Voters in the Argos Community Schools district will decide on additional school funding today. A referendum asks voters to consider a property tax levy increase to as much as 61-cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
However, Argos School Board Vice President Kirk Nellans says the actual rate will be determined on a year-to-year basis. “The rate can vary and can be down as low as 20 cents,” he says. “It can be down as low as 10 cents. It can be anything from zero up to 61 cents. We are not anticipating levying that 61 cents for any period, but that’s the maximum that we can, and the way that the law reads is that when you ask for the question on the ballot for the referendum tax, you have to state what is the absolute maximum rate that you could levy for the seven-year window.”
Board member Don Mahoney adds that the corporation’s options for raising general fund revenues are limited by state law, “So when we get questions saying, ‘Gee, this is going to fall unfairly on the agricultural [sector],’ yes. We didn’t make the rules. Those are the rules that we have to live with.”
Superintendent Michele Riise says the corporation has been making cuts for the past several years in an attempt to balance its budget, but now the it’s running out of options. “What really has impacted us is now, we’re looking at staffing, we’re looking at programs that are essential for our students’ learning,” she says. “And that is why the school board and I felt that we needed the referendum to go through because now it’s going to hit home. The other cuts, yes, they have been a price that we’ve had to pay, but it’s one that now, it’s going to affect students personally and that’s going to affect their learning, and that’s what we don’t want to have happen.”
Nellans says that if the referendum fails, the corporation will have to seriously consider consolidation, “People don’t want to talk about consolidation. We don’t want to talk about consolidation. I have been vocal in board meetings about we’ve not ever seriously considered consolidation. Well, we’re at that point now financially where we need to get a boost here, and if we don’t get that boost, we’re going to have to talk about consolidation. We’re going to have to enter into serious conversations in a very short time frame about consolidation.”
Like many school corporations in rural areas around Indiana, Argos is facing reduced state funding levels along with declining student enrollment.
