<p>Franklin Community Schools is one step closer to asking voters who live in the district if they’re willing to pay more in property taxes to increase teacher and staff salaries and offer more mental health services to students.</p><p>The county’s three-member Election Board voted unanimously on Friday to approve the public question and a special election during the May primary. The special election conducted the same day as the primary on May 7 is necessary because not everyone who lives in the school district lives within the city of Franklin, and the school board doesn’t want to wait until the 2020 election to get the question on the ballot.</p><p>Because this year is a municipal election, typically only voters who live within a city or town that has at least one primary race will vote.</p><p>The referendum will ask voters to approve a 23-cent tax hike for every $100 of assessed property value, but the district wouldn’t actually collect any of that money until June of 2020.</p><p>If voters of the Union, Franklin and Needham townships approve of the tax increase, it will generate about $3.5 million per year, money that will go towards raising pay among staff and improving mental health among students.</p><p>The county’s voter registration office reviews referendums, and the county election board has to approve a public question for it to be sent to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance for review. Finally, the county auditor must sign off on the language for it to be added to the ballot.</p><p>Only cities and towns are conducting elections this year, meaning that voters of the three townships that make up the Franklin school district who live outside of a city or town will be asked to head to the polls to cast a ballot on the referendum question only.</p><p>Franklin schools wants to increase the base teacher salary from $37,500 to $40,000 to make it more competitive with other central Indiana districts, as well as increase support staff salaries by 10 to 12 percent.</p><p>The district also aims to add mental health counselors in an effort to bridge a gap of roughly 300 students struggling with mental health issues who aren’t assisted by programs such as Adult and Child, which is limited to low-income families.</p><p>Franklin is the second school district in Johnson County to tackle mental health, something that is also a focus of state leaders.</p><p>Voters in Clark and Pleasant Townships recently approved a similar referendum — at a much lower tax rate of 10 cents for every $100 of assessed value — to improve mental health and security at Clark-Pleasant Schools.</p><p>It passed, with 57 percent of voters saying yes to the hike in their property taxes.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="At issue" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Voters who reside in Union, Franklin and Needham townships will be asked to vote on the following question:</p><p>"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?"</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]