Superintendent Walter Bourke of the Franklin Township Community School Corporation near Indianapolis decided to send his opinions on cuts to Indiana’s education budget and its effect on school districts, including transportation, to every legislator in the state.

The decision to write the letter was in response to state’s decision to cap property taxes and eliminate the state’s Circuit Breaker Replacement Grant. The new formula puts a cap at 1 percent per household statewide, restricting each school system to a cap per household unless it seeks a referendum vote for general fund or capital projects.

“Unfortunately, Franklin Township Schools attempted a referendum that did not pass and is faced with the decision to eliminate programs and services that our children receive,” said Bourke.

Transportation Director Justin Wilczynski added: “Dr. Bourke routinely meets with all department heads to gain insight, ask for ideas and seek innovative ideas that do not jeopardize the educational process for the children.”

The decision was then made to compose a letter to all the state’s legislators outlining the effect these decisions will have on every department in the Franklin Township Community School Corporation.

“Our expected levy for transportation and CPF in 2010 is $10,444,007. The loss of 84 percent of our available levy will have a devastating effect upon our ability to provide transportation for our students and families,” wrote Bourke.

For the current school year, Wilczynski said the transportation department took a number of steps to reduce spending and operate more fiscally without sacrificing student safety, knowing that his funding was being reduced. At the same time, he needed to balance special needs transportation that he had inherited from a consortium that was dissolved from four districts to allow each district to operate their own special needs operation. To do this, Wilczynski said the department reduced regular education routes by 15 to offset the cost of 12 new special education routes, implemented a fleet maintenance program that monitors employee hours and parts inventory and applied a partial cost to athletic trips. Wilczynski also did not replace vacant positions for a mechanic, router and assistant director of transportation.

When planning his budget for the upcoming school year, Wilczynski could see a drop in property tax supported funds by as much as $9.2 million.

“Our office has proposed for the 2010-2011 school year to transition from a two-tier routing system to a three-tier routing system. This allows us to cut our staffing by at least 18 employees and auction off 45 buses,” said Wilczynski. “If the school corporation does not seek another referendum or the state does not somehow alleviate the impact of the property tax caps, our district does face a risk of eliminating transportation for general education students for the 2011-12 school year.”