[Southsider2k12]

Well here it is. When I ran for school board in 2008, I warned that our budgetary practices would get us into trouble. Current and candidate board members a like tried to tell me that running a deficit and running up debt didn't matter, as it wouldn't affect the daily operations. They screwed this up long enough and bad enough that our options are to either fire teachers and close buildings or jack up our taxes. It is a damned shame that only one guy on the board has been willing to fight budgetary issues before now.

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/laporte...e97d71bcaf.html

Stan Maddux Times Correspondent

MICHIGAN CITY | To avoid the possibility of closing schools, property owners in the Michigan City School Corporation are being asked for an increase in their taxes.

Deep cuts over the past year haven't been enough to close what was once a $16 million budget deficit.

Permission to raise taxes is viewed as a last resort to restore a revenue stream hurt by factors like state property tax caps and vouchers.

"The alternative is going to lay off teachers and start closing neighborhood schools," said school board member Beryle Burgwald.

Burgwald said the deficit has been trimmed to $4 million by reducing teachers, administrators and other staff, but any further cuts would damage the ability to provide a top-notch education.

He said taxes would increase no greater than 17 cents for every $100,000 of assessed valuation, which translates into a $56 annual increase on tax bills for the average homeowner. Annually, $5.6 million would be generated, outpacing a $1.6 million loss in revenue in each of the past three years.

Burgwald feels the referendum campaign stands a chance if voters are shown revenues from the increase will not go toward things like salary increases or building projects.

"It's going to be used to keep what we have," said Burgwald.

School board vice president Jim Kintzele said the board is working together and has hired a consultant to educate voters on the need for the referendum prior to it appearing on the Nov. 5 ballot.

"To me, it looks favorable," said Kintzele.

Burgwald said the only other option would be to take out a bond issue, which would not require approval from voters. He said a bond issue would only add to the deficit from interest and other fees associated with borrowing funds.

[Southsider2k12]

Step one to any referendum ought to be the resignations of any board member who was elected before 2012. I'd let Burgwald stay because he is the one guy who has really fought budgetary increases over the years.

[Jesse B]

Well here it is. When I ran for school board in 2008, I warned that our budgetary practices would get us into trouble. Current and candidate board members a like tried to tell me that running a deficit and running up debt didn't matter, as it wouldn't affect the daily operations. They screwed this up long enough and bad enough that our options are to either fire teachers and close buildings or jack up our taxes. It is a damned shame that only one guy on the board has been willing to fight budgetary issues before now.

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/laporte...e97d71bcaf.html

Can I ask why MCAS with a declinging enrollment still has 3 Junior High Schools feeding one High School? A tough decision has to be made at some point. Can we close Elston Middle School, knock it down and put a new Police Station and Library at that site? Tie in a plan for the South Shore tracks and have a collective effort to fix some of the issues facing the city.

[Southsider2k12]

Can I ask why MCAS with a declinging enrollment still has 3 Junior High Schools feeding one High School? A tough decision has to be made at some point. Can we close Elston Middle School, knock it down and put a new Police Station and Library at that site? Tie in a plan for the South Shore tracks and have a collective effort to fix some of the issues facing the city.

Personally I would love to see enrollment numbers versus capacity for each school.

[Ang]

Can I ask why MCAS with a declinging enrollment still has 3 Junior High Schools feeding one High School? A tough decision has to be made at some point. Can we close Elston Middle School, knock it down and put a new Police Station and Library at that site? Tie in a plan for the South Shore tracks and have a collective effort to fix some of the issues facing the city.

There is more at the Elston location than just middle school. There is the adult basic education program, plus the MCAS vocational program, too. I see your point, but Barker would be a better location to close in terms of demographics than Elston. Plus, a police station on Barker Rd would put it more in the center of the City.

Then the "city" kids could go to Elston and the "country" kids could go to Krueger.
Besides that, my grandparents graduated from Elston, my parents graduated from Elston, I graduated from Elston, I'd hate to see completely gotten rid of....

[taxthedeer]

We are going to have the same results that we had when we voted on the 05-19-09 $38 million Career and Technical referendum.

http://www.citybythelake.org/forums/index....7&hl=career center&st=20

[CaddyRich]

School board vice president Jim Kintzele said the board is working together and has hired a consultant to educate voters on the need for the referendum prior to it appearing on the Nov. 5 ballot.


"Hired a consultant..." What a surprise.

Sounds to me like no one on The Board has the...I'll use the term "intestinal fortitude"... to explain it to the taxpayers - oops - I mean "voters".

[Southsider2k12]

More opinion on the upcoming tax referendum for schools: I thought a bit more about it, and no one wants to see teachers and staff fired, and the kids in the school system to suffer for it. The problem is, I want to see something to tell me that the school system is taking this seriously, and is taking steps to make sure that this never happens again, and we are taking steps to make sure that if you are asking for extra tax dollars, this ship is as tight and as clean as possible.

#1: Resignations of any board member elected before the 2012 election. The reason is that these board members knew the tax situation, and still approved spending and Tax Anticipation Notes knowing that we might never see these funds again. No long term thinking was enacted as a safety valve.

#2: Don't hire a consultant to sell the tax increases to the public. Frankly it is just insulting that at a time when the school system is asking for more money, they would pay our tax dollars to someone for the sole purpose of getting more money out of us.

#3: Where a consultant should be hired is to come into the school system from the outside (completely unconnected to the MCAS) and look at how things are done, and why they are done that way to see if changes can/should be made in places, plus look for efficiencies, economies of scale, and places that can be cut with the least impact on education.

#4: Conduct as close to a forensic audit of the MCAS books as possible. Make sure every penny is where it should be, and how it is supposed to be spent.

#5: Disclose capacities for each building in the MCAS, and see if all of the buildings that are in our school system are still necessary. Also explore if the distribution of students is being done as efficiently as possible to see if there are cheaper ways to allocate students to the various schools.

I would love to here other people's thoughts and to see what other people would like to see in order to consider this tax increase. Also please feel free to share these ideas and concerns with others.

[Jesse B]

More opinion on the upcoming tax referendum for schools: I thought a bit more about it, and no one wants to see teachers and staff fired, and the kids in the school system to suffer for it. The problem is, I want to see something to tell me that the school system is taking this seriously, and is taking steps to make sure that this never happens again, and we are taking steps to make sure that if you are asking for extra tax dollars, this ship is as tight and as clean as possible.

#1: Resignations of any board member elected before the 2012 election. The reason is that these board members knew the tax situation, and still approved spending and Tax Anticipation Notes knowing that we might never see these funds again. No long term thinking was enacted as a safety valve.

#2: Don't hire a consultant to sell the tax increases to the public. Frankly it is just insulting that at a time when the school system is asking for more money, they would pay our tax dollars to someone for the sole purpose of getting more money out of us.

#3: Where a consultant should be hired is to come into the school system from the outside (completely unconnected to the MCAS) and look at how things are done, and why they are done that way to see if changes can/should be made in places, plus look for efficiencies, economies of scale, and places that can be cut with the least impact on education.

#4: Conduct as close to a forensic audit of the MCAS books as possible. Make sure every penny is where it should be, and how it is supposed to be spent.

#5: Disclose capacities for each building in the MCAS, and see if all of the buildings that are in our school system are still necessary. Also explore if the distribution of students is being done as efficiently as possible to see if there are cheaper ways to allocate students to the various schools.

I would love to here other people's thoughts and to see what other people would like to see in order to consider this tax increase. Also please feel free to share these ideas and concerns with others.

I love your ideas. I real like #4 & #5. I think we would be shocked at some of the finding that would come out of the true numbers on just those two accounts. I can't believe there is a little corruption going on and there has to be other ways to reach the needed figures by cutting some administrative positions, closing a school or a combination of both.

[Southsider2k12]

I love your ideas. I real like #4 & #5. I think we would be shocked at some of the finding that would come out of the true numbers on just those two accounts. I can't believe there is a little corruption going on and there has to be other ways to reach the needed figures by cutting some administrative positions, closing a school or a combination of both.

I really like the idea of having someone else look at things. We have no idea what happens there, and they don't tell us anything until it is already too late.

[Ang]

Yeah, but what about the audit from the State Board of Accounts? Isn't that supposed to be for making sure the expenses are legit and no one is misappropriating, or stealing?

[Southsider2k12]

The MCAS is footing the bill for this special election.

http://stateimpact.npr.org/indiana/2013/07...cial-elections/

Michigan City Area Schools — trying to avoid school closures and other last-ditch cuts by passing an operating referendum — will pay more than $25,000 for a special election, LaPorte County clerk Lynne Spevak says.

[taxthedeer]

The MCAS is footing the bill for this special election.

http://stateimpact.npr.org/indiana/2013/07...cial-elections/

Is this a district-wide referendum? or a county wide referendum?

[Southsider2k12]

Is this a district-wide referendum? or a county wide referendum?

School district only.

[taxthedeer]

Can I ask why MCAS with a declinging enrollment still has 3 Junior High Schools feeding one High School? A tough decision has to be made at some point. Can we close Elston Middle School, knock it down and put a new Police Station and Library at that site? Tie in a plan for the South Shore tracks and have a collective effort to fix some of the issues facing the city.

I agree with Jesse B.

My evil alter ego Dr. taxthedeer has developed a theorem that will close down a middle school and two more elementary schools in Michigan City. Diagnosis:

First thing he did was examine how the other seven school systems in the Duneland conference function.

What he would like to have a consultation about is how come four other school systems (Portage, Crown Point, Valparaiso and La Porte), three of which have much larger student population than Michigan City can operate a three tier K-5, 6-8 and 9-12 grade school system with just two middle schools feeding into the High School but Michigan City still has to have three?

The other grade K-5, 6-8 and 9-12 school system that operates in the Duneland conference that has three middle schools feeding into the high school besides Michigan City is Lake Central which has a virtual army of nearly double the student population of Michigan City.

The other two school systems among our DAC brethren, Merrillville and Chesterton operate a four tier grade K-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-12 system.

Procedure:

Dr. taxthedeer dissected into two options:

Option #1:

Adopt the Portage Model:

Shut down Krueger Middle School and consolidate that building in with two of the elementary schools (Niemann and Springfield). Elston and Barker will become Michigan City's two Middle schools.

Dr. taxthedeer then explored the results of the case study of what happened with the Portage Township School system back when he was a young middle school student some 30 years ago as a model. Here's how they did it:

When the new Portage High School campus opened it's doors on U.S. 6 in 1979 the system operated as a grade K-5, 6-9 at three middle schools and grade 10-12 at high school. Three years later Dr. taxthedeer's colleagues Dr. Bivens and Dr. McKay consolidated all of us refugee middle school students from the now defunct Grissom Middle School and former Aylesworth Middle School over to the then vacant former Portage High School building at Central Ave. & Willowcreek Rd. which is now known to this very day as Willowcreek Middle School. They also closed two elementary schools and consolidated them into the former Aylesworth Middle school buildings which is located right next door to Willowcreek Middle School and it became Aylesworth Elementary School. The defunct Grissom Middle School building which is located on U.S. 6 right next door to the then new Portage High School building then became the 9th grade building. The Portage Township school system then transitioned into a grade K-5 at the elementary schools, grades 6-8 at two middle schools (Willowcreek and Fegley) and grades 9-12 at the two building Portage High School East and West High school campus.

The Portage Township School system remained unchanged up until 2006 when a three year $30 million dollar athletic field house construction project was completed between the two high school buildings (but that's a whole other story for another thread ).

Option #2:

Adopt the Merrillville and Chesterton model:.

Close Krueger Middle School and consolidate the building with Niemann and Springfield elementary.

Transition the 8 elementary schools grades to K-4, grades to 5-6 the intermediate school at Barker and grades 7-8 to the middle school at Elston and grades 9-12 to that great big building off of Pahs Road.

Synopsis:

***-This service has been provided free of charge courtesy of Dr. taxthedeer.

[Southsider2k12]

Here are some more detailed thoughts I shared on facebook about how we got into this mess.

First it really angers me that this is being sold as a problem that MCAS couldn't have gotten in front of. The property tax situation started in 2006. By 2007 everyone on the governmental level saw their budgets get screwed up by this. Essentially every year saw an expected budget of figure A, and then an actual collection of figure B. While the lawsuits were going on and the fighting of which tax numbers were correct were going on, all agencies were seeing the difference between figures A and B as an annual shortfall. Bodies faced the choice starting in 2007 of how to address that. Realize that at that point NO ONE knew FOR SURE, if ANY governmental agency was EVER going to get back the differences between figures A and B for 2007, or for any year subsequently after that point (2008 through 2013 now). MCAS decided that they would still base their budgets on Figure B, and that to make up for the difference between A and B, they would borrow that number annually in Tax Anticipation Notes (TANs), again without the promise that they would ever see that money. A large part of my campaign in 2010 was that we should not count on seeing that money, and that we really needed to get our fiscal ship in order until we knew the money was coming. MCAS school board decided to operate under the assumption that the money was coming. At the end of 2009, the State of Indiana also started cutting funding to schools for a couple of reasons, that don't really matter. Again, MCAS had the option of reacting to those funding cuts immediately or budgeting as if they were temporary and coming back. Some cuts were made, but again borrowing took place to make up the difference between what they had been expecting and what they were actually receiving. Again they made the decision knowing full-well that they may never receive those funds. After the TANs funding was essentially maximized, the school moved on to alternative funding sources such as mortgaging schools furthering the debt level. More than anything it infuriates me on a personal level because I was told by a then-sitting school board member that debt and deficit literally didn't matter and they wouldn't affect the school system at all, and had a now school board member who had no idea what they were talking about chime in and agree for a couple of campaign points. They were 100% wrong, and now instead of dealing with a much smaller animal starting 7 or so years ago, we are looking at least at $175 million in debt AND still the same operating losses on an annual basis. Nothing was dealt with when it should have been, and instead these items were kicked down the road in some sort of delirious delusion that somehow funding was going to magically reappear. Anyone who thought otherwise was mocked. Finally instead of their actually being some public discussion of the budget situation with the taxpayers here, where we could look at some other incremental options (any combination of redistricting, school closings, streamlinings, outside review of policies and procedures, etc) to eliminate or minimize tax increases our options are either agree to a 50% tax hike or fire a bunch of teachers. I came up with a list of things I wanted to see happen before I'd be happy with the tax hike to show me that the school system was serious about doing everything it could before asking for more money from a town with some serious poverty.

[Southsider2k12]

I also wanted to add this tidbit. Of the three people that have run our school system for a year or more over the past 10 years, I want to give Carla Iacona some credit for handling the budget problems the best. During her tenure the system had a major cutback, but the way that she handled it was to have an open public forum to outline the situation, how much needed to be cut, what sources we had, and options for possible cuts. Even if the cuts had already been decided, it wasn't presented to the public that way. They very nicely outlined all the things we could do. It at least made the general public feel like they were a part of the process.

[Southsider2k12]

With a few days to reflect on the presentation given by the MCAS on the financial situation, I did want to offer some thoughts. First and foremost is any time a presentation is given like that, there is always some artistic license with how facts and figures are presented. I didn't like the way that there wasn't any consistency given in how figures were given. For example, at one point in the presentation the figures were given for the Indiana state average numbers for how much reimbursement is given for each student enrolled in a particular school system. This number was about $4300 per kid. What wasn't given was the number that Michigan City receives, which is over $6000 per kid. It doesn't really matter what the rest of the state gets, it matters what our kids get. Another spot was where the property tax reform was being talked about and it was pointed out that property taxes went down $600 million state-wide. While that number is absolutely true, but it doesn't tell the whole truth. The other half of that is that our sales taxes were increased from 6% to 7%, meaning that if you spend $10,000 in tax eligible items annually, you are paying $100 a year more to the State of Indiana, which is going to education to replace those property tax dollars. This number wasn't mentioned. So you aren't just paying less in property taxes if you are a home owner. We are ALL paying more for the everyday items we purchase at the store. No mention at all was made about what the levels of per-student funding were before the student funding formula came from Indianapolis.

The item that troubled me the most, was barely acknowledged in the meeting, but is the biggest source of our financial problems as a school district. According the figures listed on the Department of Educations webpage, the Michigan City Area Schools have lost about 500 students corporation wide since the 2007-2008 school year. I was told that night that the MCAS receives about $6100 per student from the state of Indiana right now, meaning that if those 500 students were still here, we would be looking at about $3.05 million a year in additional funding. For every 100 students we lose, we receive about $600,000 a year in reduced funding. This tax increase would raise about $5.5 million a year in additional funding. Even accepting the figures presented by the consultant hired for the purpose of selling the tax increase to the general public, we aren't scheduled to see a deficit in the MCAS of over $3 million until 2016.

Object #1 in the Michigan City Area Schools needs to be finding away to attract people back into the school system. That would close the funding gap just as quick as a tax increase. The problem is that we haven't even stabilized our census in the school system, let alone started to increase it. With the school year ending in May 2008, we had 7106 K-12 students, 2009 it was 6927, 2010 it was 6842, 2011 it was 6789, 2012 it was 6676, at the end of May 2013 it was 6609.

Here is why this is really important. If we don't stem the tide of students leaving MCAS, this tax increase will only go to replace the funds of future students who leave. If we go from 6600 to 5700 in the future, every single dollar of this tax increase will be lost to students who leave.

Thoughts?

[Southsider2k12]

The mobility report which shows MCHS had 118 students "removed by parents" last year, or about $720,000 in lost funding.

www.doe.in.gov/sites/default/files/accountability/2012-mobility-report-school.xlsx

[MCRogers1974]

With a few days to reflect on the presentation given by the MCAS on the financial situation, I did want to offer some thoughts. First and foremost is any time a presentation is given like that, there is always some artistic license with how facts and figures are presented. I didn't like the way that there wasn't any consistency given in how figures were given. For example, at one point in the presentation the figures were given for the Indiana state average numbers for how much reimbursement is given for each student enrolled in a particular school system. This number was about $4300 per kid. What wasn't given was the number that Michigan City receives, which is over $6000 per kid. It doesn't really matter what the rest of the state gets, it matters what our kids get. Another spot was where the property tax reform was being talked about and it was pointed out that property taxes went down $600 million state-wide. While that number is absolutely true, but it doesn't tell the whole truth. The other half of that is that our sales taxes were increased from 6% to 7%, meaning that if you spend $10,000 in tax eligible items annually, you are paying $100 a year more to the State of Indiana, which is going to education to replace those property tax dollars. This number wasn't mentioned. So you aren't just paying less in property taxes if you are a home owner. We are ALL paying more for the everyday items we purchase at the store. No mention at all was made about what the levels of per-student funding were before the student funding formula came from Indianapolis.

The item that troubled me the most, was barely acknowledged in the meeting, but is the biggest source of our financial problems as a school district. According the figures listed on the Department of Educations webpage, the Michigan City Area Schools have lost about 500 students corporation wide since the 2007-2008 school year. I was told that night that the MCAS receives about $6100 per student from the state of Indiana right now, meaning that if those 500 students were still here, we would be looking at about $3.05 million a year in additional funding. For every 100 students we lose, we receive about $600,000 a year in reduced funding. This tax increase would raise about $5.5 million a year in additional funding. Even accepting the figures presented by the consultant hired for the purpose of selling the tax increase to the general public, we aren't scheduled to see a deficit in the MCAS of over $3 million until 2016.

Object #1 in the Michigan City Area Schools needs to be finding away to attract people back into the school system. That would close the funding gap just as quick as a tax increase. The problem is that we haven't even stabilized our census in the school system, let alone started to increase it. With the school year ending in May 2008, we had 7106 K-12 students, 2009 it was 6927, 2010 it was 6842, 2011 it was 6789, 2012 it was 6676, at the end of May 2013 it was 6609.

Here is why this is really important. If we don't stem the tide of students leaving MCAS, this tax increase will only go to replace the funds of future students who leave. If we go from 6600 to 5700 in the future, every single dollar of this tax increase will be lost to students who leave.

Thoughts?

Student defections have been a long time problem. So many MCAS students from my era list faith in the MCAS system when it came time to start a family of their own. The big common denominator was violence and student safety.