Pending Board approval, the public question for your vote on the May 5, 2020 ballot will read:
“For the eight (8) calendar years immediately following the holding of the referendum, shall Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation impose a property tax rate that does not exceed fifteen and six tenths cents ($0.1560) on each one hundred dollars ($100) of assessed valuation and that is in addition to all other property taxes imposed by the School Corporation for the purpose of increasing compensation for teachers and support staff and maintaining student safety?”
Retaining Quality Teachers - 67.9% of Referendum Funds ($42.4M over 8 years)
Ask any experienced teacher and they will give you first-hand evidence, but research also shows that a teacher with 5 years of experience is much more effective than a teacher with 1-2 years of experience. In the seven school years between 2005-2012, BCSC hired an average of 47 new teachers each year. In the eight school years since, we have replaced an average of 76 teachers per year. This is a 61.7% increase in the number of new teachers in our classrooms. This means that more than 10% of the entire teaching staff is new each year. Replacing 600 teachers in 8 years is unsustainable and we believe that providing salary increases that reward teachers who stay with BCSC will immediately improve retention. Although subject to collective bargaining, if the referendum passes, teachers could receive BCSC retention increases of $5K after year 5; $10K after year 10; $15K after year 15 (to a maximum).
Recruiting and Retaining Support Staff- 18.6% of Referendum Funds ($11.6M over 8 years)
With the largest restaurant in town and over 8,000 miles traveled each day, our district could not function without our hundreds of support personnel. With low unemployment and rising wages in all sectors, BCSC often has more than 20 open support staff positions posted. BCSC has not filled all of the bus driver positions in our district in 8 years. Keeping wages for these employees competitive is the responsible thing to do. If the referendum passes, bus drivers will receive an increase of ~10%, or $2/hour and other support staff will receive an increase of between ~4-10% or $1/hour.
Safety and Security- 13.5% of Referendum Funds ($8.5M over 8 years)
While school safety referendums are allowed, BCSC is including these investments in three of the areas covered by the new Indiana School Safety Referendum law:
- Retain School Resource Officers
- Provide mental health counseling and provide social-emotional learning resources
- Make investments to update the bus fleet
