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Dear Editor:
I am a lifelong Fishers resident, and I will be voting no on the Hamilton Southeastern Schools referendum on Nov. 3.
This vote isn’t to spite our teachers or schools, I believe that both are very good for society, however it is simply a vote to keep life affordable for the average family of this city.
Due to the state law, SEA-1, that passed last year, the average family in Indiana pays less in property taxes, which in today’s economy could mean a lot for the affordability of individual families in Fishers.
The new referendum that is to be voted on this November would make up for the money not being taken in because of SEA-1 by raising property taxes in the district to give more money to our teachers and schools. The problem with this, however, is that enrollment for schools district-wide is at decade lows; only around 19,800 new enrollments were counted for 2026, which is the first time this number has been sub-20,000 in over 10 years. This is far from a onetime occurrence, too; the enrollment for schools in the district has been steadily decreasing for the past seven years now!
When you take into account this and the fact that the budget for schools have followed the exact opposite trend and have actually gone up by $43 million in two years, it starts to get a little foggy as to why we should put more strain on the families of our city by raising their taxes to provide more money for under-enrolled schools.
A plan that I would rather see is one that matches the spending for schools to the rate of enrollment per year, which only makes sense. Until then I do not believe that families around the district should be forced to pay more, which is why I will say no to the proposed referendum on Nov. 3.
Sawyer A. Gwin
Fishers
Median home value referendum increased tax would be around $26 a year. If you think that’s a “strain” you’re nuts.
Well for some people that might be. That is hardly my only point though; schools are under-enrolled and over-funded, what about that?
Where are you getting this number? Using the official calculator from HSE Referendum website a home value of $400k would increase property taxes almost $500 dollars the first year. That is not an insignificant amount.
I voted no, not because of the cost but because the HSE schools did not even put on on the table a plan if the referendum doesn’t pass. I would have supported if it guarantees all funds would be directed into teacher compensation. I believe that if they took a good look at the budget and they should be able to get by without in and not at all hurt academics, sure cuts in other areas may have been needed but this district doesn’t know how to put together alternative butgets and debate the merits if each. I also think police officers have no place in a k-12 schools SROs. A majority of this county and school district area voted for the politicians who cut funding and support for all students in several ways from schools (vouchers, property taxes, attacks against teaching Diversity and empathy. I used to be a student mentor but I don’t feel safe doing so in the political climate of Indiana. Perhaps a shift will be evident after the election but I am not optimistic.
Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools ranks in the bottom 2% of all Indiana school districts for state tuition support per student. For the current 2025–2026 school year, HSE receives approximately $7,121 per student from the state, which ranks it 370th out of 376 Indiana school districts and charter schools.
The district’s low ranking stems from Indiana’s funding formula, which awards extra “complexity” funding to schools with higher concentrations of students who qualify for SNAP, TANF, foster care, or free and reduced lunch programs. Because HSE serves a demographically wealthier community with lower poverty levels, it receives nearly the baseline minimum allocated by the state.
As stated before, for the average household, it is an additional $26 per year. This is to help teachers that did not receive any raises last year but yet faced increased health insurance premiums. Yes, every teacher made less money this year than the year before. Not due to inflation, real dollars.
The either dishonesty or lack of knowledge is astounding. It is NOT $26 additional a year. It is almost $500 on a home valuation of $400k.
There’s a lot going on here but I’ll limit my comments to 2 areas. Declining enrollment. People vote with their feet, and if the city is growing but enrollment is declining, that means people see better choices elsewhere.
Two, raises. I didn’t get a raise last year either and my living expenses increased. NOT a strong argument.