001Okay, you guys ready? >> I don't have any. >> Good evening. Thank you for joining us tonight. Um, our regular schoolboard meeting uh June 9th, 2026. And I would like to start with the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Republic. And now a moment of silence. >> Thank you. Um we're going to start with recognitions. Dr. Hy. >> All right. Thank you and good evening everyone. Thanks for being here with us this evening. Uh we have a few exciting recognitions to uh to talk about tonight and actually the very first one is for our school board. So at this time I would like to invite Mr. Steve Horton uh to come up and speak to us about a very uh exciting award. or uh exemplary governance awards. Oh,
002that feels different. Yeah, I hope everybody can hear me now. Um but we uh through the EGA program uh in fact this last year we uh honored over 300 board members, individual boards and uh over 120 uh school boards for the work that they've done through the year. But there is one level that we reserve for really the highest functioning boards that we have in our state. There were five this year. And I am so proud to be here because this is the third year in a row that the Noblesville School Corporation Board of Trustees has earned our exemplary exemplary board award. Uh it's it is one that uh is not easily achieved. I'll give you an idea of the things that are required to actually earn this award. Um but to do this, the
003board has to commit to uh really a high level of of board governance. they have to uh really show submit evidence of ongoing work that demonstrates uh reflective and intentional collaboration and continuous improvement. Um but it means that they are regularly regularly assessing uh their own effectiveness and engaging in uh annual retreats where they revisit the district's vision mission. Uh set clear student centered goals with their administration, monitor the uh outcomes of those goals through the year. uh they have to show evidence that they are indeed uh overseeing their policies to make sure that those are compliant and uh and consistent with current needs. Um they have to have a sustained commitment to student achievement. Uh and so there are things that we require of them to show that commitment through the year. Um they
004have to perform a formal superintendent evaluation process. uh process. It's not easy for boards to do well. Uh but this board does that uh exceptionally well. And um along with that, they have to commit to an annual self assessment uh of their own work. But all of the things that that they show the commitment to um they're not isolated tasks for school boards. They are in fact uh interconnected practices. um they really reflect the work and the solid foundation of board governance. It allows this group to be as effective as they are, the work that they do together and the collaboration uh that they show together. Um so it's all toward the goal of continuous improvement um and just really being centered on student achievement and improve student outcomes. That is truly their purpose. Uh
005and so it is really an honor to be able to be here and to present the uh Noblesville School's Board of Trustees with this exemplary governance award. So congratulations to all of you. [applause] Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'll say that I was here last year to do this. I'm glad to be back this year and I hope I'm back next year as well. >> Excellent. Thank you. You will be just to put that in context. Um there are 290 school corporations in the state of Indiana. So, on a personal note, as someone who works very closely with our school board, it truly is remarkable that this is one of only five boards in the state who have earned this recognition. So, again, congratulations to our to our hardworking board. And thank you again,
006Mr. Horton, for being here tonight. Appreciate it. [applause] All right. Our next recognition, um, we would like to recognize our teachers of the year. So, if our teachers of the year are here, would you please come join us up front? >> [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> I'd like to share just a little bit about each of our each of our three our three winners uh this year. So, first we have Christina Trusty, a kindergarten teacher at Hingle Creek Elementary, who is our elementary winner and our overall Noblesville schools district winner. Known as a strong team player who thrives on teaching her students important life lessons, Christina's classroom is full of stories, academic challenges, patience, and love. Her calm, motherly approach is for adults, too, making her particularly successful in building strong relationships with families. Whether she
007is championing morale building activities for her colleagues or launching a communitywide nonprofit to address food feud insecurity, Christina's positive attitude, high expectations, and kind heart make a huge impact on her students and the Noblesville community at large. Christina Trusty. [applause and cheering] [applause] Next from Noblesville West Middle School, our middle school winner is Kristen Durst, who is a language arts teacher. Kristen's outstanding expertise, high expectations, and focus on relationships has led to significant academic growth for students of all backgrounds and abilities. Her students develop communication, collaboration, and analytic skills needed for future success through engaging reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking tasks. She is the respected leader of her department and is passionate about her own learning and sharing best practices with her colleagues. Her mentorship, vision, and focus on putting students first advances the
008overall success and culture of her school, Kristen Durst. [applause] And from Noblesville High School, our high school winner is Caroline Hayes, who is an art teacher. In Caroline's classroom, students connect learning to the wider world through opportunities she facilitates with professional artists and our Noblesville community. Whether creating new studentled art installations to beautify her school, securing grant funds to support the arts or partnering with school clubs for artist nights, Caroline lives and breathes academic excellence and care for her students. A highly acclaimed artist herself and that is absolutely true. She is an expert in her field and is always looking for the next great idea to enrich student learning experiences. And because I said that, I have a piece of Caroline's art hanging in my office proudly. So again, Caroline Hayes, congratulations. [applause] Congratulations one
009more time to all of our winners. [applause] >> [applause] >> I brag about you all the time. [applause] >> All right. And next, Dr. Ryan Rich, our assistant superintendent learning, is going to talk to us about our Project Lead the Way program. Okay, good evening. Um, if I could have any Project Lead the Way teachers that are here come up to the front, please. June of the first week of summer break is an excellent time to invite teachers to come in. Welcome, Abby. Aby's one of our project lead the way teachers at Noblesville East Middle School. Um I am going to read this because I do not want to miss any of the fantastic um celebrations that we have about our uh K through2 Project Lead the Way program. Noblesville schools has been named a
0102026 Project Lead the Way distinguished school district for providing broad access to transformative STEM learning opportunities for students. and all 10 of the district's schools were also recognized as individual district distinguished schools. This is also the ninth consecutive year that our district has earned this distinction, which places us as one of only 88 school districts in the entire country to receive this distinction and also places us among the top 1% of all STEM schools uh school districts, excuse me, for STEM in the country. In addition to dozens of traditional math and science courses, Noblesville schools offers 17 different PLTW courses across all grade levels with students exploring robotics, biomed sciences, cyber security, engineering, construction, energy, weather, and much more. And the distinguished recognition honors schools committed to increasing student access, engagement, and achievement in their
011PLTW STEM programs. To be eligible for the designation, schools had to offer a variety of PLTW STEM courses and have a significant portion of students participating in them while students had to demonstrate mastery in the content and ongoing continuation of the programming. I would just like to say um to add to that um I think the program is a fantastic example of the community and the community support for our education in Noblesville. was something um that we're very proud of and we've been able to see this expand year-over-year for the last many years. And every one of our students across all grade levels starting in kindergarten experiences a very well articulated curriculum where one year builds upon the next and has allowed for many of our students as we just saw last week at graduation
012to walk across the stage very well prepared uh to go on to whatever it is they're going to go on to next in the world of STEM. So Abby, thank you. Our teachers are awesome and we couldn't do it without them. So thank you for being here. All right. So, our last set of recognitions, we're actually going to pause for just a second because they actually dovetail perfectly with our first presentation of the evening. So, at this time, I'm going to invite Marne Cook, our executive director of marketing communications, to come up and she's going to give us an update on um uh part of our strategic plan. So, if you don't know this, uh, for those who are this your first time at a board meeting or first time in a while, every month
013we like to update the board and community on one area of our strategic plan just to kind of hold ourselves accountable to, um, what our community has told us they want from us. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mrs. Cook. >> Thank you. No worries. No worries. You're a genius. Thank you. All right. So, um, as Dr. Hy mentioned, we're going to give just a very quick update tonight on our, um, strategic plan on our, um, focus on engaging community relations. Um just as a reminder the measures for success that we set for engaging community relations are that the Noblesville community is engaged and informed about what is happening in their schools. Noblesville families and community members express a high level of trust and confidence in Noblesville schools. Noblesville schools is
014the education and provider of choice in Noblesville. Noblesville schools creates and maintains strong community and business connections in support of district objectives and we're a dynamic partner and education leader in supporting the overall quality of life in Noblesville. So some so we identified several strategies and tactics to kind of um focus on those objectives and this one in particular I'm calling out use a a wide variety of communication outlets tools and events to inform local audiences and support district objectives. So tonight just as an example of something that we're doing in this area I wanted to highlight um Dr. Hyle's superintendent advisory council. Um last month you might remember Dr. Hy gave an update on the hall of fame, which is something that I worked closely on, and now I'm going to give an update
015on his superintendent advisory council, but I think that just goes to show that he and I collaborate pretty closely on a lot of these types of um community relations activities. So, the superintendent advisory council was a group that uh was an idea that Dr. Kyle really brought with him um when he came here um and something he was passionate about wanting to start um a student group designed to advise him on school related issues that were important to students, provide feedback on Noblesville schools, and offer input into district decision-making. Um and really the why behind this group is that um to help again incorporate student voice in district decision-making, build stronger relationships between students, the superintendent and district leaders, um provide a leadership opportunity for students, some of whom may not typically be involved in
016school leadership activities. Um positive relationship building with parents and just positive community promotions. I'm particularly excited about this group and and the fact that um Dr. house um invited me to be involved in it um because students are not typically a group that I they're not a usually a constituency group that I work with directly uh in terms of communication and engagement and so this is an opportunity for me to also kind of hear from students directly or to you know have a direct outlet um with our students. So that's exciting for me too. We have um go through a selection process. Students must apply and be chosen for the program. Dr. how makes those selections um himself about who um to who will be participating in the program. But in general, we're looking for
017students who are thoughtful, analytical, respectful of others, collaborative, and confident enough to share their opinions because that's really the point of the group, too. Um we have 28 elementary students um specifically fourth and fifth graders from each of our elementary schools. 12 middle school students uh representing sixth through 8th grade at both middle schools and then 12 high school students again representing uh 9th through 12th grade. So just some logistical elements about the program. Students may choose to remain on the committee for multiple years while they're in the same academic level. So, for example, um if someone is selected to be in the program in fourth grade, they can choose to stay on it for fifth grade. If they're selected in nth grade, they could stay on it all the way through their high school
018years. Um but current members are also eligible to reapply if they choose when they reach a new academic level. So, in sixth grade, um kids moving into sixth grade, kids moving into nth grade wouldn't naturally be um graduated up through the program. they would have the opportunity to reapply if they wanted to continue their participation. Uh we do meet once a quarter with the groups um kind of early in the morning at 7:30 a.m. Um we have uh secondary and elementary meetings. We split those meetings into two groups just to so we can have you know a different level of conversation and um comfort for students. Um and these are just some ex quick examples of some of the types of things that that we've had um kids involved in. We we this is showing
019some pictures from um a tour that they took kind of uh around this building actually where Dr. Hy kind of explained to them all the different types of district roles that exist. A lot of people even a lot of adults don't necessarily know what people in this building do or the different types of district roles we have. So that was kind of a neat experience for the kids. Um we have also you can see examples of us [clears throat] um soliciting feedback, discussing topics um you know topics really ranging anywhere from mental health to school clubs, technology, playground equipment, you know it really uh spans a wide variety of different types of things. And you can also see an example um here in the bottom middle [clears throat] um area that we did a food
020tasting experience with our um food services group. And that was definitely one of the more popular sessions where kids got to sample some actual menu items that the food service department wanted feedback on to you know was looking at making some changes with things. And so um that you know the food service has shared back with me recently this is kind of neat that they actually made some specific menu changes. They've added some sauces that that came directly from um some students that um requested some different types of sauces. They've added options um starting next school year, they're going to add options for purchasing snacks after school um at the middle school um and the high school based on input from the student superintendent advisory council. So, that's kind of cool. Um so, in general,
021obviously, it's a great group for us to recruit from to help with special projects and videos where students are needed. We've also kind of used them in that capacity as well. Um, I wanted to bring in some student voice though since that's really the whole point of the council. So, I have um asked two students, Chase Brandstetter and Kate Boyce. Um, if I invite them up front to join me. Chase just finished his fifth grade year at HL Creek and Kate actually just recently graduated from Noblesville High School. Um, and I'm going to ask them to share a little bit about what the council has meant to them. Okay. Hello, my name is Chase Bransitter and I was part part of the superintendent advisory council in fourth and fifth grade. I enjoyed being part of
022this council and I really felt that my opinion was both valued and heard. School is a big priority in my life. Whether it's extracurriculars or ordinary school work, I want all students to have a good experience at any Noblesville school. One of the big things that I liked about this advisory council was that they wanted our input and actually listened. An example is that they made posters and wrote down a question on each poster board. They then handed us all Sharpies and told us to answer each question by writing down what you think. I remember one of the questions being, "What would make your school better? Dream big." Another thing that I liked about the council was that I felt valued. Since the council was limited in the number of people per school, we got
023to tour ESC where the we where we met the leaders and learned that there are humans just like us who enjoyed Legos and cowboy boots. The last thing I want to share with you about the council is that I was able to pay more attention to what my teachers and classmates struggle with and excel at. I kept in mind and shared when needed to in meetings. Thanks for letting me share with you today. Go Millers. >> [applause] [applause] >> I can't say it better myself. Chase, you're fabulous. Go Cougars, fellow Hinkle Creek alum. Uh, I have absolutely loved being a part of the superintendent advisory board. I think especially as someone who recently graduated, seeing the voices of my peers and the middle schoolers younger than me has been something that I've especially loved to
024see. I think that in a world that's so available at the click of a button where we have our phones and our screens, having face-toface in real world connection time is especially important, especially to show young children or young adults like me that their voices matter and that their mental health matters and that their opinions matter. I mean, just as Mrs. Cook was talking about um earlier, even watching these two middle school boys who were very passionate about Sriracha, um be able to have that and to have Dr. Hy and Mrs. Cook really listen to our opinions. It wasn't performative. They weren't putting on a show. It was real and they really wanted to care and they wanted to help us with what we thought and what we felt. And I think that's really special
025and it's part of what makes Noblesville so amazing. Um, thank you all so much. And like Chase said, go Millers. [applause] >> Great job, guys. Thank you so much for sharing. You're that's so much more powerful to kind of hear it from your voice and experience than mine. Um, Dr. How, do you have anything you want to add? >> Well, first off, we did deliver that Sriracha and it's a hit at the school. So, I will say that that was a big win. Um the idea behind this really came um it's not lost on me that um when you start working in this office at central office I share often that if if you're not careful you could go a whole school year and never see a child and that's that's not good right um
026we make a lot of really big decisions about a lot of big things um but it's really important that that our work is grounded in what's best for kids and what our kids think and what they say and what they share and um it was just really important to find a way to get their voice into this building and have us hear some things. Give us give us a give us a pulse. How's it going? What are you feeling? How do kids feel about this thing this thing going on right now? Or what do I have no idea that's going on that I should know about? Um and in our last session that we had this year, um they both kind of referred to that. You know, we we did a kind of a a
027wrap-up session of let's just talk about some things and we did we did poster board all over the room and let them write down some stuff and we had great conversations. In fact, both of those sessions ran long. Um and but it has already helped Mrs. Cook and I think about what topics we're going to start with next year because it identified some things. Wow, they had a lot that we didn't get to talk about with that. We need to just make a session about that topic. Um, and it was powerful and and again, I think you just heard it in in two minutes. The impact that when it's coming from our kids and not what the adults think the kids want or what the kids what we think they they're saying, just ask because
028they they will absolutely tell you. So, it's it's been powerful. It's been moving. Um it it's been so much fun to see this come come to life and and we're going to keep doing it. So yeah, thank you. >> Awesome. So as I mentioned, this was a competitive experience for kids to be selected on this program and they did a great job investing a lot of time and energy uh in participating. So we wanted to really take the opportunity tonight to recognize all of our student advisory council students. We have several others in the audience. So at this time I'd ask them to come up to the front of the room and join us. >> [applause] [applause] >> Look at all this Noblesville school's brain power here. This is this is why this has been
029so successful. Congratulations and thank you guys so much for your participation and input and feedback. It's been really a wonderful opportunity for for us and hopefully it has been for you as well and I know the board wants to congratulate you >> before you turn around. Moms and dads, now's your chance for a picture if you want to take it. So, we'll pause for 30 seconds. >> Look at all those phones come out. I knew it. Give you just a few more seconds. All right, congratulations again, kids. If you'll come around. I know we all want to shake your hand. All right. Um, next on our reports for this evening, um, Dr. Hy will give a presentation about a potential referendum. >> All right. Thank you. Hard act to follow with that, but I'm going
030to do my best to keep you entertained on a really entertaining subject. So, thank thanks for being here and for those sticking around to listen. Um, board, last month, we we kind of talked about some of the information I'm going to share tonight, but I do have some new some new things to share as well. Um, so again, I I I want to start by just saying, you know, I hope we've modeled over the last few years our commitment to transparency and openness with our with our community, especially when it comes to finances, because that's a touchy subject for everyone. It's an important subject to everyone and many of us in this room are taxpayers and community members um who not only care about our school system but also are the ones who help support
031these schools um through our local taxes. And so we take that commitment very seriously. And so tonight I do want to give a a very thorough update again on our finances um and kind of catch us up to speed as we talk about uh what the future may hold. So, uh, with that, the purpose of tonight, like I just said, is to update, uh, the board and the community. Um, uh, kind of where we are currently and what we're looking at for the future in terms of finances for our school corporation. I want to talk about some of the impact of recent legislative changes that have occurred. I want to talk about our prior and current referenda. And then I do have some new information to share tonight about a recommendation that'll be on the
032agenda later on later on this evening. Before we get going though, um, I want to pause and say a huge acknowledgement and thank you to these two organizations. Um these are two organizations that we rely on uh a lot to help advise us. Um they are the experts in their fields. And so Ice Miller, the one at the bottom right there, is a is a legal firm that helps advise on very complicated legal matters, especially in the area of of finance. And so they've been helpful helping us think through all the legal pieces of of what we're talking about tonight. And then the other firm is Policy Analytics. They are um well known and well respected throughout the state of Indiana as a firm that helps advise um financially for all sorts of organizations. Um,
033we use them, many other school districts do, uh, many cities and towns use them because they are kind of the the well-known experts that are able to get access to data that's hard for us to get and help us run true analysis that helps us get right down to the the smallest level possible, which at the end of the day helps us make the best decisions and recommendations possible. So, I want to make sure I thank them because they've helped us build a lot of the information that I'm going to share this evening. So, uh, I feel like I know some of you have already heard this a few times, but by now you can you can help me present if you'd like because you're experts, but I feel like it's hard to do this
034without giving just the quickest crash course on school funding because it matters for everything else we're going to talk about tonight. So, really quickly, some of you have seen this slide before, um, but it's important to remember that school finance comes in buckets. It comes in different funds and they come from different uh they come in from different sources and can also only be spent in certain ways. And so, really quick, um, the biggest one is the education fund. That's one that all schools have in Indiana. Um, it is funded by the state budget. It's the only one funded by the state budget. Um, and it is also the largest revenue source and that's the one that is tied to student enrollment. So, when you hear the idea of money following the child or while
035our enrollments up or our enrollments down, this is the fund that is most impacted by this and it is the largest fund by far. Um, and it provides the brunt of our of our funding. And so when you think about what we're allowed to spend that money on, um the easiest way to think about it, it's called the education fund. Essentially, anything tied to teaching children and supporting children is likely coming out of that fund. So teachers, counselors, principles, etc. Um they're all coming out of the education fund. The next fund over is one that also every district in the state of Indiana has. That's called the operations fund. It is funded by local property taxes and it is a smaller fund but it is used to basically help provide funding for anything that helps
036with operational things. So think transportation technology um insurance you know uh uh support staff some of our repairs come out of there if they're small projects things like that just supporting the operational side of the budget. So that's locally funded. Debt service is a fund that I would assume every district has. I' I've never checked but I would be shocked if anyone didn't. It's a common mis misconception out there that um schools shouldn't have debt and that they they should never take out loans for thing. And unfortunately, that's just not the way the system is built. Debt is an expected part of school finance in Indiana. Um anytime we do any sort of a larger project, and that could just be buying carpet or fixing a roof or something, um we need to take out
037a bond to do that, which is a fancy way of saying a loan. Um and then it's just paid back over time through property taxes, through the debt service rate. And so that that's also important, but that money cannot be used to do the things in those other buckets we talked about. That is also a very common misconception. So when people say, well, why did you build that thing over there? Why didn't you use that money to pay teachers more, for example? The true answer is we cannot do that. That money is only for certain capital projects. And then the other two funds that we have um here that not every district has is we do have an operating referendum. That one um is what we're going to talk a lot about tonight in a
038few minutes. Um that referendum we've had we've had a referendum on the books for about 16 years now at Noblesville schools and it provides additional money essentially to support the things I told you about in education and operations. It helps run the district and provide more resources to be able to do more things for the children of Noblesville. Um that that can only exist however if it is approved by a majority of taxpayers on a ballot. So the board cannot just decide to do a referendum. They can only ask a question and then the community either approves it or they don't. So, not all schools have this for a variety of reasons, but we are very blessed to have it currently in Noblesville. And then the last one, I don't want to get in the
039weeds, but I do think it's important to explain this one because it will probably come up um out there as people talk about this, is exempt debt. This is also a referendum, but it's a little different. It's a referendum that was taken out to fund a project, a specific project. Um, and we're gonna we'll get into that in a few minutes, but but think of it, it works the same way as debt service. it's paying back a debt for some big something that the school district has done at some point. But because of the way it was built, the community voted on it. So that's the only difference. Okay. So um when we look at our budget, the most important things are those three first funds that I talked about or excuse me the the
040two education operations and referendum fund. And so when you look at our budget, um Mr. Hordemiller and I think about these as these are the three funds that fund how we operate and just run this district dayto-day. It's how we pay the bills. It's how we uh pay people. It's how we staff. It's how we just operate everything that happens on a day-to-day basis. And so when you look at that at at our 26 budget right now, this kind of gives you an idea of the breakdown of how what percentage of our overall operating budget is coming from the funds. And so when you look there, as I said, education fund is the big one. It's about 60%. Operations is is the second largest at about 21%. And then that referendum fund makes up almost
04120%. Um it's 19, but we'll say 20 just to use round numbers. it's it's essentially 20% of our operational budget um at all times. And so obviously that's a pretty significant pretty significant portion. So that leads into the question that I know is on people's minds sometimes which is why does no schools even need a referendum? Why why do we have that? And there are there are reasons for that. So the first thing I want to dive into here is this chart right here. So what this chart is telling you um this is the money that we receive from the state budget into that education fund that we talked about a minute ago. And so, like I said, one of the common misconceptions out there also is that every school in the state gets the
042same amount of money. So, if someone says they don't have enough money, that must mean they're mismanaging it or something or they're doing something they shouldn't with that money. That's not that's not accurate. This chart shows you every single district, all 290 in the state of Indiana, um, and where Noblesville schools fall. So, that line in the middle is a state average. I know that's probably hard to read. Um, in fact, it's hard to read on my screen, too. It's like 7,490 I think it says. Um and Noblesville schools is ranked 77 or excuse me 273 out of 290 um down there towards the right which puts us in the bottom 6% in terms of how much we receive per student from the state of Indiana when you're looking at the basic foundational grant and
043the complexity formula that goes with it. And so that creates a difference of 306 per students from $36 per student if you look at the average. And so when I just do some quick mental math, if we were even just at the state average with our enrollment this year, that would give us about $3 million per year additional money to use to support to support our schools that we don't have because of where we fall. Um and and part of the reason for that is diff there are reasons that that feed into this. Part of it is districts in more fluent part of the states sometimes just get less money per student than in other areas. And again, that's not a criticism. That's not anything of the sort. It is what it is. But that
044is our reality in Noblesville. So this is this is just the cards that were dealt when it comes to the education fund. So then the other big fund that we talked about was that operations fund. So here's the same thing. This one shows you a comparison left to right of the districts who get the most all the way to the least on the right. And again, you see where we kind of fall there with the state average and where Noblesville schools is. So again, I like to think of percentages. We're in the bottom 15% for the operations fund. Um the difference on this one is actually bigger. The difference is $683 for students. So again, just thinking about our students and the number of kids we have, if we were at state average, um that
045would mean an additional $7 million going into the operations fund to support to support our kids in the work that we do here. So already we're 10 to $10 million behind between our two big funds if we were just thinking about state averages as it compares. And again, this is not new. This has been this way for Noblesville for a long time. time. Nolesville has adapted to this reality, but that's also part of why Noblesville operates the way that it does um today. So, a question that people ask a lot, and this is the only time in this whole thing that I'm going to call out specific districts because I always don't like like doing this, but people are going to ask, so I'm just going to put it up here. Um people say, "Well,
046maybe how does that compare to our neighbors in Hamilton County?" So, here here are the the districts in in our county along with the state average. So, when you're looking at that operations fund, um here's the difference of of what we pull in per student from the operations fund by by county. And you can see that we're obviously over there on the right. Um and we have a pretty significant gap between some of our neighboring districts. Um and why why that is is because of how it's because of the property types that we have in all of our communities. That factors into what is or is not collected through the operations fund to support our schools. So, let's take a look at that for a minute. this chart, I know this is really small, but
047this chart, what this is telling you is kind of the makeup of of the the property types that we have in Noblesville Township here in our in our school corporation. So when you look there, um part of why we are we are hit a little harder than some other districts to the to the to the negative is because we are a very very heavy residential um school district, which is great in a lot of ways, but because of tax caps, the tax caps that were put in in the state constitution back in 2009, that also means that if you look at the bottom right of the chart there, you'll see you'll see three little lines. One has a lot of orange and a little bit of green. One is a little more balanced and then
048one has more green. What these are telling you are cap the first one is cap one. Those are homesteads. So those are just single family homes that are out there. And what this chart is telling you is that the vast majority of our homeowners almost 82% have hit the tax cap which means there is money that is not being collected anymore to support schools, cities, towns, you know, whatever. That's just the way it works. And then the second level are apartments and farms. That's cap two. They get capped at 2%. You can still see there that actually the majority of those are also capped out for us. And then cap 3 is commercial business. And there's there's really not much of a cap impact when it comes to commercial for us in Noblesville. Um but
049because of these realities, we do lose more in property tax caps than some other communities in the state just because of the our makeup and the way the way that we are structured. And so to illustrate that a little more clearly, what this chart is showing you is if we do like a 10-year 11-year look back, um this is how much each year we do not receive in the operations fund because of the tax caps. Um and so this this uh this most recent year was the the biggest one yet. Um again, I'm sure you probably can't see that number, but it's about $5.6 million that we did not receive in tax caps last year. And so when you look at that 11-year period, our total loss um was about $41.5 million over this 11-year
050period that we did not collect in in property tax caps. So let's talk about tax caps for a second. I'm a property owner and and taxpayer right here in Noblesville Township. And I will tell you obviously as Dan Hy, I don't like paying taxes either. So I certainly appreciate property tax relief myself. But the reality is it is still taking resources away from all of our government units who do depend on property taxes to operate. And again, we're not the only ones. Obviously, here in Noblesville, we have the library, we have um the fire department, we have city um and the township. Thank you. The township also that that depend on these tax rates. So, taking all that information, this is part of the why behind how Noblesville, you know, historically has said, "Hey, the
051referendum is part of our conversation at Noblesville schools." And so I want to explain really quickly a little bit of the history of this because I think it's important to understand kind of where we've been before we talk about where we might be headed. So um there are three types of referendums that exist. The first one is capital. That's the one that I told you about the exempt debt if you're doing like a big building for example. Um there's a school safety referendum which is actually very rare. Very few districts have that one. It's not very popular. And then the big one is the operational referendum which is what we're going to talk about here in just a few minutes. But this chart is actually telling you about Noblesville's history with capital referendums, which are
052construction referendums, because a lot of people forget that Noblesville has actually gone through this process three times already. Um, if you've been here a while, maybe you remember all these, but for those of you who are new like me or just haven't thought about this because you don't sit around and think about school finance every day, um, this is what they were. So, let's talk about what they were. 2010 that or 2009 actually, um, that was the very first year that this was really kind of a thing. Um, that this was an option. And so Noblesville said, "Hey, we've got some construction we need to do. Let's talk to our community about this." But being very honest, uh people didn't really know what they were doing either. They didn't know how to do this. This
053was so new. They weren't sure how to how to, you know, navigate the conversations and all that. And so it did not pass barely. It only failed by like a percent or so. But it did it was not successful. The very next year though, Nobles came back to their community. They took they took a different approach. They learned better how to how to educate people on what what they were talking about. And then it passed very handily in 2010 and then another one passed in 2013. And in case you're wondering what these paid for, um the 2010 capital referendum built Promise Road. It uh converted West from an intermediate school to a middle school and it did expansions of mechanical updates to several of the elementaryaries and helped make the transition to those to make
054them K5 buildings. So if you were here, you may remember all those projects happening at that time. And then in 2013, that one um added the freshman center at the high school. It added the new high school secure office area and it also did a lot of renovations at East Middle School. So again, very significant large projects which is why they were they were run through the referendum process instead of a smaller bond process. And as we said earlier, these are just debts that are being paid off. Um in fact the um the first one will actually sunset in about three years in 2030, three and a half years. And the second one will actually be will sunset and then these will be completely gone and no longer on our tax roles at all um
055in 2032. So these these pay themselves off and they just go away when the debt is repaid. So these are actually going to expire within the next five years or so. These will be gone and we're not paying for them anymore. Um but as you recall, if you've been here, all these projects happened during a period of really rapid growth in Noblesville. Goblesville was growing very fast at that time and so these were necessary just to just to keep up. But I say that because at this point in time, we don't foresee needing additional construction referenda in within the future. um it's just not something that we're even thinking about anymore because we're in a different place now at Noblesville schools. So let's talk about those operating referendum then because that's the one that we're
056going to talk about tonight. Um these are the three past operating referendum. So if you look there um the first one was asked in 2010 and it was successful. Um then it expired and needed to be renewed in 2016. And so the community once again supported it in 2016. And then in 2018, two years later, um the school came back and asked, hey, could we could we increase this rate to provide more funding to enhance school safety and some other things that were going on at that time. And that one was also also uh successful. And like I said earlier, the the these funds truly are used to pay for people and programs. That's that's what they're for. That's what these operendums are that's why they exist. that's what they're used for. Um, and they
057have just become over 16 years now part of our operational budget that supports Noblesville schools. So, speaking of that, let's talk about our current financial state for just a minute. Um, here in our district. So, I decided just to put this headline right up because you may have seen this uh when it actually dropped a few months ago. Um, back in I guess this was February, we we actually released a statement ourselves um to educate our community um and to keep transparency alive out there and and be very open about how some things we were navigating here as a district. Um we had we had experienced a decrease in revenue uh and because of that over time we have to adjust the budget. You know it is literally our job to maintain a balanced budget
058and keep things protected and keep this district financially sound. So if revenue is down there comes a time where we have to adjust the budget accordingly. That's that's what our job is. But becau but because we are very committed to transparency and openness. We absolutely wanted our community to know that we needed to do this and why and what we were doing about it. Um so let's talk about why this happened though. So this is a chart. This is a little different from last month because I thought this was a little easier to understand. This is our historical enrollment on in the fall counts um all the way back to 0607 if you want to kind of follow Nobles's path. And so you see that period of really rapid growth that was going on for
059a long long time. Um but then over the last few years, we've kind of hit hit our hit our max. And over the last couple of years now, we're starting to see a very slow um decline in student enrollment. And so um as you as you remember from our earlier slides, you know, enrollment does also drive funding. And so this this year, this current school year that just ended, um we did see a drop of about 200 students this year. And so not cause for great alarm, but it is absolutely something that affects our revenue, and we have to account for that. I get asked a lot, what what's driving this change? Um there's there's several reasons out there. One of which um we are a school choice state through and through. Parents have lots
060and lots of choices and that's great for families, but that does mean with more choices, people will consider more choices and so they may or may not always want to go to their home school. Um, but the bigger factors that really are affecting us, this is hard for people to understand who live here, but believe it or not, even though we are still building new neighborhoods and they are absolutely building new homes left and right, the pace has slowed enough that it's not outpacing our graduating seniors and the families now. We've kind of reached the peak and so even though new developments are happening, they're not outpacing that anymore. Um, and so, but that's hard, right? Because people will say, "Why are we shrinking? We're building all these homes. It's not possible." Well, it it's
061because the balance of of where we've reached um across the nation, birth rates are down. This is actually not unique to Noblesville or even Indiana state. Uh all across the United States, many communities are experiencing an enrollment decline because birth rates have just dropped in the United States. And the last one that's uncomfortable to talk about, but it just is the truth. Um in Noblesville and I would say in Hamilton County and even beyond, um our home prices are getting higher and higher and it it is getting harder for young families to move into our community right now. on. So that is a factor that we can't control, but it is a reality. And so that's something we also are need to be aware of as we as we think about um as we think
062about that. So again, student enrollment though, remember, is tied to funding. And so this this does influence where our funding is is sitting. And so because of that, um we obviously keep an eye during budget season and throughout the year on how we're doing in terms of our um excess funds or deficit uh spending. And so this again gives you a few years look back of how Noblesville schools has been doing. And you can see that the most two recent years that we have on this chart um things started going the the other way. We started entering into a deficit spend mode just because of that revenue shift that has happened. And so um this this does affect us. Part of this is is due to enrollment. Part of this is due to some changes
063that have happened at the state house that have changed how our funding works behind the scenes. Um Senate enrolled act one if you've read about that in the news. that's been very impactful and we're going to talk about that more in just a minute. Um, but that has changed how we're able to collect property taxes and it is it has absolutely affected our budget now. Um, and so at the end of the day, those changes have negatively affected operations and our referendum. It is it has changed how how and how much we're able to collect. Um, that did that. And so earlier this year, David, uh, Mr. Mr. Horm Miller, our CFO, he provided an update to the board and our community that that went a little deeper into this topic, explored, you know, some
064of the changes and how this is affecting our cash flow. Um, he did that back in October and he shared that again an update in January just again to inform our community um and kind of where kind of where we were. And so, at the end of the day, the big takeaway from this chart is that over the last couple of years, because of those shifts, our district had started to operate in a multi-million dollar deficit. And obviously, that's not sustainable forever. um we can see that we can live through that storm for a little while but at some point we do have to say well we need to adjust now um to move to this new reality. So again you've already seen this slide but just to remind you these are the three funds
065that support our operational budget. These are the three that drive everything and then this slide tells a little different story within those same three funds. This is how much of that money goes to people and then the little slice is what goes to everything else. And so, as you see, 87% of the money coming from those three funds goes to pay and support our our people who work at Noblesville schools. Um, and that's as it should be, right? We are a people business, and we we should obviously invest all of our funding into our into our um staff. But where I'm going with this is of course when the budget starts to go the wrong direction, the majority of adjustments are unfortunately also going to come from people because I will just tell you that
06613% we're running pretty lean and there's not a whole lot to to trim or adjust at this point within that within that slice of the pie. Um it's it's just the way it is. And so whenever budget adjustments happen, we do have to look to our staff uh our staffing levels to make those things. So what have we been doing about this? Um, we've been re re reviewing and renegotiating all of our contracts just to squeeze any savings we can out of that. That's in that 13%. Um, we've been looking at our programs, the way we structure things here at the district just to make sure we're we're being as efficient and effective as possible with with the funding that we have. Um, we've done a lot of work in the from the administrative side
067to re to rethink through how we make staffing decisions. Um, and just to help us be a little more critical and, you know, conservative as we look at making those decisions in the future. Um, we've right-sized some staffing levels in various programs throughout the district just to tighten our belt a little more as well as some programs and structures. And perhaps very importantly that people don't always know happens. Um, especially Mr. Horde Miller and I, we we continue to advocate with our legislators to make sure they understand how these changes that are made affect our local schools, are affecting our community, and talk to them about ways that maybe we could we could um minimize some of these negative effects so that our district doesn't doesn't feel them. Um but to give you just some
068hard numbers, you know, through a combination of retirements, attrition, and cuts over the last year or so, um we've made these uh these staffing adjustments. So in 2025, because we knew this was coming, we started making some slight adjustments when we had opportunities where we were able to reduce by about 14 positions. Um and then 2026, last spring, when we when we talked about that press release, um we actually reduced 46 positions for for school or before school starts next year. And so over that a year or so period, it was we reduced about 60 positions overall throughout the the school corporation. And the budget impact of that was a savings of over $4 million. Um and and that was really really important. And that's that's in salary and benefits that that we are now
069saving because of these adjustments. And I do want to point out um part of those positions that were cut included several positions right here at the central office, including two cabinet level district level leadership positions. Um it's a common u concern out there that when Mondays get tight only teachers will get cut, right? And and we don't we don't operate that way at Noblesville schools. We uh we absolutely looked at every department, every area and did what we can to make sure that we that we kept the impacts away from children as much as possible as we as we went through this process. Um so at the end of the day, that's that's uh that's kind of where we where we landed um in terms of how we we made those adjustments to shore up
070our budget for next year. Um, but in addition to all those efforts that we made, some other things that we that we do around here to manage our finances, um, we have continued to try to make our school tax rate that that goes to our taxpayers as low as possible. We've reduced our school rate actually seven years in a row now. Um, here at Noblesville Schools, we're aggressively paying off our debt. And something that I'm exceptionally proud of, but I don't get the credit. Mr. Hormiller does. Um, we have a credit rating of double A, which is actually the highest in the state for any school district in the state of Indiana. There are only three other districts in the whole state that have a credit rating as high as we do. And it's only
071because of the way we manage our money and the way we are responsible users of the funds that we get. Um they look at all those things. It's no different than if you apply for a loan, they're going to check your credit history and check your financials. We go through the same process. And I'm extremely proud of the fact that that we're there because the way this benefits our community is when you have the highest rating, you get the lowest rates when you need to borrow money to do things that benefit your district. So this absolutely saves money for our taxpayers here here in Noblesville. Um, so at the end of the day, with all that said, uh, it financial stability is is so critically important. Um, because you know, these these two bullets here
072are the two things that I just think of constantly when we talk about money. Um, because these are our priorities at Noblesville Schools. Number one, and most important always, providing outstanding educational opportunities for every single child that we serve here at Noblesville schools. And number two, we we want to always continue to invest in our hardworking teachers and staff. Uh, we don't want to go backwards. We want to keep investing and making them feel valued and appreciated and financially secure um as much as we can. And so even though sometimes we make those hard decisions that we just talked about, we do that because it keeps our district healthy and keeps us strong and keeps us stable to support our staff and and our children. So let's talk a little bit about that property tax
073legislation that I talked about um earlier. So, this is a slide with a with a lot of information, but just a quick quick summary of SEA 1 at it in its purest form, Senator Enrolled Act One that you probably heard about. Um, what it's what it's effectively doing is it is it is changing how assessed values are calculated and will be collected upon um within the counties here in the state of Indiana. And so, when you look here at this chart, if you look at the one on the top left, that dotted line that's going up is the gross assessed value. So that is the starting number for any home or any property value that exists um you know in in our district. And so they say this is your gross assessed value, but that's
074not the one you actually pay taxes on. You pay on your net assessed value because all of us even before SEA1 got a series of deductions or credits or things depending on your personal tax situation that lowered it. And then they ran the math to decide how much you're going to pay in your property taxes. And so the line below there is showing you um how that how that operates. and how that reality plays out. And so, um, if you look here, if you're looking to the future, which again, I know this is really hard to see, typically these lines always go up a little bit each year because especially in this area, our home values slowly or sometimes not slowly continue to rise because it's a popular area and home values go up. But
075if you notice on the second half of that chart, you suddenly see it start to go down. That's because of SEA1. It's not because our homes are predicted to get less valuable. It's because SEA1 is changing how that is calculated. And so they are going to um it is going to effectively lower the value of your home when it comes to tax purposes, which means less taxes will be collected by all those entities that that depend on that. Um and so if you look at that and if you look at the bottom two charts, that's showing you what's happening on underneath that. That's showing you the deductions that are going to go up. Um, and then both in the homesteads and in those 2% that we talked about earlier, they're going to get more deductions,
076which is what is going to um going to make this happen over the next few years. So, what's going to happen? This is a historical chart of our net assessed value, which is the one that matters a lot to us at Noblesville Schools because it's the one that calculates how much in property tax revenue we'll receive. So, if you look there, you see most years are usually at about a certain level. We all see that one big one that sticks out like a sore thumb. Um, if you were unfortunate enough like I was to be moving in that time, uh, that was around the COVID time when all the house prices went crazy. That was a really fun time to move into Noblesville, by the way. Um, but anyway, everyone, I think, remembers that when
077home prices really took kind of an unnatural jump right in that time period. But since that time, you can see it's kind of restabilized now. The market has settled back down and it's fine. But then you look to the right and you see several years of negative. That's again that's SEA1 that's artificially changing how how this is working and so it is going to lower those net assessed values after all the deductions and things are calculated through it. Basically the way I describe it is it's artificially eroding our assessed value which unfortunately will then disrupt the balance of how our how our money comes. And and at the end of the day what should you take from this slide? Because of this, we anticipate that we're going to lose several million dollars annually um because
078of these changes, just the way that it will change the math on the back end of how of how this works for the school system. So, let's talk about how all this would affect the referendum renewal because that's really really important and this is kind of confusing. So, this is a very similar chart, but this is a little bit different. It looks the same, but the numbers are a little different because this is the referendum net AV, which is calculated a little bit differently. The difference is that sometimes you hear about um something called a tiff district. Anyone heard of a tiff district before? A t a tiff district is a tool that some cities um use to incentivize businesses to come there or maybe housing additions for example by saying, "Hey, you know, we're
079going to we're going to use this to help fund some of the infrastructure. And because of that, we're going to take some of those property taxes and use it." But that means those taxes aren't going to the people that normally get those taxes. However, referendums don't play by those rules. Referendums, people in tiff districts or corporations of tiff districts still pay referendum taxes. So, we benefit from that. So, I just want to be very open and honest about that that that that is a piece of how this works. And so, because of that, this is the net AV that matters um when it comes to the referendum and this this is how that how that's calculated. And so, I just want to make sure we're being very accurate and transparent with that. So when we
080look at this, this orange line that you see here is showing you um our historical and then what we're projecting in terms of how much money we would collect through any potential referendum. So this one is what our current rate is doing. This is our current existing referendum as it is today at 37 cents. And so you see historically um it was climbing as as it is normally expected to do. But just like we said a minute ago, um you see at the bottom that net AV is going to erode itself. And because of that, the revenue that could be collected if we kept that rate will drop right along with it. And so if we say, you hear the number you hear me throw around a lot is our referendum currently provides about $25
081million that absolutely supports what we do around here. Um, if we were to pursue that same rate, unfortunately, it will not generate the same money anymore. It will generate less and less and less year-over-year until eventually there's a turning point and then it comes back up when all the deductions have been implemented and then it and then it turns the corner. But obviously this is cause for alarm as we think about the future of the district because what this would mean is each year we would have to adjust the budget year over year to live with less and less and less funding um when our expenses are certainly not going that direction. Our expenses continue to go the other way. So, um, we asked policy analytics, who's the ones who build all these charts, as
082I told you, to say, well, what what could it look like if we did, um, a different referendum question to kind of stair step this up just to gradually counteract what's going on, right? And so, when we look here, um, the rate that we that we settled on that we think it would have to peak at was 57 cents instead of the 37 cents that we currently have. Um, however, the way we've built this out is that the rate schedule would increase by no more than four cents per year because that is what we've calculated is all that we would need to just again keep us stable, keep us where we need to be and make a gradual increase to just keep keep the district on on the financial path that our community wants it
083to be on. So, to be crystal clear, in year one, if you can see right here on this chart, in 2027, um, if we followed this kind of a plan, the recommendation for Mr. Mr. Hordmiller and I to the board and during budget season would be that we would not um use a rate higher than 41 cents. Um something that's misunderstood about referendums a lot of times is when you when you put it on the ballot, what you're establishing is a maximum rate, but it does not mean you have to use all of it. You just can't go over it. And so within that, um we have the ability to say, "Hey, we don't need that much. We can use less." And so this that's an important part of how everything we're going to talk
084about works. So let's check out some math. So, this is this chart right here. This is a this looks similar to the one I shared last month, but it's actually a little different. Um, last month at the board meeting, we asked the board to give us permission, Mr. Hordemiller and I, to talk to our county auditor and have him actually calculate our true to the penny median assessed home value here in Noblesville Township. Um, and we need that because if the board were to vote to move forward, that's we need that number because it it affects what goes on the actual ballot question. And so he ran that number for us and he told us that in 2026 the actual homestead gross assessed value you'll see there at the top is $335,800. So having this
085calculation now from him, we asked policy analytics to rework this chart and use his numbers because his numbers are the ones that matter. And so this is what he calculated out. And so if you look here, a median taxpayer um in here in Noblesville Township, they are currently paying um if you look, they are currently paying I have to zoom in a little bit. My eyes are getting bad. Um are currently paying $639 um for the referendum that we currently have. And so what this chart is telling you, it's telling you two different things. The dash line in the orange is telling you that if we kept the same 37 cent rate and sea 1 had never happened and we just kept on going, that is actually how much more this person would be paying
086with this home value in the future. Um, we are saying with our new strategy of how to do this, we absolutely want to do our part to lower property taxes because we understand this is this is a real a real thing and a real concern. So we we have calculated this to say we believe we can absolutely accomplish our goals but but lower the impact on all of our taxpayers here in Noblesville. And so that is what the purple line is showing you. This is what this is what the impact felt by that median homeowner under the tax rate strategy that I just showed you on the prior um on the prior slide. And so again the most important thing about this is that our goal is to lower. And ironically, if SCA1 had never
087happened, we had already been preparing for the last three or four years to lower the tax rate when the next time came to have this conversation. That was always the goal. Um, it's just the rules of the game have changed. So, we still want to do what we always intended to do. It's just the math is going to look different to get to the same place we wanted to be. Because at the end of the day, um, again, I'll be selfish for a minute. I've already told you I live here. I pay these taxes, too. I don't want to pay any more than I have to and neither do my friends and my neighbors and my family. And so we want to accomplish our mission at the lowest possible tax impact to our to our
088friends and our and our community members community members that we can. So before we leave this chart, I just just to average this out for you, I'll do some math for you. If you add up the eight years of the referendum um and you backtrack it over as and think of it in terms of a monthly increase because that's how I think of things. I pay bills on a monthly basis. um the month the average monthly increase uh over the entire eight-year span each year is $2.30 compared to what it is today. That's that's the actual impact that we're talking about here um on this chart. And the only reason that's increasing is because we are building in a pretty reasonable assumption that our home values are likely to continue to rise. And so that's
089why this will that's why this will do because we wanted to build that in also. So what in terms of the district itself, this this shows you three different scenarios. The bottom one is how much money the district would have collected if we would have had the if we would keep the same rate under the sea 1 rule. So again, you kind of already saw this on a prior chart. It would erode our our revenue, which would just lead to more cuts and and and lost opportunities for children. Um the purple line is how much revenue this plan will generate for the district under that stairstep and and approach to help take care of our taxpayers. And the dash line is if um sea 1 had never happened at all, we kept taking um this
090old rate and go on. And so you see it is it is lower. We are we are absolutely looking for ways to to still trim our budget and do our part to to minimize the impact um on our on our taxpayers here. So we're winding it down. Let's talk about what what all this means and what's the process for a referendum. So I think I've already said this, but just to be crystal clear, our current operating referendum at 37 Cents was was first passed by this community in 2018. By law in Indiana, referendums cannot last longer than eight years. So after eight years um they automatically go away. They just sunset and disappear. So no matter what happens, the current referendum will stop on December 31st of this year. It it is gone and it
091doesn't exist ever again. Um and so that that's a reality that I think people don't always know, but that's important to understand that that if nothing happens, it just goes away. So, um, prior to May, uh, 19th, just to give you kind of crash course of what we've been up to all this time, um, David and I have been analyzing our forecasts. We've been looking at different options for the board and trying to model out what the right balance is to to have this conversation tonight. Um, back on the at the at the May board meeting on May 19th, I did recommend and the board did approve a resolution that gave David and I permission to talk to our county auditor so he could run the real numbers for us because we wanted the board's
092blessing before we took that big step. So, that obviously did happen. We got those numbers and I showed you tonight on the charts what we've updated based on his numbers. And then tonight, later on in this meeting this evening, I will make a recommendation to the board that they approve a resolution that will initiate the referendum process. Um, which is what places the question on the ballot. To be crystal clear, again, I've said this earlier, but I want to say it again. The board's role in all of this is just to ask the question. That's it. Um, believe it or not, uh, whatever they decide to do tonight when they vote, that is the end of their journey with the referendum. They have they have they have put the question out to the community and
093from there on out this is a community decision and every taxpayer in this community has an equal voice in that decision. Um, and I share that because sometimes people get a misconception that the board did this, the board raised my taxes, the board made this decision. The board cannot do that. They don't have the authority to do that, but they have the authority to ask the question. And being very frank, as a relatively new member of this community, um after a community has supported the district for 16 straight years in this way, um I think it would be pretty irresponsible, if I'm being frank, for the board to not at least give the community a chance to weigh on in this issue. But that's a Dan Hile opinion. So assuming the board votes on that
094um tonight and does vote to move forward, uh we enter the campaign period. And so at that point, um, I will be available everywhere and to talk to anyone who wants to talk to me about this issue, to answer questions, to help people understand, to sit with people and look at their personal tax bills and figure out what does this actually mean to me in my home because what I'm sharing on the chart is the median. So a lot of people are in that area, but everyone's different and want people to truly understand the impact for them personally. And then November 3rd is election day. Uh, referendums operate just like any other political uh, item out there. Um it will be on the ballot on November 3rd with everything else you vote for on November
0953rd. Um any other races that are currently going on will be on the ballot there. It's just another question that you would have an opportunity to weigh on. So let's talk about the ballot. This is all new. This has not been on the presentation before, but this is what the board will be considering in a few minutes. Um this is the ballot question in Indiana is dictated by state law. We don't get a whole lot of input into how this reads. I would never ask a question this long. Um because I'm guessing you're standing sitting there looking at it and wondering what in the world is this? I'm going to break it down for you in just a second, but let me read it out loud in case you can't read the screen. This is
096what the ballot question has to say. Shall Noblesville schools increase property taxes paid to the school corporation for no more than eight years for the purpose of funding safety and security measures in all buildings and maintaining and enhancing academic and educationally related programs. In responses in response to reductions in property tax revenue by imposing a property tax rate that does not exceed 57 cents and results in a maximum annual amount that does not exceed 43,842578. If this operating referendum public question is approved by the voters for median residence of $350,000, the property's annual property tax bill would increase by $955 per year. That is a mouthful and I'm going to tell you that this is confusing and I would argue misleading and inaccurate and I'm going to show you why in just a second. So
097let's let's break this down. So again, it's kind of like a fill-in- thelank. If you look up the code, this is all there and then there's little dashes that we get to fill in some things. So I skipped the top two because you know what they mean. Um we can pick how many years. Obviously eight years is is the answer to that. And then then we have to say what it's for. So I I read that everybody understands that. But let's talk about the rate. As I shared a minute ago, this is a maximum rate, not a guaranteed have to take it rate. And so this this right here is the first big thing that that is really important for people to understand. And as I showed you on that prior slide, the intent is
098absolutely that hopefully um that we would not take this rate anytime soon. And it's possible we would never actually get all the way to the 57 rate. But based on the analysis done by policy analytics and helping us forecast, they said, "Hey, this is the rate that that you know if if things fall out in certain ways, this is the rate you potentially could need over eight years to do the things that that your community expects you to do. So that's that's why this rate is on here." But that's very important for people to understand because that affects other things in the question in just a second. So then this really really big number um is probably the next thing that's very confusing. So this is what this is saying on the ballot question is
099this is the most money that in a given year the school corporation could ever collect from the referendum. And obviously this is higher than 25 million which is the number I told you a minute ago. And there's a couple reasons for that. Um first of all the true number that's collected each year is done through the budget process. And so that happens every fall. It's a transparent process that the community can come and be a part of and listen in um and be there. But it's determined by that net assessed value that we talked about and lots of other factors that the board and David and I have to consider as we build all of our annual budgets. And so the tr the fact of the matter with this number is this number is actually
100way higher than we ever think it would ever be. But the challenge with doing something like this is if we don't say it right now and get it approved as part of the question right now, if for some reason the there was some reason way down the road that we don't know about today that we that that suddenly we were able to or needed to collect more money, this will cap the district at whatever number you set. And so even though this is way higher than we realistically think we would ever collect in a year, again, it has been advised to us by the experts who do this for a living, that this is the number they calculated for us is the right number to set just to make sure if anything got out of
101whack down the road, the district would be safe and wouldn't unintentionally harm itself by accident. Now, um because again, the one of the hardest parts about this is we are literally forecasting eight years ahead with a lot of things that can change, but we do have to think about that now. So that's where that's why this number is where it is on the ballot. So this is the median home value. This is pretty easy to understand, but you heard me tell you a minute ago the median home value is actually 335800, but by law the auditor has to round it up to the nearest 50,000. So on the question, it has to say 350,000. If it was if if our median would have been 350 and $1, it would have rounded up to 400,000. So
102at least this is a little more accurate than what it could have been. But this is not our true median value, but it's what has to show on the question. And it feeds the last part we're going to talk about, which is this one. So this is the part that I think is most confusing and misleading for for three main reasons. The way this question is written, and I think a normal person who just read this sentence right now thinks, you just told me these are hardly going up. But this question says my taxes are going to go up $955 because that's what it looks like it says. This is written in such a way that it ignores the fact that we already have a referendum. So this is being written assuming that you don't
103have one at all and that this would be a new thing out of nowhere. So it's comparing to zero, not what we're currently paying. I have concern with that because that's very misleading, right? But that is that is by law the way it has to be written. Number two, this does not account for all the deductions that are going to be put into place over the next few years with SEA1. It is only accounting for next year. So when they run the math, it's only taking in the first deduction. It doesn't calculate all the future. And number three, and probably most important at Noblesville, because what I just told you, we have no intention of taking anywhere near the full rate. This number is calculated on the full rate in year one with all those
104things that I just told you. So all that adds up to a number that absolutely is not accurate and is not at all what is intended. So my last slide is something I built last night because I thought it might help both the board and our community think about that. I thought I'd show you just really quick the breakdown of the math for both of these. So on the left here, this is how the auditor has to do it. And for the record, our auditor Todd Cleger is wonderful. He's great. He's very professional. He did it exactly to the penny by the book the way it's supposed to be done. He did it exactly right. It's just the way it's done I I think is kind of misleading. So if you look here um at
105the top on the left you see median homestead gross assessed value 335800 but then he has to round it up to the nearest 50,000. So that takes us to 350. So then we go down and he has to calculate all right how much of an of a increase would this be. So that that rounded value is 350. All of us get that standard deduction which is $40,000 right off the top. Then the supplemental deduction in 27 will be a 46% reduction off of that. So that takes another 1426 off of your AV, which gives you your net assessed value of 1674. So that is what that home is actually going to be worth when it comes time to calculate taxes. But then he has to take that times that revenue, that referendum rate, and again
106he has to use because he's required to the full rate that's on the ballot of 57 cents and that's what gives you 95418. And then by law he has to round up. So that gives you 955. Got it? So, let's look at the other side. This is the real math. So, we told you the median home is 335800. Same number as him. And we're going to factor in policy analytics recommends that we say our growth, our anticipated growth is 3.3%. So, that's what we use because that's what they think for all their smart people calculations. That's what they say will will possibly happen. So, that gives you the uh the median homestead a at 346714. It's basically 350. It's close. that that's very very close, but I'm trying to do exact math here. So, we
107pull that down to the next one. So, our anticipated AV is 346714. The same deductions come off. 46% of that is 141.88. And so, that gives us a net assessed value of 165626. So, almost the same number. It's really not that far off, but there it is. But the big decider is that rate, right? So, we're telling you the most that we would ask for in year one is 41 cents, hopefully even lower, but let's just say 41 cents. Um, the actual annual tax bill of that is 67907. And I'm rounding down because that's how you actually round numbers. And so, that's 679 in terms of our charts and things. And this matches the chart I showed you earlier in terms of that. So, for this home in year one, this is a $40 increase.
108um for the whole year. It's a $40 increase is what we're is what we're talking about. Um and so that's that's what gets us to to where we are. So last few things here. Um where community members go for more info. I've shared this lots of times, but I'm going to keep doing it. If you haven't done it, please check out our dollars and cents website on the web page. We keep this updated. It's it's a wealth of information about school finance and how we uh collect and use your tax dollars in Osville schools. I welcome feedback on this. This truly was made for our community to use. So, if there's something you think we should add to that or doesn't make sense, please email me. I would seriously love to hear from you because
109we want it to be a great a great resource um for our community members. So, with that, I'm going to stop and turn around and face the board for any discussion, questions, or things you'd like to talk about. Board, >> um I would like you to talk about if for whatever reason this wasn't on the ballot in November and or it didn't get passed, what would happen? When would we go and speak about charter schools? please. >> Great question. So, um, if the if the board tonight decides to not put this on the ballot, they say, "Well, let's just let this expire and see what happens or if they do put on the ballot and the community says, "No, we don't want to support the district anymore, um, funding would stop, as I said, and
110the next opportunity that we would have to talk about this would be 2028." And that's important to remember because um with a $25 million hole, if that opened up in the budget, there is no way we could delay what needs to happen. Uh we don't have enough cash on hand to just, you know, you know, hang on and see if we can get it approved two years later. We would have to make those cuts. We we couldn't wait and see. Um and and uh I think the second part that Mrs. Crosser um is thinking about also right now. Um referenda have always been set up um so that that money is truly given to school districts by their community taxpayers and is only used for that school district period. After this cycle, so starting in
1112027, any referendums that go on the ballot and are approved um starting in 2028 have the potential that they will need to be shared with charter schools. And so the after effect of that would be that any district that is in that boat, if if that applies to them, um in my brain, they'll just have to ask for more money because they will have to account for the fact that a portion of that money is going to have to go somewhere else. And so again, in 2026, this is not something we need to think about. In 28, it absolutely would be something we'd have to factor in the decision. >> Right. Thank you, Misty. >> Oh, you know, I have question. >> Yes, I do. >> Please ask. Um, okay. So, just kind of I
112guess as a topic, just to clarify, the need for a referendum is not unique to Noblesville or even Hamilton County. No. >> Um, I'm hearing there is a record number of requests being made throughout the state. >> The um I I'm going to be real careful. I won't speak on behalf of any other district around, but we are hearing this will be a pretty record-breaking year um in terms of the number of referendum on this November ballot. Um, a lot of districts for for a variety of reasons are feeling that it's time to either renew theirs um or renew theirs early because theirs is no longer going to generate enough money because of the reasons that we just discussed or there are districts that have never had one that now they are just out of
113options and it's time to have the conversation the first time. Um, and so the number that we are hearing and again this is just a guess. We won't know until every board makes their decision. Um but we are hearing it could be in the 40s or 50s this year which is pretty unheard of. >> And then um sure it's in addition to sea1 to the property tax situation but it's also inflation which affects everybody not just individuals. It affects businesses including schools. Um so we're not immune. So that adds to the niche. Um, and then just to clarify as well, this is just to keep status quo. It's not to improve or grow or do anything we don't currently. >> Yes, I should have said that. Thank you. Um, so yes, let's back let's go
114back in time eight years. Um when Noblesville schools last uh had this conversation with the community, it was a a rate increase because there were certain things um that the community wanted that the district couldn't do yet. And the only way to do that was to have more revenue. And so the conversation happened. It was an intentional raising to generate more money to do specific things. um you know and a lot of those things were u obviously supporting teacher pay is all is always a priority here but in addition to that a lot of student safety and and student mental health um things became became available because of that that funding and we've been so blessed by those and I think those are things our community wants to maintain going forward um this time is
115very different this time the rate increase is truly only because of the math that I that I just showed um from speaking as your superintendent we are in a great place staffing we are in a great place with the programs that we're doing. We are doing amazing things for children every day. Um I think all of us who who are blessed to work here are proud of the work that we're doing, but we are we are acknowledging that we can't keep doing those things if our budget suddenly has a hole in it that that wasn't there before. And so to answer Misty's question, yes. Um the the whole purpose of this is just to maintain stable funding so we can keep doing the things that we're doing now, not to add anything new. Um, and
116I know you touched on it earlier, but just to clarify, um, anytime there is an opening, say someone leaves the district for whatever reason, um, we do evaluate the position to see if the remaining staff members, whether it's their department or what have you, can actually absorb those responses. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. And that and that's so when you think about the staffing reductions that we did earlier this year that I talked about um not all those were true cuts because we were able to leverage that process and start thinking about it early enough that some of those were able to just be absorbed as the way you just described. There were some cuts but um yes that that's part of our standard practice here. >> Um and I guess I have a
117concern too with I mean if we don't move forward or if we do and it doesn't pass what that looks like for our district. Um, I know that's obviously personnel as you, you know, I'd love to quote you. It's not changing copy paper for that kind of money. >> Um, but with that being said, personnel are going to get cut. I mean, there's no way around it, which ultimately ends in larger class sizes, which could potentially, my fear is lead to additional staff leaving that weren't initially cut due to the budget cuts because they don't want to work in those conditions. So, it could be a pretty pretty bad downfall. [clears throat] Um, which is a very big concern. I mean, I I'm a mom. I have kids in the district, too. So, and I'm
118a taxpayer here just the same as everybody else. So, I have the same concerns. >> Um, but I think some of those are maybe uh things that some people aren't thinking about. >> Um, and >> the simplest way to say it, if you just think in super super easy math, is if the referendum were to disappear, if that funding were to go away, the budget will need to be readjusted down 20%. And I'm I'm a very simple math thinker. And so, if you think in terms of personnel, think of five employees and one of them leaves. That's the easiest way to think about it. um we would need to reduce about 20% of staff roughly through all departments, all buildings everywhere throughout the district. And that would be a pretty noticeable change in our school
119district and it would absolutely affect uh programs and the services we offer that there'd be no way around that, >> right? So our wonderful PLTW program, >> we would look at every program, right, >> and just see see where we tighten up. And then I again I know just to clarify again um with so many different numbers being thrown around um the 20 cent increase is what we're ultimately asking. However, we are promising that we're not going to take more than 4 cents per year and we will do evaluation on an annual basis before we make any changes. So ultimately we could keep it the same one year or we could decrease or we could go up to the 4 cents. Correct. That's exactly right. >> And and those meetings when the board decides are
120public >> 100%. >> Okay. Okay. >> Yep. >> And and again, just for I I think I kind of lightly said this earlier, but um that all happens as part of the rate the annual budget process every year, which is absolutely open to the public every minute of it. It's live streamed. It's recorded. People are welcome to come sit in the room and be a part of that. Um the community can see exactly what we're talking about, can see the rates we're talking about. Um, and I will tell you, I I I think the community should pay attention to that and see if we're telling the truth. Um, you know, and come and see what rate what rate are we talking about for 27. Um, because it'll be it'll be on the page when the
121board votes on it. >> Um, one more question, which I don't want to get into the weeds too much on it, number one, because I don't completely understand it myself. >> Um, so I don't know that I expect you to, which is involving the tiff. Um, so from my understanding, if for example a new neighborhood is designated an ATIF district, that means their property tax dollars don't come to us, but the referendum dollars will >> a >> So that's essentially us losing money because of it. Correct. >> Sort of. >> Okay. >> The So there's three factors to that and David, you can help me out if I don't say this correctly. Um, the property already has value before it gets improved and so that firmly in super cheap. That is actually still collected and
122sent to us. So, we get a little bit underneath. It's any any improved AV that grows after the tiff is kicked in for however many years that goes somewhere else. It doesn't come to us or the city or whoever gets it. Um, but the referendum, yes, is exempt from that. And so, we do still get all those dollars. And depending on what it is, I mean, you could look at TIFFs all different ways. Um to me I'm not opposed to tiffs as long as cities and and you know um development commissions are using them to try to improve the community in ways that benefit us and we do benefit from them. I mean sometimes they're bringing jobs which brings families or it's a residential. We may not be getting those dollars but we're absolutely going
123to get the referendum dollars and hopefully children are moving into those homes. So, it's a delicate balance, but to your question, yes, there is revenue in there that it's growth that normally would have come to us that won't come to us. So, we don't lose it, but we don't get it. >> Right. >> So, >> well, yeah, we're just not getting it as we should as the property value increases for x amount of years. >> Yes. And so, that that's absolutely a factor in some of these charts and we talk about why we get or don't get certain things compared to some communities. Some communities don't have tiff districts at all. Some have a few, some have way more than us. It's kind of like tax caps. Everybody gets affected a little bit differently, but
124it's part of our story now and we have to account for it. >> And and tiffs are hard because in Noblesville there's only one tiff district that's residential. Um, and you you know, when it comes to a regular tiff, you think, would a business come if they didn't have a tiff? I don't know. I mean, that's it's it's it's an interesting situation. >> I I don't make those decisions and I'm glad I don't, but yes. >> Okay. Well, unless uh somebody says something that sparks a question for me, I'm done. >> Anyone? Anyone else? policy analytics tries to look at everything that they can look at, assess evaluation, all those things. I have a concern as I watch the state legislature each year give us 30 or 40 different laws for K through 12 education
125and then apply back and forth with how much taxes we get or don't get. I I have a concern that over the next eight years, we probably we could see probably some more reduction. I don't see them giving us any money any more money is and I know we've programmed in some cushion and I know you can't always you can't you can't say what the state legislature is going to do but I have a a concern about that looking at our strategy for eight years out >> best thought I know there's no good answer I know >> yeah I mean I don't know if that's a question or not but I share the concern uh because that is that is entirely possible um they they do control the rules and >> um and again I
126I again there's a job I don't want either and own envy because they are trying to be sensitive to property taxes for for homeowners and trying to do something about it, but then they also have to try to balance it to not harm all the entities that depend on that. And so I I like to think they're they're trying their best to manage those things. Um but at the end of the day, yes, I mean all all these rules that we follow technically can change if the legislature decides to change them. >> Cushion I know we have some cushion. >> Not a little. We we've tried to factor in a little bit but but a significant change could absolutely upset some of the things we've talked about tonight and we have no way to know
127that tonight right and a good example of that actually board um is a couple of years ago when I kind of again I kind of glossed over tonight because I know this is already way too long um but there were some other changes like that that happened in little bits and pieces but they stack on top of each other and I think I think Mr. Miller shared with us a year or two ago, just those little things behind the scenes in the formulas over a two-year period cost us like eight or$10 million and it just adds up over time. And so it's once again shifting the budget the wrong direction. And then one day you suddenly realize what happened. How come all of a sudden we're in a deficit? It's because it's $500,000 here, a
128couple million dollars here, and it it just stacks. Um, so we we watch that, but that's also part of that advocacy piece where we try to educate. Hey, at Noblesville, we ran the numbers. Can we tell you what's going to happen for us if you do this thing you're thinking about? So, yeah. >> Anyone else? >> Yeah. >> So, when I read the ballot question, um, I was very alarmed and I am on the board and didn't realize that the $955 was not going to be on top of what I was already paying. And I am very concerned that there are going to be voters at the ballot box that because I don't want to pay another thousand dollars in property. Neither do I. [clears throat] >> So you mentioned that. So that 955 comes
129from year eight at 57. >> Yep. >> That's where that number comes from. And >> but you said on you you mentioned $40, right? >> Is that an average over the eight year? Say again what the actual money I'm going to >> So what I So what I was trying to tell you and again this is complicated but I'm thinking about this right here. So this is modeling out for that median homeowner who just happens to have a home that exactly costs or is worth 335800. Um so for that person which is a representative of all the homes in Noblesville here they are currently paying 639 right now. And if we do our plan that we just talked about 41 cents, all other things equal and all the assumptions hold, it will go up to
130679. And that's so that's a $40 for the whole year increase. Um >> that's 2027. >> That's for 2027. >> And then we'll increase >> and then every year after that is actually less than $40. >> Less. >> That's the highest one is actually the first year. And again, it's just because of the way the math is working behind the scenes and the way all these deductions and things are going to kick in. One year the increase is $4. >> Okay? And so what I was saying is over the span of eight years, we averaged it out just to get people. Let's talk about just the whole time. What's what are we looking at here? We're literally saying that each year the monthly amount of increase will be about two $2.30. >> Okay. It's important
131to note too on the dotted line that at our current rate they would be paying more. >> They absolutely would >> then the >> Okay. >> Which is so hard to understand, >> right? >> Very hard. I mean, people are going to wonder if you're off your rocker. >> And here in Right. And here in lies the challenge, right? Because what I'm saying sounds like I'm lying to you. I know that, right? >> But I'm not. Like, it's it's the math because I'm going to say we're raising the rate, but you're going to pay less than you would have under the old rate. And that Yeah. Yeah. Right. I'm saying it about 100 times, but it but it's the truth because, you know, I want to go all the way back in my slides, but
132it's because of this, right? Those lines on the bottom. It's this that makes that happen. That's a hard concept to understand because it's artificially eroding the math problem out from under itself for five years. >> Yeah. And then that number of $43 million when we've told the community right now the referendum brings in between 20 and 25 million but we're going to max out at 43 even though the the max according to policy analytics is like 38. >> Yeah, it's like 37. >> 37. So, we've I guess they're saying like if something >> they're they're just kind of >> honestly they're thinking about what Joe just said. >> They're thinking about if something changes, if something gets gets off the rails, if some unanticipated problem happens, if if assessed value doesn't think, you're better just
133to give yourself some room and never use it than suddenly get in trouble and then you can't do anything about it because you're locked out. And honestly, board, it works. We don't talk about this a lot during budget season, but your budget works the same way. you approve maximum numbers for David that he can't exceed. And so he always has to think about that and build in a little bit just in case something that we didn't think of happens because he'll be stuck. And this is the exact same thing once once it's out there and if the community approves it, that's it until 2034 and we can't change. >> So many things could change like [clears throat] the state funding that we get. That could change and we just don't know that it's, you know,
134it could be on their radar. We just don't know it. >> Right. So, they're just trying they're just trying to make sure we're covered either way. Yep. >> And it looks like in 2032 the net assessed value will start to flip and go back up, right? >> However, our rate is not going to necessarily go down like they >> you know. >> Yeah, they they modeled this out just trying to also just trying to also keep our trying to keep our >> revenue growing at an appropriate rate. I'll rate also because as Misty >> that's shown on another chart, >> right? As as Misty said a minute ago, um at the end of the day, the referendum hasn't always been $25 million. It's it's also grown a little bit because, >> you know, I just
135I think common sense tells us it costs more to do school today than it did yesterday because like everything in life, things get more expensive. The same school bus I bought a year ago cost $10,000 more this year. And insurance goes up and gas goes up and electricity goes up and so but again trying to be good stewards. We're trying to model out what is a reasonable amount of increase >> and that's where maintain as as Misty said maintain what we're doing. >> Yeah. >> With a with a reasonable amount of growth that keeps also the impact on our taxpayers as minimally as possible. I I've also heard from the community um which I know the answer to this and I know you do too, but I've I've heard some rumblings about if we have
136less students, if we have over, you know, 200 less students, doesn't that mean that we need less money to educate less students? Can you explain why that is actually not the case? I know there's a lot of >> live within your means. >> Um >> how many elementary teachers are here tonight? I know there's a few. Yeah. So, you know, I should have I should have pulled this number. I'm going to pull it before next time we talk because I I I always want to be able to illustrate this. So, we we have 10,1 I think eight or 12 students on our on our second count this year. And so, 200 students, that is a significant drop in in a lot of ways, but at the same time, people I think forget that those 200
137students are evenly distributed amongst however many hundreds of classrooms we have in Noblesville schools. That's the number I want to know. Um, and so of our elementary, let's just even think in terms of elementary. I'll just I'll just use an example. Um, it'd be one thing if all 200 kids disappeared from third grade in two specific elementary schools. >> Then that would be a super easy problem to solve. Yeah. >> Because I'm going to pick on principles that I see in the room. I would call Renee and Karen and say, "Hey, you have to cut five teachers because we have this and they're all in third grade, so we need five less third grade teachers." But that's not how it works. And so when it's literally one kid in third grade there and two kids
138in fourth grade here and then it all adds up over hundreds of classrooms. Yes, in theory that is correct. But it is really hard to do without upsetting the apple cart. Because something else our community has told us time and time again is class sizes being low is a priority at Noblesville schools. And if we just suddenly say, well, automatically every time we lose 30 kids, we cut a classroom somewhere. It's going to mess that up, >> right? Um and we so we just have to try to figure it out. But >> but being fair to that, >> right, >> that's also why we just tightened the budget because we said, "Hey, we do need to tighten the budget." And so we looked for where can we make those trims and minimally impact our kids
139as best we can. So we did do exactly what they're saying. It's just not as easy as it may seem. >> Right. Right. Right. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Very good. I think it's it's fair to point out too that there are certain classifications of students that do cost more than what the state gives us. >> True. >> And to help >> um so that's you know obviously a factor on a regular basis much less you know what the cost of everything increasing. >> Yep. >> True. >> I like all of these numbers. I'm so glad that you've done all of this because it I mean if anyone has any questions it's not that we have not done our due diligence and I'll be honest I'm not sure this was done at our last referendum. So
140like I don't know if it was analyzed to this level. So I really appreciate it and I feel like it's clear and you guys have done a lot of great work behind the scenes to >> figure out the numbers exactly >> to lose take any more extra than we're already asking for >> and lose policy analytics is helpful too to have them do it. That's what I mean. >> Yeah, they they've been really helpful. I mean again I'm going to give a ton of credit to Mr. Hormiller. There are certain there are certain analysis I he does he does charts and graphs every day and analyze all sorts of things but there's just certain topics that we like to have their expertise because they deal a lot of this backend um and they have access
141to certain data points and it's really hard for us to get and we want the most accurate numbers possible for things like this because this is a big deal. It's a huge decision. It's a big decision for the board and it's a big decision for the community if you guys move forward tonight. So, we want to be crystal clear and and be able to say we know exactly where these numbers came from and we this is the most accurate data we have today. >> Yeah, I agree. I mean, you've made it very clear. Um, I guess the frustration is the actual ballot question makes it clear as mud, >> right? >> So, it's there going to be people who walk into the ballot box and think they're going to be an extra they have to
142pay extra and that's unfortunate. >> Yep. >> You're gonna have to tell everyone, >> right? So, so that's why I ended tonight by saying, you know, um board, if you do decide to move forward on this in a few minutes when we when we talk about it as a motion, um you know, the the the challenge then becomes helping all of our voters actually understand a short version of all the stuff we've talked about tonight and what this actually means and doesn't mean because by the time you get to the ballot box, this is all that'll be looking you in the face. And if I read that and I had and didn't know, I wouldn't vote for that. >> Nope. Right. >> Right. That sounds crazy. And so um helping helping people really understand meeting
143with people be will be really really important. >> Assuming that we do move forward, will slides like these be on the website for people in the dollars and cents area for people to look at? >> You bet. >> Great. >> Thanks. >> Any other questions? No. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. We are moving on to public comment. And this board really um values public comment. and we are going to have public comment over an agenda item. Um so we of course ask for respectful behavior from speakers in the audience. When you're called to the microphone to speak um please state your full name if you're affiliated with the group and um the current board agenda item you will be addressing and you will have three minutes. So Steph. >> Yep. First um speaker is
144Devin Wellington. Oh, that's a good >> It happens to everybody. It's okay. >> Now we have to ask for 58 [laughter] thing down. >> Yeah, >> I'll give you a dollar even [laughter] do that for you. Um, hi, I'm Devon Wellington. Um, I'm a mother of two children who attend Noblesville schools. I'm also a member of several uh committees and u for our district and I also have spent the last 15 years in education policy. I've done that with districts, states and at the federal level. And so I feel like that qualifies me to say that public schools aren't failing, they are starving. Um that comes out of a group called First Focus on Children that focuses on policies centered on children. Um and because of that, I stand here in support of the referendum
145and the board um passing that resolution to put that forth to the community. Our schools are starving for several reasons that Dr. Kyle outlined um including um funding formula and it not staying with the rate of inflation. Um sweeping property tax reform that is devastating schools around our state while not providing the actual relief to community members as promised and um something called universal school choice. We don't talk about it very much um but I believe it is a scheme. It's not a real thing. Um, however, um, it does bleed our schools dry and we can anticipate more of that happening and I think that our schools need to be prepared for that. And so I want to stand here in support of the referendum because I support our teachers who I consider frontline workers
146in our schools. They see the needs before anyone else and we need to ensure that we have supported teachers so that they can continue to educate as well as um, provide the community supports that we rely on. Um, I also stand here in support of the referendum because I support our administrators who have proven uh that Noblesville schools can do remarkable things. One of the things that as a parent I am so proud to see our schools do is not only ensure a high quality education, but also take care of people in our community through our schools. And that's not something that happens everywhere. You don't always get both. And I'm so proud to be a parent and a district that does that. and the example also that that provides to my child and my
147children about how we treat community members, how we are good neighbors here in Noblesville. Um and then finally um in support of our our board who understands your your role in ensuring that we are investing sufficiently um one thing I like to say and and our educators will understand is that uh prevention beats intervention, right? And so this is essentially a universal support that we are providing to our school district. Um if you ask my six-year-old, she will tell you that if we don't do this, then one teacher in every grade in her school will be gone. And she says, "I don't want to lose my teachers." And so with that, um we cannot afford to starve our schools. And I ask the board to move forward with this resolution. Thank you. >> Thank you.
148Thank you. Next up is Mackenzie Lacron. >> Good evening. Um, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. I am a resident of Noblesville, a mother of three Millers, a former teacher at Noble Crossing, and currently a principal in a neighboring district. I am speaking tonight because I love Noblesville. I love Noblesville schools and I believe along with many others that um this referendum is not a choice. It is a necessity if we want our schools um to continue on the path of excellence. I could speak from the perspective of a school administrator and discuss the boring school finance and how funding streams can only be used for specific purposes and all of those things, but Dr. Hyle does a great job of that. [laughter] cover. >> Um, I could also speak as
149a former Noblesville teacher about the importance of attracting and retaining highquality teachers, not just teachers, instructional assistants, custodians, all of the support staff who make our schools successful every day. But tonight, I want to speak from my most important role, being a mother. I have three very different children and each of them has found their place in Noblesville schools because of the opportunities, programs, and support systems available to them. Our son just graduated last week and through Noblesville schools trades programs, he secured a paid apprenticeship with Gayler and is beginning a promising career path. Our daughter will be a senior next year and a fouryear varsity athlete. She has built meaningful relationships with teachers, coaches, and support staff who have helped shape her future. Because of those experiences and opportunities, she will have the ability
150to choose where she attends college. Our youngest daughter will be a freshman in the fall, and through programs like Best Buddies at West, she has learned leadership, compassion, and the importance of serving others. She may not know exactly what she wants to do, but my husband and I are confident she will find her path because Noblesville schools provide so many opportunities for students to discover their passions. We wanted to live in a community that values education, invest in opportunities for students, and prioritizing prioritizes maintaining standards for its schools. For us, that's a non-negotiable when deciding where to raise our family. We also know we want to continue attracting families, businesses, and strong economic development that has benefited our city. We must continue investing in our public schools. Excellent schools do not happen by accident. They
151happen because communities choose to support them. The reality is that without this referendum, programs and people will be cut. That's a fact. And when programs and people are lost, opportunities for students are lost as well. I want my daughters and every student entering kindergarten today to have the same opportunities that graduating seniors had this year. That is why I'm asking the board to move forward with the resolution. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you very much. [applause] Thank you. Next up, Adrien Young. Hello everybody. My name is Adrienne Young and um if you know me, you know I wear probably way too many hats. I am a parent. I'm a taxpayer. I volunteer on many boards in the community. I am on the plan commission for the city and my uh largest honor is
152that I am the leader of our Novasville schools education foundation. I've been in this role for um nine years now. I have a nine-year anniversary coming up and it has given me such a unique um perspective on understanding school finances, our community resources, building relationships with our business partners and donors and families in our communities. Um, we do great work, but the referendum is just too imperative. There's no way the the foundation could keep up with the need of the referendum. And there's people that choose to move here, stay here, build businesses here because of what we've built over the past few years. And when they come to me and partner with me and want to do great work within our schools, this standard has to stay. and we will work to make it better.
153We will work to fill in the gaps that bubble up, but a $20 million gap is not possible to bridge. I It's an a privilege every day to advocate for our amazing teachers um and our students, and I will do everything in my power to support this referendum and advocate for this pro this referendum. Tonight, I am going to donate. I'm going to plan to volunteer and knock on doors. I'm going to speak up and challenge my friends to do so as well. So, that's a challenge I have for all my friends in the room if this referendum goes to ballot. Um, I know that my son's teacher, they had two this year and they're very special. And if they got cut, I would I can't imagine what that is going to be like. And
154there is somebody else's favorite teacher, some kid's favorite teacher that would be cut if this referendum doesn't go to ballot and get passed. I also want to say kudos to the leaders and the experts that are navigating a path forward for us in a very complicated system that was created for you by our state legislators. So, it's going to take a lot of us clarifying and advocating and challenging the ballot question and all of those things. So, kudos to you for leading us through that. Again, I want you all to know that I adamantly support this referendum and I'll do everything I can to um get it passed. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up is Michelle Justice Hobbs. I got to bring it down a little bit more. down here. Uh, good evening. My
155name is Michelle Justice Hobbs, speaking in support of the referendum as well. Um, I've called Noblesville home for more than 20 years. Uh, this spring I completed my 25th year in public education, including the last 12 years proudly serving as a teacher here in Noblesville schools. And just last week, I had the privilege of sitting in the stands and watching my only child, my daughter, graduate from Noblesville High School. Because of these experiences, I have had the opportunity to see our schools through many lenses through many lenses as an educator, a parent, and a community member. What I have seen consistently is a school board that works to make decisions in the best interest of students while also supporting teachers, staffs, fam staff, families, and our entire community. Over the years, this board has earned
156my trust because your decisions consistently reflect a simple belief. When we do what is best for kids, we strengthen our community. As someone who works with students every day, I see the opportunities our kids have because of this district. From strong academics and a variety of course offerings to arts, athletics, and extracurricular activities, our students are given countless opportunities to learn, grow, discover their passions, and find where they belong. I have seen that impact firsthand for my students and this fall for my own daughter. My daughter will attend Ball State University herself to become an elementary educator, a goal that was shaped in part by the experiences that she had here in Noblesville schools. What makes me especially proud is that Noblesville's commitment to students extends beyond academics. They have invested in supporting the whole
157child through having counselors, social workers, mental health supports, and our school resource officers who help ensure our schools remain safe, supportive places for students to learn and grow. These supports matter and they make a difference in the lives of students and families every single day and the results speak for themselves. Noblesville schools continues to be recognized as one of Indiana's highest performing districts. Our students achieve at exemplary levels, including a graduation rate of approximately 99%. What is equally impressive is that these accomplishments have been achieved while maintaining that strong financial stewardship that you heard about or you could check out yourselves on the dollars and cents page. As the board considers this resolution tonight, I simply want to express my appreciation for your work that has brought our district to where it is today and
158we want it to remain. When I look at the opportunities and supports available to students and families, I'm reminded that these things did not happen by chance. their results of years of commitment to putting students first. I trust that the decision you make tonight will be be guided by those same principles that you have demonstrated consistently and they go along with what I believe to be true. What is best for our kids is ultimately what is best for all of Noblesville. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up is Kumba Kay. >> I did. Oh, good. Thanks. >> Was looking for the step stool. I was here earlier. Um, my name is Kumba Kev and like a lot of people in this room, I do not have kids in the district. Um, but I am a
159Noblesville resident and taxpayer and I'm here tonight because I care deeply about public education and I wanted to share a personal story. So, I attended Franklin Central High School and the local referendum failed my junior year and one of the first things to change was our school transportation system. Um, I wasn't driving at the time, so this had a real impact on my everyday life. My dad would drop me off super early at my friend's house and her mom would take us to school later that morning and I would wait hours in the evening before I got a ride. We were told that if the referendum failed again that fall that our programs like show choir and theater would be next. Now I was like you can take the buses I don't care but do
160not take my choir program. Okay. So at the time I did not understand property taxes or funding formula. I just knew decisions being made by adults were having a real impact on my life and teachers and my classmates. The truth is we should not even be in this situation. The state of Indiana should fully fund and support public education. Our teachers shouldn't be asked to do more with less. Our schools shouldn't have to come to our communities to ask to fill the funding gaps. But until that changes, we have a decision to make. And if we don't support our schools, our children will feel it, our teachers will feel it, and our entire community will feel it. Strong schools create strong communities. They attract families. They strengthen our local economy. They prepare our future workforce.
161And they give our children the opportunities they deserve. That is why I'm standing here before you today in support of this referendum, asking that you and my fellow residents do the same. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Tracy Milikin. Everybody spoke so perfectly and eloquently already. I appreciate all of that. Um, my name is Tracy Milikin. I am the president of the Noblesville Teachers Forum. I'm also a resource teacher at Promise Road Elementary. And I'm here just to kind of reiterate everything that's already been said, just all the support. Um, I want to take a minute and just to thank our admin and our school board for always leading our school district in the best possible way. Um, to Dr. Hy and the rest of the cabinet. I know that you were very conscientious
162about making some tough financial decisions earlier this year and I just want to thank you for always being good stewards of our finances. And to the school board, thank you for your leadership. I know how much time you spend on educating yourself when it comes to running a school district. I mean, you're awardwinning, right? and um I know how much time and thought that's gone into any future financial decisions, specifically the decision as to whether or not to place a referendum on the ballot. I want to thank you and say that I fully trust and support your decisions. Um I also want to thank our community for supporting our schools. When the state legislature changed this funding formula almost two decades ago, our community agreed to a referendum that would keep our school system financially
163able to provide this amazing education for our students. So, and as a matter of fact, our community has continued to support our schools in this way for 16 consecutive years. So, thank you to the community and I hope it continues. Um, we asked members of the Noblesville Teachers Forum to show up this evening so they could also show their support for our leaders and our entire school system. And I know they're out there. A lot of them of them are wearing red. You can wave. Not all of them have red. There were more here earlier, but I know I know. But it was so thorough. And that's why I trust you. That's why I trust you. [laughter] As educators, most of us don't want to get involved in the financial pieces. We just want to
164teach, but we know that our students deserve a strong school system. We also know that strong schools build strong communities. When our schools thrive, all of Noblesville wins. So, thank you to everyone who supports our schools now and in the future. And I'll just end it like those wonderful children earlier and just say, go Millers. >> Thank you very much. >> That was our last one. That was our last uh person that signed up to speak. So we will move to consent items. Um by a single motion, the board approves and adopts the following items uh which reflect reflect application of board policy and Indiana code and those are claims, donations, minutes from our May meeting. Um overnight trips and personnel listings. May I have a motion to approve the consent items as listed? >>
165Motion. >> Stephanie second, Missy. >> Um any further discussion? Absolutely. >> Back to our community really supports us. This month we were donated $4,500. Uh Triappa gave 300 to uh Noble Crossing. Triappa gave to Promise Road. Triappa gave another uh 300 to East Middle School and looks like Triappa gave 500 to the high school. All for students in need. Uh Brandon and Renee Godby gave uh $125 to be used uh uh during the back to school season as we get ready to do that soon. Uh Michael and Mary Kever gave uh $379 to the baseball program. And let's see what else I got here. And uh Donald and Carla Bennett gave $100 to the band department. And again, somebody just felt good. Didn't leave their name. They did this last month, too. who gave $2500
166to the school lunch accounts program. >> Thank you. Thank you, Joe. All right. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carried. All right. We are moving on to our action items of this evening. The first one up is the CTE contracts for the 2627 school year. And may I have a motion to approve the various CTE Career and Technical Education contracts as listed for the 2627 school year. And those are ABC Construction Prep Academy, All Heart Nurse Aid Training Center LLC, EMT Medical Training Solutions LLC. Motion. >> Motion. I speed you up. Okay. >> Uh second by second, please. Misty, any further discussion? actually have a question. Um, >> when these contracts come due, would it be possible for us to be sent what our current contract is in addition to
167the new proposed ones just so that we can compare any changes? >> Sure. Yeah, we can do that. I mean, they're probably I mean, we do this annually. They're probably on board docs. We go back, but we can certainly just push those forward. Yep. Make a note. >> Thank you. Yep. >> All right. And and I guess it's also worth pointing out that these are great things that we provide for our students. uh CNA certification, the ABC construction, and then EMT. So, that is a great benefit for parents and a financial >> great thing for parents, but something that we help pay for as a district. That is one of the great things that we provide our students as an extra and I think parents really like these things. So, I guess I just want
168to point that out that these things are not free to the district that we best in that for our kids. >> Good point. which as I mentioned earlier could potentially be impacted by the referendum. >> Yep. >> Okay. All right. Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. All right. On to the uh referendum um tax levy resolution. Dr. Hy has presented uh for us tonight. We've we've all asked questions. We've heard from various um community members. So, may I have a motion to approve the referendum tax levy resolution as presented? >> Motion. >> Second, Joe. Any further discussion? Anyone? All right. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. All right. Um, public comment non-aggenda topics. We did not have anyone sign up. So, we will move
169to superintendent remarks. Dr. Hy. >> All right. Well, I know people are tired of hearing me talk, but I got just a few things really quick because I'm so thorough. I appreciate that, Tracy. I'm going to use that. Don't complain. I'm just being thorough. Uh, just a few really quick updates. Uh, it was it's so timely that u that Mrs. Cook presented tonight about superintendent advisory. And again, I can't say enough great things about that program. And I want to give Marne a lot of credit for that. Um, I may have brought up the question to do it, but that program would not exist without Barney's leadership and help in making it a reality. So, a huge thank you to her. And on that note, um, we actually just collected and I made my decisions
170for next year's group. So, they have been chosen and Mrs. Cook just notified them a few days ago. Um, so we're excited to bring the third class already, uh, back next fall of our of our superintendent advisory. And speaking of recruiting and making selections, the, uh, the application for Miller ambassadors for next year is actually currently open. So, um, community members, if you are thinking of applying or know someone who should apply, now's the time. That will close end of June. End of June. So, if you want to apply, I believe you can find that on our website. Um, you can always email Mrs. Cook if you if you can't find it, but we would love to have that. Um, that's also a dynamite program as well. And then just a a quick wrap-up as
171the school year is winding down here and is finishing up um officially. Uh, we're so excited. Board, thank you so much for being there to celebrate our golden graduation with us a few weeks ago at the high school. What a special day um that always is as we helped our students um who might have some special needs or medical limitations of why they can't go through our full our full program. And then of course the very next night um it was so exciting uh to graduate um all 777 graduates in the in the 151st class of Noblesville High School. Um and Mrs. Hobs, Mrs. Cook, I probably some others all were excited to watch our children watch across the stage and it it really was a special night. So and Misty, that's right. We'll try
172not to make you cry, Misty. But yes. Oh, yes. Quite a few of us had. But um if if for those who've been to a Noblesville High School graduation, it is really it is really a special event. And the biggest thing uh that I heard all night is people couldn't believe we had that many students cross the stage in 1 hour and 35 minutes because that's how good the high school team and that that deserves a clap. That's true. So >> absolutely. So that is everything I have for June. Yeah, that's definitely one of our favorite things, I think, is to attend both those graduations. We all we all really, really, really like it. All right. Uh committee reports. I will be reporting on the Noblesville Schools Education Foundation uh board report. We met on
173May 21st. Uh the Think Miller program was the largest to date. Uh the next opportunity for that will be in November and then again in next again next May. uh that for incoming kindergarten students, the kindergarten club is open and live on the website. Uh the next grant cycle opens July 22nd and ends at midnight on August 19th. And that's for grants larger than $500 and grants 500 and under are always open. So I know there's a lot of teachers here, so take a look at that. Um next we have Noblesville Parks Board. Joe, >> yes, the parks are open and a great place to visit. Uh Dylan Park has got three or four concert series scheduled. I'm going to say go to the website instead of me reading them all tonight since we're moving
174along. Uh Federal Hill also has uh uh three or four sets of concerts going on at Tom Petty Tribute Band and other fun things. But the big night's July 4th at Forest Park with 16 candles and fireworks and all kind of fun things. So get out in get out in the parks about summertime. It's hard to do in the winter. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh Noblesville Youth Sports Alliance Misty. um with the recommendation to visit your parks. Just uh forewarning, Dylan Park is under construction with their splash pad and playground. So don't go with plans to utilize either one of those. >> Um however, they do have the concerts, so please do enjoy. Um so with the Noblesville Youth Sports Alliance update, uh Brian Van Buzzkerk did a presentation for Lifewise, um and how it
175works with local school districts. Um, NYSA in conjunction with Hamilton County Sports Authority provided grants in varying amounts to six different youth sports leagues here in Noblesville for a variety of needs. So, I'd like to publicly thank them both uh the Noblesville Youth Sports Alliance and the Hamilton County Sports Authority for their generosity. You can jump online to visit hamilton countycount.com. Click on the red tab titled sports authority for more information or you can also visit the NYSA website at noblesvilleports.com. Live sport or livegolf is returning August 20th through the 23rd at Chattam Hills. You can go to livegolf.com for the various ticket options. And this year's headliners are also listed according to their website. Thomas Rhett, if you like him, he's there on the 21st. Uh, Noblesville Miller's boys basketball golf outing fundraiser is
176July 8th at Fox Prairie. Various levels of sponsorship opportunities available as well as golf registration. Registration and lunch begin at 11:30 with a shotgun start at 1. And the other fundraiser is the Bobby Mills 25th annual golf outing fundraiser for NYB is July 20th. New location this year. So if you typically participated in that, you can look forward to being at Purgatory this year. So you better up your game. >> Yeah. >> Um again, golf registration and sponsorship opportunities available with registration and lunch beginning at noon. Shotguns start at 1 and they also provide dinner afterwards. So you can get two meals out of that plus golf. Um and then along with numerous other vendors, uh Nolesville Youth Sports Alliance will also have a booth at the back to school bash which will be at
177Federal Hill Commons. Um and our next meeting, we are kicking off the month of June. Uh so our next meeting is July 15th at 7 pm. >> All right. Thank you very much. Um, our next regular schoolboard meeting will be Tuesday, July 21st here at 6 PM. Um, thank you to everyone that for coming tonight. May I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Joe second missing. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. We are dismissed. Thank you, >> Secretary. President, Secretary