Franklin schools will spend millions in additional property tax dollars on teacher and support staff salaries, mental health and public safety.
Franklin schools will have about $4.4 million to work with in 2022, the third year of an eight-year period covered by a referendum that was approved by 63% of voters in May 2019. The referendum raised property taxes 23 cents for every $100 of assessed property value.
Money from the tax hike has allowed the district to do several things, including hire its first mental health coordinator, add two therapy dogs and bring on three social emotional learning interventionists.
Referendum figures for next year are still estimates, as assessed value on property changes constantly, said Tina Gross, the district’s chief financial officer.
Of the $4.4 million that is expected to flow in next year, the vast majority will go toward teacher and support staff salaries. Almost $2 million will go toward salaries and benefits for 307 certified teachers, and $1.6 million will be spent on salaries and benefits for 335 support staff. While teacher salaries are still being negotiated this year, the extra money allowed Franklin schools to raise its minimum teacher salary to $40,000 after voters passed the referendum, a longtime goal of school officials.
Referendum money will not cover all the costs of salaries and benefits. Instead, Franklin schools will use it to supplement those costs, Gross said.
When Franklin schools pushed for the referendum in 2019, one of Superintendent David Clendening’s main goals was to make teacher and support staff pay competitive with other central Indiana school districts. Support staff includes instructional assistants, special education aides and nurses, among other positions.
“We would increase support staff wages to a competitive figure,” Gross said. “We did peer group studies with districts like us. We targeted the middle of the pack for wages.”
The remaining money, almost $837,000, will go toward mental health and safety, another priority of school officials after three students committed suicide in a span of 18 months between 2017 and 2018. Some of the money will go toward the training and continued care of therapy dogs, which help students who are struggling emotionally.
While Franklin schools already has two therapy dogs that serve elementary students, school officials want to add two or three more. The cost of purchasing the dogs themselves will come from money from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The referendum money will pay for veterinary services, food and training, Gross said.
The money will also be used to add social workers at Franklin Community High School, and a skills-based therapist at Franklin Community Middle School. Additional money will go toward the salaries of two school resource officers, and the salary of a teacher on special assignment who addresses behavioral issues that require disciplinary action, she said.
The remaining money will go toward contractual mental health services performed through organizations such as Adult and Child Health, which provides behavioral health care services in central Indiana and is utilized by students at Franklin schools, Gross said.
