• 2025 Certified Assessed Value:  2026 Net AV $792,457,238. 7.6% increase from pay 2025- pay 2026
• Projected Net AV Annual Change for the next 5 years (pay 2026-pay 2031) -2.7%
• Commitment to decreased tax rate for five years in a row.  Down .58 cents in 5 years – 22.5%
  • 2026:  $1.9999
  • 2025:  $2.0646
  • 2024:  $2.3563
  • 2023:  $2.4648
  • 2022:  $2.5843

Beech Grove City Schools’ bond rating reflects how credit rating agencies view the district’s financial strength and ability to meet its debt obligations.

• In May 2016, Standard & Poor’s lowered the district’s general obligation debt rating to A- due to lower-than-anticipated reserves at that time. 
• In more recent disclosures, S&P has assigned a long-term rating of AA+ on bond issues associated with Beech Grove City Schools.

Over the past several years, Beech Grove City Schools has worked deliberately to strengthen its financial position and increase confidence with credit rating agencies. Although the district experienced a lower rating in the past — including an A- rating in 2016 due to tighter reserve levels — focused actions have helped improve the district’s standing.

These actions include:

• Responsible budgeting and expense reductions
• Strategic debt management, including refinancing when appropriate
• Improving reserve levels and long-range financial planning
• Transparent financial reporting and public oversight

As a result, Beech Grove’s current AA+ long-term bond rating reflects improved financial health and a strong capacity to meet its obligations. An AA+ rating also benefits the community by reducing borrowing costs, which saves taxpayer dollars over the life of the bonds.

This progress underscores the district’s commitment to prudent fiscal stewardship even in the face of funding challenges that impact many Indiana school districts.

• Balanced budget 
  • Show pattern of ending better than started (actual numbers) 
    • All Funds Cash Balance 2021:  $2,743,776.78
    • All Funds Cash Balance 2022:  $2,236,883.59 (paid off previously unpaid expenses/ESSER Mismanagement was fixed, cuts initiated)
    • All Funds Cash Balance 2023:  $3,046,227.75
    • All Funds Cash Balance 2024:  $3,916,374.61
    • All Funds Cash Balance 2025:  $7,970,692.99 

• Teacher Salary Range:  $52,000 – $89,300
• Average Daily Membership (student count) Fall 2025:  2,717 (in person) and 48 virtual
• Education to Operations Fund Transfers (money that should be staying in the school buildings/classrooms) but has to be transferred to cover Operations Fund impact:
  • 2021:  $2,989,574
  • 2022:  $2,800,000
  • 2023:  $2,900,000
  • 2024:  $3,250,000
  • 2025:  $3,300,000

• Five schools, Two virtual schools, two district buildings (administration + transportation), 2 football fields, 2 softball fields, 1 baseball field, 1 marching band practice site

• Elimination of Assistant Superintendent Positions (2) (district administrator)
• Elimination of Director of Elementary Education Position (district administrator)
• Elimination of Director of Secondary Education Position (district administrator)
• Elimination of Director of Operations Position (district administrator)
• Elimination of Director of Directions Academy Position (district administrator)
• Increase revenue from Virtual schools – fully funds Director of Teaching and Learning and District Data Specialist (salary + benefits) 
• Portion of Food Service Revenue funds Director of Food Service and Business Manager
• Grant Awards = Increased Revenue
• Career and Technical Education Revenue Increase
• Reclassification of Certified Positions to Classified 
• Reduction of Certified, Classified, and Administrative Positions through Attrition
• Analysis of long-standing contracts through RFP (example: liability insurance, food service, custodial)
• Elimination of Legislative/Policy Legal Services
• Strategic Planning Process = Recruit and Retain students + staff
• Prioritized Long-Term Facility Maintenance Projects

2025 Budget Information.pdf

2026 Budget Information – Beech Grove City Schools.pdf 

2025 Budget School Board Presentation 9-10-2024.pptx

2026 Budget School Board Presentation 9-9-2025.pptx

2022.2024 Audit Report.pdf

2025 Form 9 State Reporting

• 2020 Property/Casualty Insurance:  $170,772
  2025 Property/Casualty Insurance:  $258,051
  This is a 51% increase 

• 2020 Health Insurance:  $2,525,328.38
  2025 Health Insurance: $2,961,693.71
  This is a 17% increase 

• 2020 Traditional Large Passenger School Bus:  $86,000
  2025 Traditional Large Passenger School Bus:  $165,000
  This is a 91% increase 

• 2020 AES Bill:  $551,450
  2025 AES Bill:  $656,377
  This is a 20% increase

Beech Grove City Schools.  The Education Fund is the largest fund in the Beech Grove City Schools budget. By law, this fund must be used to support classroom instruction.

• Nearly all Education Fund dollars go directly toward teacher and staff salaries and benefits.
• The remaining portion supports guidance counseling, school administration, and instructional supplies.

Funding for the Education Fund comes from:

• Indiana’s basic tuition support formula, which provides a set amount of funding per enrolled student
• Additional state funding based on the percentage of students identified as low-income or foster youth.  
• Targeted state grants to support special education, career and technical education (CTE), and English Learner (EL) programming
• Summer school reimbursement
• Interest earnings on fund investments

In Indiana, public school districts rely on several distinct funding streams, each with specific purposes defined in state law. One of the most important of these is the Operations Fund.

The Operations Fund is the primary source of funding for a school district’s non-classroom expenses — the essential services that allow schools to operate safely, reliably, and effectively each day.

The Operations Fund may be used for costs such as:

• Maintenance and grounds
• Custodial services
• Student transportation (buses, fuel, maintenance, drivers)
• Utilities (electricity, gas, water, sewer)
• Capital projects and building upkeep
• Technology and infrastructure

While state tuition support primarily funds classroom instruction, the Operations Fund is intended to cover the systems that make learning possible.

The Operations Fund is supported by local property tax revenue. Indiana law provides property owners with constitutional property tax caps, also known as circuit breaker caps, which limit how much property tax a taxpayer can be required to pay:

• 1% of gross assessed value for homestead (owner-occupied) properties
• 2% for other residential and agricultural properties
• 3% for commercial and industrial property

These caps protect taxpayers by ensuring that no property owner pays more than a fixed percentage of their property’s assessed value in total property taxes.

Importantly:

• The caps do not change the local tax rate
• They limit how much revenue can actually be collected

Any taxes above the cap become uncollectable, even if the tax rate itself has been approved.

In Indiana, assessed valuation (AV) — the total taxable value of property within a district — plays a critical role in determining how much revenue a school district can generate.

1. Calculating tax rates
   The assessed valuation is the base on which tax rates are applied. Districts with higher assessed valuation can generate the same revenue with lower tax rates, reducing the burden on individual taxpayers.
2. Revenue-generation capacity
   Because Indiana uses a capped property tax system, districts with lower assessed valuation reach the caps more quickly, even if tax rates are relatively high. This limits how much revenue can be collected for operations.
3. Impact on school funding
   Local levies that fund operations, debt service, and capital needs are directly affected by assessed valuation. In areas with lower property values, even the maximum allowable levy may fall short of meeting operational needs, creating inequities across districts.
4. Taxpayer equity
   A broader and more diverse tax base spreads costs across more property value, often resulting in lower rates for individual taxpayers. Districts with lower assessed valuation must rely on higher rates to raise comparable revenue — yet still may collect less due to caps.

Beech Grove City Schools faces a structural disadvantage within this system.

Because Beech Grove has:

• Low overall assessed valuation
• Limited diversity across 1%, 2%, and 3% property classifications
• Nearly all properties are already at or near the cap.

As a result:

• The Operations Fund does not generate revenue as intended
• Much of the approved tax levy becomes uncollectable
• The district is left without sufficient local funding for essential non-classroom operations

In Indiana, assessed valuation directly determines levy capacity. When valuation is low and caps are triggered broadly, even responsible tax rates cannot generate the revenue needed to operate schools.

The Operations Fund is not about optional spending. It pays for:

• Safe transportation for students
• Clean, maintained school buildings
• Heat, lights, and water
• Technology infrastructure
• The people who keep schools running every day

When the Operations Fund cannot function as designed, districts must seek alternative solutions, such as voter-approved referenda, to maintain basic services and ensure schools remain safe, operational, and accessible.

Indiana school districts use the Debt Service Fund to pay for long-term investments in school facilities and infrastructure. This fund supports the financing of major capital projects that benefit students and the community over many years.

The Debt Service Fund is used to repay bonds and other long-term debt issued by a school district. These funds support large-scale projects that cannot reasonably be paid for all at once.

The Debt Service Fund may be used for:

• Construction of new school facilities
• Renovation and modernization of existing buildings
• Major building repairs and improvements
• Land acquisition
• Technology and infrastructure tied to capital projects
• Repayment of principal and interest on voter-approved or board-issued bonds

Unlike the Operations Fund, the Debt Service Fund is not used for daily operating costs such as staffing, utilities, or transportation.

The Debt Service Fund is primarily supported by local property tax revenue, generated through a debt service tax levy approved by the state and, in some cases, by voters.

Assessed valuation plays a critical role in a district’s ability to meet its debt obligations.

1. Debt affordability
   Higher assessed valuation allows a district to generate sufficient revenue at lower tax rates to repay bonds. Lower assessed valuation means higher rates are required — and caps may prevent full collection.
2. Revenue reliability
   Debt Service relies on predictable property tax collections. In districts where large portions of the tax base are at the cap, actual collections may fall short of the levy needed to fully support debt payments.
3. Impact on long-term planning
   When assessed valuation is constrained, districts must limit the size, scope, or timing of capital projects to avoid overburdening taxpayers or creating financial instability.
4. Taxpayer equity
   A broad, diverse tax base spreads debt costs across many property types. Districts with limited commercial or industrial property rely more heavily on residential taxpayers, who reach the cap more quickly.

How the Debt Service Fund is different from the Operations Fund

• Debt Service Fund: Pays for long-term capital investments and repays bonds
• Operations Fund: Pays for daily, non-classroom expenses that keep schools running

Both funds rely on local property taxes and are subject to the same caps, but they serve very different purposes.

Beech Grove City Schools faces challenges in the Debt Service Fund for the same structural reasons that affect its Operations Fund:

• Low overall assessed valuation
• Limited commercial and industrial tax base
• High percentage of properties reaching the tax cap

These factors can reduce the district’s ability to generate stable revenue for debt repayment, requiring careful planning, conservative borrowing, and strong financial oversight.

Despite these challenges, Beech Grove City Schools has maintained a strong bond rating by:

• Managing debt responsibly
• Aligning borrowing with realistic revenue capacity
• Refinancing when appropriate
• Maintaining transparency and fiscal discipline

Why this matters

The Debt Service Fund allows communities to:

• Maintain safe, modern school buildings
• Protect past investments
• Spread the cost of major projects over time
• Avoid shifting capital costs onto operating funds

When the Debt Service Fund is carefully managed, it supports both educational quality and taxpayer protection.

This is an “emergency” or “savings” fund for the school district. 

Schools are permitted to transfer up to 10% of our total yearly budget from the Education Fund or Operation Fund into the Rainy-Day Fund. Schools are not permitted to transfer any money from the Debt Service Fund into the Rainy-Day Fund. The Rainy Day Fund can support any unplanned or non-budgeted expenses such as replacing a roof that unexpectedly failed, boilers/chillers that unexpectedly stop working, etc. 

No — not by itself.
Your property tax bill is made up of several taxing entities, including the City of Beech Grove, Marion County, services, and Beech Grove City Schools.

Beech Grove City Schools receives a portion of your total tax payment — and that portion has remained flat or declined in recent years based on state-certified tax rates.

Many homeowners are seeing higher overall tax bills primarily due to:

• Increased assessed home values, and
• Indiana’s property tax caps, which can shift tax burdens unevenly across communities

Higher tax bills do not mean Beech Grove City Schools is spending more or raising rates.

Yes. Fiscal responsibility is a priority.
Over the past several years, the district has taken significant steps to manage costs responsibly, including:

• Reducing overall spending by millions of dollars
• Elimination of Assistant Superintendent Positions (2) (district administrator)
• Elimination of Director of Elementary and Director of Secondary Education Position (2) (district administrator)
• Elimination of Director of Operations Position (district administrator)
• Elimination of Director of Directions Academy Position (district administrator)
• Increase revenue from Virtual schools – fully funds Director of Teaching and Learning and District Data Specialist (salary + benefits) 
• Portion of Food Service Revenue funds Director of Food Service and Business Manager
• Grant Awards = Increased Revenue
• Career and Technical Education Revenue Increase
• Reclassification of Certified Positions to Classified 
• Reduction of Certified, Classified, and Administrative Positions through Attrition
• Analysis of long-standing contracts through RFP (example: liability insurance, food service, custodial)
• Strategic Planning Process = Recruit and Retain students + staff
• Prioritized Long-Term Facility Maintenance Projects

Despite these efforts, Beech Grove City Schools is operating under an unprecedented funding limitation not experienced elsewhere in Indiana.

Yes.
Several districts — particularly in older, fully built-out communities — experience revenue losses due to property tax caps. These include districts such as East Chicago, Gary, Muncie, Anderson, Hammond, and portions of Indianapolis.

While many districts lose some revenue to tax caps, Beech Grove’s impact is uniquely severe. Beech Grove City Schools’ Operations Fund — which is intended to pay for:

• Student transportation
• Building maintenance
• Utilities
• Custodial services

has been reduced to nearly zero due to tax cap losses. Most districts still retain at least some Operations Fund revenue. Beech Grove is one of the only known districts in Indiana operating with virtually no net Operations Fund dollars.

Several structural factors make Beech Grove especially vulnerable:

• Small, landlocked district with limited ability to expand the tax base
• High percentage of rental housing, which is taxed at the higher 2% cap
• Lower overall housing values, causing more properties to hit the tax cap more quickly
• Minimal commercial and industrial development, limiting revenue growth

Together, these factors result in a disproportionate share of property taxes being uncollectable under state law.

No.
Once revenue is lost due to Indiana’s property tax caps, state law permanently prevents school districts from collecting it — even if taxpayers are willing to support their schools. These losses are structural and ongoing.

Yes — out of necessity.
Because the Operations Fund does not function as intended in Beech Grove, voter-approved referendum funding becomes essential to maintain basic services, not to add enhancements.

Referendum funds help support:

• Student transportation and safety
• Building maintenance and custodial services
• Core operational needs that other districts fund locally

Beech Grove is one of the most severely impacted districts in Indiana when considering both:

• The scale of tax cap losses, and
• The lack of alternative local revenue sources

While other districts experience losses, very few face a situation where their Operations Fund is nearly eliminated.

Since the implementation of Indiana’s property tax caps (1% / 2% / 3% limits), Beech Grove City Schools has lost millions of dollars ANNUALLY in local revenue — funds that can never be recovered. Since 2009, this translates to well over $50,000,000 in revenue since caps were implemented.  

As these losses continue year after year, the district must rely on referendum funding to maintain essential services and staffing.

When a TIF district is created, increases in assessed value are directed to the Redevelopment Commission rather than directly to school Operations or Debt Service funds.

However, Beech Grove City Schools does receive referendum revenue from TIF-assessed value. This means voter-approved referendum funds can grow over time alongside local development.

Because:

• Indiana’s funding model disproportionately impacts districts with higher student needs
• Property tax caps permanently limit local revenue
• State tuition support is among the lowest per student in Marion County
• Safety staffing, mental health services, and competitive wages are now essential — not optional

A referendum is not about new programs.
It is about preserving what the Beech Grove community values: safe schools, caring adults, reliable transportation, well-maintained buildings, and strong educational opportunities for every child.