Carmel

Clay Schools push for more funding

Carmel Clay Schools will receive an increase in funding from the state over the next

two years, but Superintendent Nicholas Wahl said it is still not enough.
The funding mechanism is not allowing us to support all the programs we have, he
said.
Carmel receives the second least in
funding per pupil out of all public schools in
Indiana. Last year, it received around $4,800
per pupil. That amount increased to just
over $5,100 this year.
Roger McMichael, Carmel Clay
Schools associate superintendent for
business affairs, said the increase is not
enough for Carmel to maintain its schools.
The current formula improves
funding for Carmel Clay Schools, he said.
However, the current funding per pupil is
only slightly greater than it was in 2008.
The amount of money each school
receives per student is determined by
Indianas state funding formula. The formula takes two measurements into account:
foundation and complexity. Foundation is a base amount of dollars per student. Complexity
is money allocated for at-risk students.


Republican Sen. Luke Kenley said the formula is a mechanism that has been used for
many years in Indiana.
Theres always a better way to do things, Kenley said. I think its a relatively good
tool to make sure we get money to schools for proper funding.
School City of East Chicago receives the most per student at $7,090. This community
is significantly more impoverished compared to Carmel. The more impoverished students
in a district, the more money schools receive
from the complexity grant.
Kenley said the increase in Carmels
budget aims to level funding.
Were working pretty hard to fix it, he
said.
Property tax caps were put into place
several years ago. This decreased the amount of
money the state had to fund schools.
Wahl said he appreciates the legislators push to gain more equity in the funding
formula, but is not satisfied.
The funding formula changes that were done last year got us back to the funding
level we were at seven years ago, he said. Now think about that for a minute, everything
that was done seven years ago is not going to cost the same as it does now. From heating
and cooling our buildings, to paying our professional and support staff.


Wahl said Carmel schools would not be able to maintain its current programs if it
relied solely on state funds. Cuts would have been made if the seven-year referendum did
not pass in 2010.
When a school
corporation cannot operate on
state funds alone, residents vote
whether or not to increase
property tax rates. If the
referendum passes, that money
goes to the school system.

If the local community

wouldnt have stepped up and passed the referendum, we wouldve lost so many student
programs that our community is used to, Wahl said. I think that just highlights another
challenge in the system.

Melissa Grzeskowiak second grade, Smoky Row Elementary School teacher said

teachers worried about losing their jobs during the referendum.

If the referendum didnt pass, they werent going to be able to hire me, she said.

My first two years back, teachers were worried about getting pink slips. Some would get
pink slips, and then they would be hired back. That was a worry for a couple years.

Due to Carmels low poverty rates, students get less money compared to school

systems in higher poverty areas. The difference is made up by these referendums.

The perception from the legislature is Oh, theyve got money, Wahl said. But

thats locally generated money from the referendum.

Zionsville Community Schools received the least amount of money in the state at

$5,046 per student. The town recently passed a referendum that will bring back previously
cut programs. If the referendum had not passed, massive teacher lay-offs and increased
classroom sizes would have been necessary, Michael Shafer, chief financial officer for
Zionsville Community Schools, said.

Weve been there and done that before back in the 2010-2011 timeframe, Shafer

said. We had freshmen English classes with 45 kids in them. We had science labs we
couldnt do experiments in because we had too many kids in the lab to actually use the lab
stations. We had to show the kids videos of the experiments they shouldve been doing.
Zionsville and Carmel joined the Indiana
Fix-It Coalition with nearly 30 other high-
achieving and low-funded school systems
in Indiana. The coalition lobbied the
General Assembly to reconfigure the school
funding formula.

Shafer said the coalition does not

want to take money from less fortunate

schools.
We werent out here to create
winners and losers, he said. We were just
looking to say, Hey, the people that are
being grossly underfunded need to have some remedial action.


Wahl said public schools need more funding in general, not just those in the
coalition.
I think its a matter of our legislators once again valuing public education, he said.