COLUMBUS, Ind. — Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. will use funds from its operating referendum to help support a change to STEM labs at elementary schools, and officials expect to allocate more than $2.83 million from the fund for this purpose over the next seven years.
The BCSC school board recently approved $160,000 in additional appropriations from the referendum fund to support STEM lab expenses for this coming fall. The district is converting the labs into a “specials” rotation, similar to art or physical education, with certified teachers.
The annual cost of salaries, benefits and supplies will be approximately $800,000, said Assistant Superintendent Chad Phillips at a previous meeting. This will be funded through a combination of referendum dollars and Tax Increment Financing funds granted by the city of Columbus.
“These operating referendum funds are revenue collections in excess of the budgeted amount that we have projected for the eight years of the referendum, and that’s due to an increase in assessed value,” said Phillips. “And so we’re able to apply the 15.6 cent rate but collect more than what we have budgeted to spend for this calendar year.”
According to updated budget information on BCSC’s website, the school corporation plans to use an estimated $2,835,393 in referendum funding to help support STEM labs from 2022 to 2028. The yearly estimates are as follows:
- 2022: $160,000 (for teacher salaries and benefits)
- 2023: $404,000 ($395,000 for salaries and benefits; $9,000 for supplies)
- 2024: $419,890 ($410,800 for salaries and benefits; $9,090 for supplies)
- 2025: $436,413 ($427,232 for salaries and benefits; $9,181 for supplies)
- 2026: $453,594 ($444,321 for salaries and benefits; $9,273 for supplies)
- 2027: $471,459 ($462,094 for salaries and benefits, $9,365 for supplies)
- 2028: $490,037 ($480,578 for salaries and benefits, $9,459 for supplies)
Total referendum expenditures — including salary increases for teachers and staff, benefits, mental health services, school resource officer costs, bus purchases and STEM lab support — are estimated at a little more than $64.5 million.
As stated on the school corporation’s website, the referendum ballot question asked voters if they would be willing for BCSC to impose an additional property tax rate not exceeding $0.1560 on each $100 of assessed value “for the purpose of increasing compensation for teachers and support staff and maintaining student safety.” The referendum, which lasts for a total of eight years, passed in June of 2020 with 61.33% of the vote. Officials have said in the past that the community would likely vote on its renewal in 2028.
Phillips said in a 2021 year-end financial report that revenues from the referendum’s first year were higher than expected. Officials budgeted for about $8.08 in revenue, but actual revenue was about $8.66 million. This was mainly due to assessed value increasing more than BCSC expected, said Phillips.
“The DLGF (Department of Local Government Finance) made a small error in the amount of miscellaneous revenues that they calculated on excise taxes, and so they were left out of the budgeted amount,” he added.
