Loyd
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. board members signed-off on two appointments to a committee that will make decisions about a survey that includes future choices about a potential renewal of 2020’s operating referendum.
School board members unanimously approved appointments of Whitney Loyd, District 3, and Tom Glick, District 5, to a “community survey committee.”
Superintendent Chad Phillips said that the district plans to engage with a Wisconsin-based company that will send a mail survey to every address in the community. Details about the survey will be governed in part by the committee Loyd and Glick were appointed to.
The survey will go out around January of next year, Phillips said, “in order to get feedback both for the board and for administration for making recommendations about the operating referendum renewal, either in 2026 or 2028.”
Board President Nikki Wheeldon, District 7, made the appointments and said Loyd and Glick’s “fresh eyes on the board is going to be helpful.”
“They’ll have a different lens when they’re thinking about engaging the community when it comes to the referendum,” Wheeldon said. “They’re also lifelong Columbus natives. And Whitney’s got a lot of experience, I’ll say, in the city with her day job. And then Mr. Glick and the county, so they’ll bring a broad perspective across our community and help us make sure we’re making good decisions on that survey to go out.”
Phillips said the commissioning of the survey will cost around $35,000.
Just over 61% of Bartholomew County voters in June 2020 approved a property tax referendum for the district that went towards retention and recruitment of staff and student safety and security. The referendum property taxes started to be collected in 2021.
The referendum property tax rate that voters consented to was $0.1560 on each $100 of assessed valuation, and will be collected through 2028.
Indiana allows districts to place a renewal referendum on the ballot before the original levy expires, which can be voted on within the last two years of a referendum period. That means if a resolution is ultimately approved by the school board to put the operating referendum renewal on the ballot, it could come before voters as early as the May 2026 primary.
BCSC on its website keeps track of six goals associated with the operating referendum, along with metrics to see whether those are being reached.
Those goals include teacher retention, student mental health, safety and wellness, updating its bus fleet, adding bus drivers and expanding STEM lab student experiences.
More information can be found at: bcscschools.org/referendum-2020.
