and is nearly $9,000 less than the base salary at Speedway schools. If the referendum passes, starting salaries at Franklin would rise to $40,000, matching the current figure at Beech Grove, Clark-Pleasant and Indianapolis public schools. The school district’s 292 teachers would each get a $2,500 raise.
"Our teachers deserve this," Clendening said, thanking them for working with him and his leadership team while they have scrimped and saved for a decade.
Franklin schools has already created an educational environment that makes it a strong competitor with other schools for teachers, Mercer said. For example, the school district gives teachers grants to allow them to take trips for professional development and bring the lessons back to the classroom, sometimes as a virtual trip for students. The pay increase will lessen the growing gap in wages, as teachers consider jobs in other districts.
Ultimately, salaries that are competitive with other districts in central Indiana are necessary to keep quality teachers at Franklin, Clendening said, giving an example of a teacher who left to teach at Speedway schools for a $21,000 raise. Locally, Greenwood starting salaries, which trailed Franklin by nearly $3,000 during the 2014-15 school year, now lead Franklin by $2,419.
“There’s a $6,000 difference between Franklin (community schools) and Plainfield, (where) in five years, you can pay off your college debt. For us, you’re running in place. If we get to $40,000 the difference won’t be so great because of the things we can provide.”
Out of 36 school districts that are comparable to Franklin or close enough geographically to attract its teachers, Franklin was 30th in starting salary. A base increase of $2,500 would place it somewhere in the middle of the list, enabling the district to remain competitive. The district would also increase the salaries of the 275 support staff employees by 10 to 12 percent, Mercer said. The goal isn’t to be the highest-paying, Clendening and Mercer said. The goal is to provide a salary that is more reasonable, they said.
Franklin students go on to attend the best colleges and engineering students at Purdue University report that Franklin AP courses, for example, prepared them well.
"I want to make sure we keep those teachers," Clendening said.
The referendum comes at a time when Franklin schools have the 26th greatest amount of debt of 288 Indiana public school districts. From 2010 to 2018, the Franklin district lost $24 million in revenue due to circuit breaker tax caps on property and commercial taxes. The district’s debt service currently totals $14.9 million, 78 percent of which is going to pay off the new high school and the remodeling project which produced the middle school.
The Franklin district, which covers 112 square miles, felt the effects property tax caps more heavily than a district such as Greenwood, which covers eight square miles and has less property to tax. Additionally, the Franklin school district loses more money to TIF districts than 88 percent of districts in the state, Clendening said.
A lack of growth in student population has also cost the district, as funding for schools is largely based on number of students enrolled. While Center Grove grew its student body by 150 this year, Franklin lost 51 students.
"At this point, we just don’t have any other choice," Clendening said.
‘It’s about people helping people.’
If taxpayers approve the referendum, about $750,000 per year will be spent on providing mental health services, and that money will go almost exclusively to putting professional service providers in the schools.
The school district has added school resource officers through a partnership with the city, and Adult and Child Health provide mental health services for 200 students. But more needs to be done to have a proactive program for an estimated 300 children already in need, Clendening said.
After three students committed suicide in less than two years, the district formed a mental health committee to brainstorm ways to address deficiencies in mental health services. The committee distributed a survey to teachers of all grades and to students from both the middle and high school, and found that 80 percent of students saw stress and/or anxiety in themselves or their peers. Teachers responded to the survey saying that while they often saw mental health issues in their students, they did not have the training needed to help the students and did not know who to refer students to.
"It’s about people helping people," Clendening said.
Mental health counselors will form relationships with students and parents and help students cope with the stress and anxiety they experience, said Tina Gross, the school district’s incoming chief financial officer.
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How much more will you pay?
For a home with $100,000 assessed value, a homeowner would pay $75 per year, or $6.28 per month.
For the median-priced home in the area, valued at $128,500, a homeowner would pay $118 per year, or $9.83 per month.
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The referendum would raise $3.5 million each year for eight years.
Here’s how the money would be spent:
$1,068,000 would be spent on salary increases for teachers
$610,000 would go towards salary increase for support staff
$750,000 for mental health services, including hiring mental health counselors.
The rest of the money would go towards academics and educationally-related programs, along with reserve funding.
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If the school board decides to put the referendum on the May ballot, there would be two possible outcomes.
- If it passes, the district would start to benefit from increased funding starting in the summer of 2020.
- If it fails, the district would have to wait 700 days to put a similar measure on a ballot.
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Voters will be asked to vote on the following question:
"For the eight (8) calendar years immediately following the holding of the referendum, shall the Franklin Community Schools impose a property tax rate that does not exceed twenty-three cents ($0.23) on each one hundred dollars ($100) of assessed valuation and that it is in addition to all other taxes imposed by the school corporation for the purpose of funding academic and educationally-related programs, managing class sizes, school safety initiatives, student mental health support, and attracting and retaining teachers?"
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The Franklin district currently pays $14.93 million in debt each year.
Of that, most of it goes towards the high school and middle school, which will be paid off in 2027.
New high school: $9.22 million (61.7 percent of total)
Middle school remodeling project: $2.45 million (16.4 percent of total)
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