FCRC contributes to school marketing plan
May 31, 2023 at 1:06 p.m.
Franklin County Redevelopment Commission welcomed members of FC Schools’ Board of Trustees and presenters Brandon Ball and Shelley Lunsford to its May 23 meeting.
President Bill Schirmer had two main objectives: 1) reach a consensus on ordinance language that nails down the process for passing TIF (Tax Increment Financing) revenue from the county to the school corporation to support educational services and 2) try to convince his board to agree to an early $10,000 contribution to the schools, considering the ordinance hadn’t been signed by county commissioners yet.
A pair of the ordinance’s final drafts circulated at the meeting, both composed by county attorney Grant Reeves. Previous sticking points on language were quickly assuaged by the school board’s liaison to the commission, nonvoting member Sara Duffy.
“We want to work together as a team and show trust, remove the ‘sticking points’ and accept the language the way it’s written here,”she said.
One issue was the wording that stated an amount of “up to”15% would pass through annually to the schools. Such qualifying language regarding the residual raised some questions in previous discussions, as did the words “effective upon passing”when referring to the start date of the process. Payment in arrears (i.e., captured in 2022, paid 2023) had been discussed at several points.
Schirmer moved on to the third ordinance detail that concerned him. If TIF districts were generally included, not specifying which TIFs (residential or commercial), the ordinance would allow the schools to draw from any current or future district in the county. With a residential TIF planned for the Reservoir hill housing project, Schirmer didn’t want this included since the entire project itself is designed to bolster the enrollment of local schools.
“I want to make sure we’re clear,”he said, “that you don’t come to a commissioner meeting and ask for 15% of the residential TIF. If you are, then I need to get that language now because I was involved with the (Reservoir) project and I’m not going back on my word.”
He explained the Indiana Economic Development Corporation required a promise that all TIF revenue from the housing project be captured for future infrastructure improvements to make it sustainable.
The difference between drafts had the word “commercial”preceding TIF on one and the same word omitted on the other. Currently the county maintains just one commercial TIF –Golden Road.
If a new commercial TIF were created anywhere in the county, the schools would have a right to a maximum of 15% of that revenue as well.
“Let’s tell the commissioners we’ve resolved the sticking points on our plate right now and we’ll deal with that sometime in the future when there is such a TIF,” Duffy requested.
She thought Schirmer should include language that specifically excluded the Reservoir revenue. The two differed as to whether future residential TIFs elsewhere should be automatically included in the pass-through process.
Member Brian Patterson inquired about the schools’ current finances. Duffy said the operations fund has been in the red two months this year and trustee Beth Foster added that while it’s in the black now, it could change for the worse at any time. To Patterson’s query on floating bonds, it was stated that could happen for both capital projects and teacher salaries but doing it for the latter would have dire financial consequences.
Foster wanted to ensure the schools weren’t cut out of future residential TIF revenue if Reservoir was excluded at this time.
“If additional locations came up to create a TIF district, we would entertain that conversation,”said Schirmer, referring to a new ordinance.
The decision was for the school board to draft a letter to commissioners agreeing to “commercial”TIF only; in addition, FCRC voted to send a recommendation letter to commissioners stating the same.
As for the next objective, Ball and Lunsford were there to outline a school marketing campaign strategy that will ideally help increase local enrollment. Lunsford’s FC Community Foundation is holding funds to kickstart the campaign; the foundation contributed $5,000 and Brookville Redevelopment Commission agreed to match up to $10,000. Schirmer said if his board added $10,000, the first phase of the campaign could start with $25,000.
Ball, an FCHS graduate, has his own marketing firm and called this a “passion project”due to being an alum. He said if he has children in the future, he wouldn’t want the school system to have the same types of stigmas it has now.
He said there would be three stages of the campaign with the first –starting late June or early July - being the most expensive. That would consist of information gathering and surveys to determine what assets need to be promoted and what the system needs to improve. A committee’ been formed, and a consultant identified. Ball said the final two stages are undefined now, though it should include improvement of website, branding, social media/calendar announcements and the schools’ online reputation.
Vice-president John Palmer made a motion to contribute $10,000 and Schirmer seconded. There was more discussion and member Derrike Kolb didn’t think this was fiscally responsible. He was the only dissenting vote as it passed 4-1.
In other news, nothing changed with financials, but the commission was to pay its portion of the gas line installed up North State Road 101 ($125,000).
The annual resolution to capture TIF revenue needs to be signed by mid-June. The board agreed to again capture 100%. Palmer said new state law requires the board to specify what the funds will be spent on (in the future) prior to the end of the calendar year.
Patterson said the TIF tool should be maximized in the county, saying Metamora and Laurel could both benefit from revenue and infrastructure improvements.
Schirmer said the next round of the state’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) funding would not have consultants in the project proposal process but rather use local economic development officials (LEDOs) of each county in the region.
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Franklin County Redevelopment Commission welcomed members of FC Schools’ Board of Trustees and presenters Brandon Ball and Shelley Lunsford to its May 23 meeting.
President Bill Schirmer had two main objectives: 1) reach a consensus on ordinance language that nails down the process for passing TIF (Tax Increment Financing) revenue from the county to the school corporation to support educational services and 2) try to convince his board to agree to an early $10,000 contribution to the schools, considering the ordinance hadn’t been signed by county commissioners yet.
A pair of the ordinance’s final drafts circulated at the meeting, both composed by county attorney Grant Reeves. Previous sticking points on language were quickly assuaged by the school board’s liaison to the commission, nonvoting member Sara Duffy.
“We want to work together as a team and show trust, remove the ‘sticking points’ and accept the language the way it’s written here,”she said.
One issue was the wording that stated an amount of “up to”15% would pass through annually to the schools. Such qualifying language regarding the residual raised some questions in previous discussions, as did the words “effective upon passing”when referring to the start date of the process. Payment in arrears (i.e., captured in 2022, paid 2023) had been discussed at several points.
Schirmer moved on to the third ordinance detail that concerned him. If TIF districts were generally included, not specifying which TIFs (residential or commercial), the ordinance would allow the schools to draw from any current or future district in the county. With a residential TIF planned for the Reservoir hill housing project, Schirmer didn’t want this included since the entire project itself is designed to bolster the enrollment of local schools.
“I want to make sure we’re clear,”he said, “that you don’t come to a commissioner meeting and ask for 15% of the residential TIF. If you are, then I need to get that language now because I was involved with the (Reservoir) project and I’m not going back on my word.”
He explained the Indiana Economic Development Corporation required a promise that all TIF revenue from the housing project be captured for future infrastructure improvements to make it sustainable.
The difference between drafts had the word “commercial”preceding TIF on one and the same word omitted on the other. Currently the county maintains just one commercial TIF –Golden Road.
If a new commercial TIF were created anywhere in the county, the schools would have a right to a maximum of 15% of that revenue as well.
“Let’s tell the commissioners we’ve resolved the sticking points on our plate right now and we’ll deal with that sometime in the future when there is such a TIF,” Duffy requested.
She thought Schirmer should include language that specifically excluded the Reservoir revenue. The two differed as to whether future residential TIFs elsewhere should be automatically included in the pass-through process.
Member Brian Patterson inquired about the schools’ current finances. Duffy said the operations fund has been in the red two months this year and trustee Beth Foster added that while it’s in the black now, it could change for the worse at any time. To Patterson’s query on floating bonds, it was stated that could happen for both capital projects and teacher salaries but doing it for the latter would have dire financial consequences.
Foster wanted to ensure the schools weren’t cut out of future residential TIF revenue if Reservoir was excluded at this time.
“If additional locations came up to create a TIF district, we would entertain that conversation,”said Schirmer, referring to a new ordinance.
The decision was for the school board to draft a letter to commissioners agreeing to “commercial”TIF only; in addition, FCRC voted to send a recommendation letter to commissioners stating the same.
As for the next objective, Ball and Lunsford were there to outline a school marketing campaign strategy that will ideally help increase local enrollment. Lunsford’s FC Community Foundation is holding funds to kickstart the campaign; the foundation contributed $5,000 and Brookville Redevelopment Commission agreed to match up to $10,000. Schirmer said if his board added $10,000, the first phase of the campaign could start with $25,000.
Ball, an FCHS graduate, has his own marketing firm and called this a “passion project”due to being an alum. He said if he has children in the future, he wouldn’t want the school system to have the same types of stigmas it has now.
He said there would be three stages of the campaign with the first –starting late June or early July - being the most expensive. That would consist of information gathering and surveys to determine what assets need to be promoted and what the system needs to improve. A committee’ been formed, and a consultant identified. Ball said the final two stages are undefined now, though it should include improvement of website, branding, social media/calendar announcements and the schools’ online reputation.
Vice-president John Palmer made a motion to contribute $10,000 and Schirmer seconded. There was more discussion and member Derrike Kolb didn’t think this was fiscally responsible. He was the only dissenting vote as it passed 4-1.
In other news, nothing changed with financials, but the commission was to pay its portion of the gas line installed up North State Road 101 ($125,000).
The annual resolution to capture TIF revenue needs to be signed by mid-June. The board agreed to again capture 100%. Palmer said new state law requires the board to specify what the funds will be spent on (in the future) prior to the end of the calendar year.
Patterson said the TIF tool should be maximized in the county, saying Metamora and Laurel could both benefit from revenue and infrastructure improvements.
Schirmer said the next round of the state’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) funding would not have consultants in the project proposal process but rather use local economic development officials (LEDOs) of each county in the region.