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Kevin,

Do you seriously think school corporations can just filter their money through the rainy day fund? It's really that simple? If that was the case, why would there even be funds. It is way more complicated than that simple idea. There are regulations to moving the money in and out of the rainy day fund.

May 14, 2012 8:19 am on Duneland officials to call on public panel to help budget new tax money
CitizenVoter....you may not give a rat's behind, but there are state laws that need to be followed. That's how it works. Let me make this as simple as I can for you so you "get" it. The capital fund money goes to building, or capital, improvements. That money is not allowed to be used to pay teachers. I don't care how many times you capitalize SCHOOL in your post, the state does not allow a school to use capital fund money to support the general fund. This is why Lake Central passed a capital project referendum to build a much needed new high school, but also had to lay off 20 teachers. The money is not transferable. New field, old field, no field, the referendum for the general fund would have been needed no matter what. So even though you don't care, those are facts.

Not sure what you are getting at with your conspiracy theory about football parents. So some football parents wanted the referendum to pass. Is that what you mean? Wow. You got to the bottom of this. Great detective work. I don't even think that is true, but even if it was, so what? I think in a few years these football parents are going to try to funnel this referendum money into building a dome over the current field. You were the first to uncover this. Maybe The Times should hire you to dig deeper into these types of issues.

May 13, 2012 5:38 pm on Duneland officials to call on public panel to help budget new tax money
Every couple of days an article about Duneland pops up and people are still completely in the dark about the football field. It is getting old. That money had nothing to do with this referendum situation. Why can't people accept that? The negativity on these boards is crazy! The money came from the capital projects fund, which Duneland managed well, hence the field (the field that gets used by many students, organizations, and teams, not just the football team like many state).

During the entire referendum process, people were complaining that they wanted to know their money would be used wisely should it pass, and not just turn into a blank check. The administrators respected the people who voiced this concern, and now they get heat for that. Just can't win in the eyes of the CONSTANTLY negative people.

Parametric, my niece graduated from Chesterton and tested out of two courses and has been well-prepared after her first two years of college. Do not blame the schools for your son's need of remediation.

May 13, 2012 1:43 pm on Duneland officials to call on public panel to help budget new tax money
Tell me what information you need proof on.

May 09, 2012 9:35 pm on Voters narrowly back Duneland schools tax referendum
NavyVet79 - You keep mentioning scare tactics and I am unsure why. Here is what I heard - let me know where the scare tactics start.

Should the referendum not pass, teachers and programs will be cut. In addition, ALL aides will be cut. The first year, the impact would not be noticeable to many. However, having to cut 20+ teachers for consecutive years (in addition to the 30+ staff members that the school has already cut through attrition) would absolutely have a negative impact on our schools, kids, and community. That is not a tactic. Class size has been researched extensively and has been shown to have a direct effect on learning, especially at the younger levels and in math/reading. How is that a scare tactic? Losing all aides would also have a negative impact on learning. Imagine a first grade class of 30 kids with no aide.

With class size going up, programs being cut, and teachers being cut, the school district would take a hit. After a failed referendum, what young, talented teachers would want to come teach for our schools? Not only did the state pound the schools, but the community turned their back on them during a time of need. No thanks. What young families would want to move here, knowing the school is on a decline and the community does not support the schools? None.

Do you really think after 3-5 years of that, property values would not be impacted? When I moved here, every real estate website listed the school district and a link to information on that school. No matter what anybody says, the quality of the schools are a key determinant in housing prices. It took me two seconds to find this article, and I'm sure I could find twenty more.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/money101/lesson8/index.htm

You said your taxes will go up $400 each year. Assuming Duneland did use the maximum 22 cents for 7 years, which I do not see them doing, that would be $2800 over 7 years. Do you honestly think, had this not passed, that the value of your house would not drop by more than $2800? If your taxes are going up $400, your house must be in the $340,000 range. $2800 is less than 1% of that value. Once again, do you think that if Duneland Schools tanked, the value of your house would not drop by 1%?

These are not scare tactics. These are facts. The impact would not be seen immediately, but eventually this would hurt us all. The property values issue had to be mentioned because we have people in our community that do not have kids. The simple argument that "I don't have kids in the schools, it won't matter to me" had to be addressed. Not trying to scare, just address. Take out all the money issues - communities should support and stand by their schools. Luckily we barely did.

May 09, 2012 7:54 pm on Voters narrowly back Duneland schools tax referendum
Another perfect example of someone who went to vote without knowing any of the facts. There are so many things in this post that have been talked about over and over. Especially with kids in Duneland Schools! Do your homework on issues like this, especially if it involves your children. You voted no, but luckily for your children, more people voted yes

May 09, 2012 2:27 pm on Voters narrowly back Duneland schools tax referendum
I say clueless because of people talking about these conspiracy theories and how we wronged our community. I have seen the word 'tactics' used like there was some ulterior motive. There is so much negativity and false information flying around on here it is ridiculous. If our schools are taking a hit, what would you expect the administration to do? Just let it continue to get pounded by the state, or use the only alternative the state gave to correct this blatant attack on public schools - a referendum.

And I have gone to the capitol to try and address this issue. It is absolutely hopeless. I sat with nearly 200 teachers and parents, hoping to show how important some of these issues were. It got us nowhere. On the Duneland referendum website, it mentioned that the bottom 10 school districts were represented by 26 legislators. Well guess what, they are getting all the money from the state. The top 10 are only represented by 13. Are the 26 going to agree to change the funding formula when they are getting all the money? No way. Please do not make it sound like attempts have not been made to correct the problem, because they have. It is a perfect example of why politics are a complete joke.

May 09, 2012 1:35 pm on Voters narrowly back Duneland schools tax referendum
The only comment of value in that mess was the first sentence...

May 09, 2012 11:44 am on Voters narrowly back Duneland schools tax referendum
Clueless. What are you going to see in that open contract that is going to take away the fact that the state of Indiana has taken away over $5 million dollars from our school corporation over the past few years? His company car (which is a beat up mini-van)? I love how the clueless people on here try to find any excuse to make this wrong. There is one entity that is wrong - the state. Not the administration. Do you know there were 67 referendums for Indiana schools in 2010 alone? There are roughly 240 school districts in Indiana. That's over 25% of our schools! Blame the administrators. That is the easy, uneducated way out.

May 09, 2012 11:43 am on Voters narrowly back Duneland schools tax referendum
You were right about one part - your comments were annoying

May 09, 2012 9:18 am on Voters narrowly back Duneland schools tax referendum