At a special meeting of the Northeast Dubois County School Corporation Tuesday night, Northeast Dubois Superintendent Bill Hochgesang provided those on hand at the Northeast Dubois High School cafeteria recommendations in regards to results from a feasible study about school funding concerns.
The results came from a presentation given on January 7th by the Administrator Assistance Group who conducted evaluations and data collections.
Based on this presentation a general fund operating tax referendum was recommended by the Administrator Assistance Group, this group had seen this sort of issue before where possibly one of the corporation’s elementary schools would be closed due to government changes in public school funding.
Last night, Hochgesang provided the school board and the community with a descriptive presentation on his recommendations to either increase pre-school costs or move forward with the referendum.
His ideas addressed funding cuts and increasing revenue for pre-k through 12 grades and would be in addition to a referendum. A projected savings for one year would be in the range of $50,000- $150,000.
He also gave a spectrum of the possible use if the referendum gets passed such as paying for teacher retirement expenses and also the reality of what could happen if it does not pass such as eliminating programs or having to consolidate with a neighboring school corporation.
While he strongly expressed in favor of the referendum Hochgesang also acknowledged that it was just not the time in light of recent trouble faced by local poultry farmers and their needed community support.
School board members Bernard Knies and John Siebert explain that everything is being taken into account when deciding their next steps regarding a referendum.
No immediate decision was made to consider a referendum but during Tuesday’s gathering the board did consider and decide on Superintendent Hochgesang’s 1st recommendation, to raise the pre-school price a dollar a day and an increase of $5 towards the pre-school registration fee.
Registration is planned for January 28th and corporation officials want to remind parents that the increase will take effect next year.
