Editor:
While I am aware that Karen’s and my being residents of Brown County for only four years causes many long-term locals to view our opinions and “outside” experience with skepticism, but we feel such a strong sense of urgency that the new home community we chose to live in for our retirement is at risk, that we must speak up. Brown County School Corporation (BCS) is exceptionally good – for now. Before living here, we honestly had no idea the quality and variety of educational opportunities that BCS provides with shockingly less resources than other school systems. The early childhood center and Career Resource Center (CRC) are well managed, even with inadequate resources, and they are better than almost every counterpart I have seen. I feel badly that I assumed otherwise – until I knew better.
We moved here from Noblesville in Hamilton County, where our property taxes were more than three times what we pay in Brown County. Not only BCS, but other taxing entities in Brown County have fallen behind and do not collect enough taxes to maintain, let alone excel in comparison to our neighboring counties. BCS’s referendum may not be asking for enough, but school leadership is continuing a pattern of careful thriftiness. To suggest a 10-cent request is too much or unwarranted is ill-informed. I spent part of my career lobbying on behalf of businesses in Indianapolis, Springfield and Washington, DC. State legislatures have a special skill in making laws confusing. The referendum language is not clear. The most important thing to remember is that we must vote “yes” to save the educational, career and lifelong success of children in Brown County, as well as the economic success and quality of life in this wonderful county we are privileged to share. Please remember that we only pay 1-cent more per $100 of assessed value because our very fiscally responsible, even cautious school administrators and school board have paid off bonds and because the previous 8-year referendum was already at 8-cents. Despite the state’s language on the ballot, we are NOT paying an additional 10-cents. We would go from 57.87 cents to 58.45 cents – with Bartholomew County at $1, Edinburgh at $1.47 and Beech Grove at $2.36. The referendum would bring only $1.88 million per year and is a very conservative ask when considering the school system has recently reduced more than $1 million in spending, even though many operating costs do not decline with student head count. BCS has lost $2.26 million in state funding since 2018 due to a loss of 321 students. We believe BCS’s referendum request is not only justified, but cautious and would still leave us at 55% of the state average.
My wife Karen has spent her career in education. She worked in our church preschool, then went on to be a K-5 counselor in Muncie during the time that school system failed and was taken over by state government. Within two weeks more than half the teachers and administrators had left – and certainly the best teachers with the best chance of jobs elsewhere left first. Think what that did to schoolchildren in Muncie. If the BCS referendum fails, Muncie’s experience is one possible path and we do not want that for our children. Karen then worked as a counselor in two Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) middle schools before moving to her current role at Columbus North High School. IPS pay levels are far above those at BCS. IPS teachers have resources BCS could not even dream of. And yet, there are dozens of barriers to learning at IPS, including rampant crime, broken families, poverty, food insecurity, physical and mental abuse and much more that reduce the chance students will learn and succeed in life. Failing schools and failing communities are interconnected. While BCS, thankfully, does not have some of these barriers to learning that are common in Indianapolis, we do have more than people realize or want to admit. Working in any school is far more complex, challenging, stressful and exhausting now than historically. Karen’s job as a counselor sometimes includes being a counselor to the stressed adults in the school as much as the children. Teachers and all staff are asked to do much more than in the past and yet we don’t even pay them what they are worth for core teaching, let alone all the extras that are critically important to students’ success in learning and life.
I spent part of my career as a Kroger executive, leading a corporate affairs team that invested millions of dollars a year in local schools here in Indiana and nearby states. That gave me an opportunity to evaluate hundreds of grant requests and to select the best of the best. I spent a great deal of time in schools of all types across every kind of community, with varying levels of resources and varying teaching models. As I compare BCS to other schools, I believe BCS is one of the best I have seen. We don’t give BCS enough credit for the very impressive work they do with so little. I also worked with colleges and universities who were struggling to find employees who had been trained with skills matching what employers actually wanted. One of the barriers to college graduates that fit employer needs is high school graduates who learn the right mix of foundational courses. BCS is doing a far better job than most of preparing graduates, whether continuing their education or entering the workforce after high school. If you don’t believe me, please go visit a school here in Brown County and inform your own opinion. Be sure to include a stop at best-in-class Eagle Manufacturing and the CRC.
While there are many opinions out there about schools and the referendum that are simply wrong, I can’t respond to all of them. The one I do is the silly idea that teachers and school employees don’t work as hard as other highly-trained professionals. Their jobs are more stressful than almost every job in our community. It’s not just about how many hours are worked, but how intense and exhausting each hour is. I retired as CEO of Gleaners, the largest social service charity in Indiana, a complex organization with four operating and distribution subsidiaries that together serve about one third of the U.S. I worked hard and came home tired every day. And yet, Karen, as a school employee, has always worked harder than me. While I’ve always had jobs with long work days at the workplace and work brought home for evenings and weekends, so has Karen. The assumption that teachers and staff only work when students are in the building is wrong. The assumption that teachers and staff only work on school days is wrong. Karen is in the school or on-line all summer and every school break, sometimes with two computers running at once. If you do nothing else as you make an informed decision to support BCS students and staff by voting “yes” for the referendum, please remember that the referendum only brings a fraction of the funding for teachers that they deserve in exchange for putting our children on the best possible path in life. Voting “no” deliberately lets students fall behind almost every other school system in Indiana.
Our three children are now adults who benefitted from K-12 public schools and went on to earn undergraduate, master’s and PhD’s (one finished – one in process). All three still talk of special teachers who gave them extra help in school, inspired them, pushed them and helped them both decide and prepare for their best future paths – reinforcing efforts by Karen and I as parents. We have no children in Brown County schools, and yet we are not just willing, but very eager to pay the BCS referendum taxes – because we know a “yes” vote means Brown County will remain the very special place we chose to enjoy and serve in our retirement – and we could have chosen anywhere in the United States. We also know that a “no” vote means a destructive slide downhill for schools, the community and our shared future. A “no” vote means we will continue to lose families in this county. Our choice is clear and compelling. Please join Karen and me in voting “yes” on May 7th.
John & Karen Elliott
Nashville
