Center Grove schools will miss out on $24.8 million in potential tax money after a majority of voters decided against a proposed referendum to increase mental health services and school security.
The referendum proposal was rejected by 64 percent of voters in White River Township who decided to cast ballots. If it had passed, the measure would have increased property taxes throughout the district. Starting in 2020, property taxes would have gone up by 11.5 cents per $100 of assessed value, raising about $24.8 million for Center Grove schools over the course of eight years. The owner of a $200,000 home would have paid an additional $112 a year in property taxes.
Superintendent Rich Arkanoff appreciated the support from political action committee volunteers and the Center Grove community as a whole, despite the referendum vote falling short of approval, he said in a written statement Tuesday night.
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“First, we would like to thank all of the volunteers who have worked diligently for months to raise funds and build support for this referendum. We appreciate their dedication to doing what is best for our students,” Arkanoff said in the statement.
“We thank our school board members for giving us the opportunity to ask our community to make this investment in the safety, security, and mental health and behavioral supports for our students. We also thank our community members who came out to vote in support of our students.”
On election day, supporters of the referendum held signs outside voting centers asking people to vote “yes.” The political action committee Support CG Students organized efforts to get the word out about the benefits of the potential property tax increase.
But enough people decided those benefits weren’t worth it. Voter Rich McFarren opposed it, and said Center Grove officials should have budgeted the school district’s money more wisely after deciding to spend $23.2 million on a natatorium.
“I voted ‘no,’” McFarren said. “We don’t need another swimming pool for the high school and too many people in the education system get money for nothing.”
Center Grove schools does not have the ability to spend state money on the objectives it wanted to fund with referendum money, such as additional mental health support and school security, said school board member Joe Hubbard, who campaigned outside a voting center on Tuesday.
“I’m trying to get them to understand what the referendum is for, since some people think since we’re funding a swimming pool we can fund (school security and mental health),” Hubbard said. “We have to spend money from the state on certain objectives, and the state doesn’t support financially investing in safety and security, so we’re asking the community for support.”
Of the $3.1 million Center Grove would have collected each year, $1.06 million would have gone toward installing a live monitoring system. Another $1.15 million would have gone toward mental health services and classroom and teacher support. And $900,450 would have gone toward improving response times in case of an emergency.
Now, Center Grove schools will have to find other ways to fund some of those goals.
“We will continue over the next five to 10 years to work into our budgets, as funding allows, the investments we have discussed as part of this referendum because they are what is best for our students,” Arkanoff said in the statement.
Center Grove schools wanted to increase its police force from five to at least nine officers, so each school building would have its own officer on patrol. It also wanted to pay to increase live monitoring of facilities, including a wall of footage at the Emergency Operations Center, set to open next September, in order to decrease first responder response times, the district has said.
Center Grove schools wanted to install lockdown and emergency alert systems, which would notify police immediately when there is an emergency.
If the referendum had passed, some of the money generated would have gone to live monitoring. The district also would have been able to pay for stop arm cameras on school buses, which can capture the license plates of drivers who break the law by passing stopped school buses.
The remaining referendum money would have paid for additional counselors and expanded mental health services at Center Grove schools to provide for students who can’t afford the services of programs such as Adult and Child because of a lack of insurance, the district had said.
Center Grove schools planned to hire an additional 35 to 50 employees during the life of the referendum, including social workers, counselors, paraprofessionals and police officers, Arkanoff said in October.
Center Grove’s unsuccessful referendum bucks the trend of the two Johnson County school referendums that passed in the last year.
Last November, 57 percent of voters passed a referendum that allowed Clark-Pleasant Community Schools to raise money for mental health support and school security through a property tax increase. Franklin Community Schools also had a successful referendum with 63 percent of voters approving a property tax hike in May that allowed the district to raise teacher salaries and provide mental health support.
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