Votes leave school districts scrambling

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - In Franklin Township administrators are celebrating the teacher of the year and in Avon work is being done on the 4-year-old administration building.

However, looking forward for both districts, there isn't going to be a lot of celebrating or building. Voters sent a message loud and clear Tuesday night by voting down school referendums asking them to pay higher property taxes. .

The vote means Avon won't be getting an extra $3.4 million annually and will now face program reductions and annual fees for activities.

Forty teachers and administrators are also expected to be cut, but the superintendent says if the district continues to grow that number might be lower.

In Franklin Township, voters knocked a referendum for the second time and the cuts are much, much bigger.

Three schools are closing, two are being consolidated, bus transportation will be eliminated and art, music, and physical education teachers will be let go.

A total of 81 teachers are expected to be slashed at Franklin Township schools.

"All of the property tax revenue that we receive in the future is going to go largely to pay our debt service and there is no money left, said Dr. Walter Bourke, Franklin Twp. Schools Superintendent.

Both referendums were squashed after serious campaigns by the school districts.

In Franklin Twp., 12 presentations to help voters understand the school issues only left voters understanding that they didn't want to fork over any more cash. The superintendent says there will be no more referendums in the future.

"We're pretty disappointed in it obviously but our community has once again told us that we need to balance our budgets to meet our revenue and that is what we are going to do," he said.

In Avon, the district doesn't even have a firm backup plan, because administrators say their main focus has been avoiding this voter shutdown.

“Unfortunately our message wouldn't resonate like we thought it would or like we expected it to but our job is to do the best we can with the resources we have available," added Ogle.

Zionsville Schools' referendum was voted down last year. Now in early June the school board will be voting to terminate 16 teachers. Zionsville says money will be cut from other funds as well.