WARSAW — For the second time in as many months, Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert discussed the current Indiana legislative session with the school system’s board of trustees during that board’s work session Tuesday night, Feb. 12. Hoffert talked about how school funding has changed in recent years and how local public schools could benefit from a little consideration by the state’s lawmakers.

Hoffert told the board he wished to continue educating the community on how public school corporations are funded.

“This is a major shift,” said Hoffert, referring to changes in state legislation that altered how schools get paid. “People get it in their heads still that most of the state funding that goes into the classroom comes out of property taxes. I wanted to clarify that the money that is going into the classrooms does not come from your local property taxes.”

Hoffert told the board that local property taxes pay for capital projects, debt service, transportation and bus replacement.

“Those are the funds that come out of our local property taxes,” Hoffert said, adding that funding that immediately affects the classroom, or education funding, comes from mainly state sales tax and income tax.

“This was changed when Mitch Daniels was the governor of Indiana,” Hoffert said. “They said ‘you know, we want to control educational funding.’” Since that point, we have seen a decrease in the percent of education funding that has been coming to local school systems. That’s why we’re advocating so hard as a school community.”

According to Hoffert, Warsaw Community Schools receives funding based on each student to the tune of about $5,815 per student, which falls below the state average of $6,060.

This funding, according to Hoffert, comes in the form of a basic grant, as well as a complexity grant, which varies from school system to school system.

“A lot of times, the complexity grant is known as kind of being the political part of the school funding because it’s who has advocated for their specific area the most,” said Hoffert. “Warsaw has not been a winner in the complexity grant funding. We’re down at the bottom when it comes to the complexity grant.”

Hoffert said advocates for public school funding are campaigning state legislators to get more help from the state and told the board that such stakeholders keep a close eye on Indianapolis for that reason. In addition, he said there would be a push to steer educators to make any possible increases in funding to go toward the basic grant, given what Hoffert perceives as a disparity within the complexity grant.

Board member Randy Polston mirrored Hoffert’s comments and as a member of a political action committee for public school funding, stays abreast of developments in the Statehouse.

Hoffert and Polston both agreed that since the advent of charter schools nearly 20 years ago, funding from the state for those institutions has reduced the amount of funding available for public schools. Estimates have about 90 charter schools operating in Indiana with more than 40,000 students combined.

“When we look at some of the emphasis that’s going on with charter schools right now, we want there to be a local, political movement around our local schools and what we’re doing.”

In other business, the board:

• Was introduced to central office employee Jennifer Zaugg.
• Received a report on a UVA mid-winter retreat by staff members.
• Received the financial report from April Fitterling.
• Received the facilities update from Jim LeMasters.