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Private charitable donations to public high schools

crazed_hoosier2 said:
We built a new North Jr/Sr HS building here in Evansville about 13 years ago (ftr, the budget was ~$70m). The original plans called for a natatorium. But the school corp scrapped it when officials and parents from the other high schools complained about North getting a pool and nobody else.

Eventually the city just built a new natatorium that all of the schools can use -- which makes a helluva lot more sense.
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I much prefer this approach, at least in communities of modest size where one pool can be used by everyone. I hope my township eventually goes this route and builds a nice natatorium with a 50 meter indoor pool. Take the capital expense away from the schools and simply charge them rent when the high schools use the pool.
 
BradStevens said:
We have one school in our "city." Our park district has an outdoor pool, with swimming lanes, etc. right across the street from the high school.

It's insane to spend that much money on a pool. I'm not one of those people that think swimming needs to be taught in high school. If you want to make it an educational requirement, I'm sure you could subsidize swimming lessons in the summer for far, far less.
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Teaching swimming in high school is way too late.

Way back when my high school required swimming. While you had to swim 500 yards to graduate, you also received your lifeguard certification if you passed the class.

Of course the best part for me was that the varsity swimmers were allowed to take a nap during swimming class. That 10 AM nap for 45 minutes, after we had already swam from 6-7:30 that morning, did wonders.
 
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UncleMark said:
The way schools are funded in Indiana causes a lot of that.
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Oh, I'm aware.

It's one of the reasons I've never had much sympathy for their funding gripes. They don't need to lobby for more money in their operating budgets. They need to be lobbying to have some discretionary funds that can be used for either operating expenses or their capital fund.

But, as far as I know, they haven't taken that approach -- they just want the operating budgets increased without affecting the capital funds.
 
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crazed_hoosier2 said:
Oh, I'm aware.

It's one of the reasons I've never had much sympathy for their funding gripes. They don't need to lobby for more money in their operating budgets. They need to be lobbying to have some discretionary funds that can be used for either operating expenses or their capital fund.

But, as far as I know, they haven't taken that approach -- they just want the operating budgets increased without affecting the capital funds.
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The difference between the two funds gets out of whack. You end up with palatial buildings and no money for school supplies.
 
BradStevens said:
I find this phenomenon bizarre. It's now going on at my school. A neighbor was invited to a mixer that turned out to be a fundraising networking event. These people are looking for people to donate between $100k-$500k. To my kid's public high school. They said it's a more "progressive" way to fund the school's $250 million renovation that was voted on and somehow they want private funding to cover part of the cost.

Here's an earlier example:


The same guy told me that some billionaire graduate from this high school offered to pay the whole $250 million if they'd name the school after him. And our board flatly declined. WTF???
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Hold the fvck up - this is happening at OPRF right now?
 
mattndallas said:
Monroe County doesn't really allow it. Any large donations have to be "pooled" a distributed evenly. A parent can't privately donate the cash required to update Binford Elementary's playground unless they can fund all of them.

Heard Bloomington South had an alum willing to fund the $1MM to turf the soccer field, but was nixed unless he funded the same for North.
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There are constitutional issues about unequal school funding.
 
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mattndallas said:
Heard Bloomington South had an alum willing to fund the $1MM to turf the soccer field, but was nixed unless he funded the same for North.
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The exact same thing happened in Warrick County. A guy (I knew him well, he passed away earlier this year) offered to donate a turf field to Castle HS. The commissioners rejected it because that would leave their other two HSs (Boonville and Tecumseh) without turf fields.

People were beside themselves — even many Boonville and Tecumseh people.
 
crazed_hoosier2 said:
The exact same thing happened in Warrick County. A guy (I knew him well, he passed away earlier this year) offered to donate a turf field to Castle HS. The commissioners rejected it because that would leave their other two HSs (Boonville and Tecumseh) without turf fields.

People were beside themselves — even many Boonville and Tecumseh people.
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I know in the school district we live in, if you do for one HS you must do for the others especially when it comes to sports. Silver Creek high left its school district for those very reasons, they are now building a state of the art school and the sports facilities are very nice. They are a stand alone school, they control all the tax payer funds to their school.
 
TDHoosier said:
I know in the school district we live in, if you do for one HS you must do for the others especially when it comes to sports. Silver Creek high left its school district for those very reasons, they are now building a state of the art school and the sports facilities are very nice. They are a stand alone school, they control all the tax payer funds to their school.
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Smart move on their part. I didn’t realize public school secession was even a thing in Indiana.

I know that Cathedral prides itself on being independent from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis - and has more than once flipped the bird to the Archbishop over some matters. I think the only relationship between them and the Archdiocese is their chaplain and other clergy.

Seems like Brebeuf also isn’t affiliated with the Archdiocese. I would prefer that if I was a parent.
 
crazed_hoosier2 said:
Even if it’s privately donated? If so, that’s nuts.
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Some of it is a matter of degree and kind. I know one or two billionaires cannot provide unequal public education. No problem with private schools.

Colorado has a very elaborate and detailed system to equalize k-12 education throughout the state. There is some local flexibility to allow a district to exceed state minimums, but not unlimited. There are
also differences between operating and capital funds. It’s very complicated. School attorneys make a lot of money dealing with this.
 
BradStevens said:
Swimming is stupid too.

Thats What I Said GIF by Back Row Radio
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How does your district pay for school hockey? Who owns the ice? How is ice time paid for?
 
BradStevens said:
Yup. Next time you're around, look for the Imagine yard signs. Not nearly as ubiquitous as the Harris Walz signs, but they're out there.

Home | Imagine Foundation

www.imagine-foundation.org www.imagine-foundation.org
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I probably have seen them, but haven't been paying attention. I'll check that out.

FWIW, I have no problem per se with public schools endeavoring to fundraise additional resources for capital improvement projects and other investments. But, I have to say, as someone in a similar situation, it's a bit annoying because what happens is the schools start to hold these fundraisers and peer pressure parents to contribute. There are varying degrees of financial situations between most families, particularly at public schools, and it seems like another "arms race" scenario where kids/families start to get shunned, picked on, favorited, etc.
 
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CO. Hoosier said:
How does your district pay for school hockey? Who owns the ice? How is ice time paid for?
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They don’t.

Ice owned by park district. School gives zero dollars to it or the hockey team which is self funded.

But swim team gets a nice new pool.
 
crazed_hoosier2 said:
I remember a piece that ran in a national publication (I think it was National Review) about Mitch Daniels and his quest to pare back government spending.

The author accompanied Daniels to his alma mater (North Central HS) and was in awe of the newly renovated school building -- natatorium, food court, escalators I think? And he said something to Daniels about how striking the facility was.

"Yeah, it's a problem." was Daniels answer....at which time I officially became a Daniels fanboy. Not many politicians would say something like that.
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Don't get me started

www.wthr.com

Construction on new Carmel Greyhound Activities Center making progress

Marching Band and Winter Guard students will use the activities center, which will be next to the stadium.
www.wthr.com www.wthr.com

@Noodle - 50m pool!!!!

Carmel High School Natatorium Complex - Fanning Howey

The renovated and expanded Carmel High School Swimming Complex serves students, the community and top-tier competitive events.
fhai.com fhai.com
 
CO. Hoosier said:
Many public school systems have foundations to accept donations.
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And some jurisdictions make the money go into a general fund that is shared by ALL the schools in the district to fund school board priorities. This is ti ensure that wealthy schools do not get more funding than less wealthy schools.
 
crazed_hoosier2 said:
The exact same thing happened in Warrick County. A guy (I knew him well, he passed away earlier this year) offered to donate a turf field to Castle HS. The commissioners rejected it because that would leave their other two HSs (Boonville and Tecumseh) without turf fields.

People were beside themselves — even many Boonville and Tecumseh people.
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Those girls are good this year. If we get lucky and get by Center Grove...Castle or Memorial will likely seal our fate...

And even worse...it'd be a 2pm start in Seymour the day of the Nebraska game. 😄
 
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