Franklin Township Follies
Every once in a while my sense of civic responsibility requires to me play moderator at local town hall forums; Tuesday night took me to Franklin township in southeast Indianapolis. Parents had a meeting to discuss being charged nearly $500 per child per year for bus service. School officials say the fee is necessary because residents voted down a referendum last fall which would have allowed for a property tax increase. Since state law prohibits school districts from charging for bus service once it’s been offered at no charge, Franklin township gave its bus service to a private company for $1 and now the private company is levying the fee. As you can imagine, the natives were not happy.
What struck me the most was the air of bad blood between the school board and the citizens. Only one board member showed up, Aaron Sullivan, two were out of town and the other two declined. In addition, Walter Bourke, the Superintendent declined to show up as well. I understand tough times call for tough measures but this is the classic case of school administrators taking a bad situation and making it worse. There are already questions regarding the legality of the school district’s plan and there is an even bigger overriding issue of whether the district can charge the families of students on free and reduced lunch for bus service.
If the district were smart, it would dip into its surplus and provide bus service for another year while it works with the community to reach a workable solution. But to do that requires trust and if there is one thing that does not exist between the Franklin Township school district and its citizens is trust. There is a lot of anger though. And next year is a school board election. Those two items always make for interesting results.
I’ll be watching this one closely.
