NO MORE TAXES

November 6th, 2013
This mornings headlines read:
 NO MORE SCHOOL BUSES. The Referendum Failed. That means they are not going to be raising our taxes. Now it is up to MCS to find another way.

November 7th, 2013
This morning the headlines read:
MIXED MESSAGES. Mayor Tyer disappointed but moving on. MCS is waiting on an answer to their request for a waiver.

November 10th, 2013
This mornings headlines read:
WAITING ON A WAIVER. A Law that was passed in 2012 requiring Indiana school districts to give a three-year notice if they plan to end transportation services, allows districts to apply for a waiver to eliminate the waiting period. Muncie Community Schools applied for a waiver with the Department of Education earlier this year and was told by the IDOE that it would delay action until after the referendum.

Chris Hiatt · Top Commenter · Muncie Central High School  Here's their 4-sentence "backup plan"...(tell me again how much we pay these knuckleheads?)

"The only mandated transportation would be per the federal Title VII-B McKinney-Vento Homelss (Student) Assistance Act as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001"

"The Muncie Community Schools is a one-township (36 square miles) district with nine (9) neighborhood elementary schools evenly located throughout the corporation."

"No elementary child is further than two (2) miles from their closest school."

"Secondary students have free/no fee access to buses of the Muncie Indiana Transit System (MITS)."

DAVID MCINTOSH
Muncie
There is confusion regarding whether the Muncie Community Schools administration has a wavier or has requested a waiver. After a recent call to the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE), here are the facts regarding the waiver:
1. MCS has requested a waiver from the IDOE. This was confirmed by visiting with an official within the IDOE.
2. MCS has submitted a waiver to the IDOE requesting that the three-year notice that schools must provide prior to discontinuing transportation services be waived.
3. According to the IDOE the request is on hold pending the outcome of the vote on the referendum.
4. The IDOE has indicated that a public hearing will occur prior to determining whether to grant or deny the waiver request. This hearing would occur in November. The public will be able to attend this meeting.
5. The IDOE will conduct the public hearing within the MCS district.
6. If the waiver were denied, MCS would be required to provide transportation for the next three years. However, MCS could notify the IDOE that they will utilize the option of notifying patrons that they plan to discontinue bus service after three years.
7. One other school district in Indiana has notified the IDOE that they will utilize the option of notifying patrons that they plan to discontinue bus service after three years.
8. Of the all the school districts in Indiana, MCS will be one of two that has requested a waiver to date.

Larry Riley wrote:
As I write this, polls in yesterday’s Muncie Community Schools referendum remain open. Results are on page 1 and I presume you’ve read the outcome.
Sunday I wrote that the odds were even up, a toss-up between fearful parents getting told they’ll lose bus service for their kids and exasperated taxpayers at wit’s end with local government’s ever-rising costs.
I think the latter may out-vote the former and that will produce the most interest to me.
MCS officials insist that bus service will be terminated with the referendum’s failure to pass, starting with the 2014-15 school year.
Busing became an issue statewide last year after an Indianapolis school district, Franklin Township, went through several years trying to get more money than property tax caps allowed.
Franklin school officials tried not one, but two referendums for more money, both failing at the ballot box.
Franklin’s financial problems were similar to Muncie’s in that a ton of debt had to be paid off.
The problems were way dissimilar in that Franklin saw a fast-rising school enrollment, going from 6,400 students in 2001 up to more than 9,000 by 2011. The district hastily built more schools and took on lots of debt.
This is in direct contrast to Muncie Community Schools, which during the same period of time saw almost a complete reversal of Franklin as far as enrollment went, dropping from perhaps 9,000 down to 6,700. Nevertheless, school board members decided to spend $55 million to upgrade facilities and take on lots of debt in the middle of the shrinkage.
(Yes, one has to wonder if those school board members learned their critical thinking skills in Muncie school classrooms.)
I actually think that until the Franklin standoffs occurred and officials at that school looked into every option, nobody realized that Indiana didn’t require schools to provide transportation to and from school for students.
But Franklin saw an out, and in its final referendum attempt warned parents (and voters) that transportation would end if taxes weren’t raised because, indeed, state law did not require school to provide transportation. (Federal law requires certain students with special needs to be transported, so officials confirmed some busing would continue.)
 When the referendum failed, Franklin sold its buses to a private firm, who took over transportation, and parents were charged a fee if their kids needed bused. Legislators last year put an end to the practice of charging parents for busing.
Some parents sued Franklin schools, but I think the suit was dropped when Franklin schools restructured debt to free up money for transportation (imagine that) for the 2012-13 school year and going forward.
State legislators also weighed in the importance of school transportation by requiring any elimination of the service to be announced three years in advance. Schools were given a possible out by a provision allowing distressed districts to petition for a waiver from the three-year period.
Muncie school officials said they applied for the waiver, and initially led the public to believe they received an OK from the Indiana Department of Education. Later, under more questioning, they clarified that the state had not approved the application after all, but was waiting for the referendum before acting on the petition.
Perhaps this will be moot now, depending on yesterday’s outcome.
Still, I’d like to see the petition that MCS filed with the state, because the school system should, by law, have included a plan with the petition.
Namely, “a written plan that provides for the safe movement of eligible students to and from school.” And “eligible students” is defined in the law as any individual enrolled and attending school and not required by federal or other state law to receive transportation services.
That’s fascinating. So MCS had — in theory, at least — to develop a plan for how kids would safely get to and from school without the school providing bus transportation.
Wonder what the plan says. If the referendum failed, the state’s DOE will conduct a public hearing, somewhere in the district, on the petition to end transportation. If the referendum passes, I guess the petition will be withdrawn and no public hearing held.
I’d still like to know what the plan was.
Larry Riley teaches English at Ball State University. Email him at lriley@bsu.edu.

 Fran Tucker · Top Commenter · Indianapolis, Indiana

Another thing that is upsetting is the constant claim that disabled children won't have busing. Right in the waiver MCS states it must abide by Federal Law. I knew that to be true, but MCS, to my knowledge, never clairifed that and the Yes supporters continued to tell people that, with no regard to parents and citizens getting upset. That's wrong, folks to play on fears....