04/30/2025
From a FB friend of mine. Info about North Harrison schools and the new changes to our budget and state laws.
For All my North Harrison Community School Facebook friends, I attended the North Harrison School board work session last evening (Tuesday, April 29) to specifically hear how Indiana Senate Bill 1 would affect our school corporation's bottom line. While I think everyone is on board for lower property taxes, doing so is a double-edged sword when it comes to school funding. North Harrison will see $381,730 less in next year's budget and will continue to see less money in their operational budget for 2027 and 2028. The administration is looking at other areas in the budget where money can be saved. Another area of concern for me was the passage of the law requiring public schools to share a portion of their monies with charter schools in their districts. Luckily, the North Harrison School district does not have any charter schools at this time. I also asked Mr. Freed, the superintendent, about the edict from the national and state governments regarding DEI programs. Since North Harrison's minority population is so low, there are no DEI programs in the schools. We definitely know that CRT is not and has never been taught in the North Harrison Schools despite some politicians making that claim. However, our neighbors to the East, Floyd and Clark counties, will be faced with having to decide to cut any DEI programs they may have since they have a much larger minority population. In addition, I told him I was concerned about how the DEI initiative could affect our children (I have a first grade granddaughter) learning about Black History month and other historical events. My first grade granddaughter learned about Harriet Tubman and others. We discussed slavery and its effects on our country. This history, in my opinion, is important for our children to know. The history of our country has not always been pretty, but we owe it to our children (age appropriate material) to make them aware of this country's past, even though it was sometimes very brutal and inhumane. Lastly, I told Mr. Freed I was not happy that the legislature decided to make school board elections partisan. I think it was totally uncalled for and does nothing to make our schools better. Rather it interjects political ideology into school board elections when the real focus should be on making sure our students are well educated, well rounded and critical thinkers. The question school board members should ask themselves is not "how does this policy or practice align with my party's political ideology", but "does this policy or practice benefit our students and provide an environment to help all students succeed".
