The West Lafayette Community School Corporation announced its intention to put a tax referendum on the November ballot during a board meeting last week.
The plan would simply renew an existing 37-cent property tax levy for the district, which has been in place since 2017. Before that, the district had a 43-cent tax levy in place, which began in 2010.
Rachel Witt is the president of the Board of Trustees for the school corporation. She said the district is putting the initiative on the ballot a year early to avoid coinciding with the general election.
“This seemed like the most advantageous timeline to use, where there are more individuals in our community who are very knowledgeable about local issues, as opposed to some potentially contentious issues that may be coming up,” she said.
Witt said running the renewal a year early will also give the district a buffer if the measure fails to pass.
The renewal also comes after the passage of a 2021 law changing how school districts can write tax levy questions to put on the ballot. Critics have worried that the way the questions are worded could be misleading to voters.
Michelle Cronk is the CFO of West Lafayette Community School Corporation.
“But I think we need to stress that because that question has changed, it doesn’t mean that our referendum itself is going to change. We aren’t changing anything about our referendum and we’re running it at the same rate,” she said. “But that question will look different moving forward.”
Cronk said currently, the referendum funds are spent with a 60-40 split: teacher salaries comprise 60 percent, while the other 40 percent covers costs such as transportation, custodial, and maintenance operations.
The 2017 referendum passed with overwhelming support. School officials say they have no reason to believe the measure won’t see similar support again this year.
The school board will need to approve the language of the measure at their next meeting in July.
