Lake Central and Crown Point voters approved two school referendums on Tuesday night, according to unofficial election totals.
At Lake Central, voters were considering a $55 million budget referendum that would give teachers a pay boost and allow schools to hire additional staff.
Unofficial Lake County election results showed it narrowly passed with 53 percent of the vote with 100 percent of precincts reporting in the school district.
Superintendent Larry Veracco was not immediately available for comment. He previously told the Post-Tribune that the district will use about half the money to raise salaries in an attempt to stop teachers from leaving for more money elsewhere.
The referendum would levy about 17 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. It would be expected to raise just under $7 million per year over eight years, he said previously.
“Allowing other districts to recruit our outstanding educators cannot be allowed to continue,” he said via email. “We have to make sure that our teacher salaries are at least close to the salaries of neighboring school districts, some of whom have had extra revenue coming from their communities through general fund (budget) referenda for years.”
Veracco said the goal was to continue to keep down class sizes and would look to hire additional school counselors and add extra safety staff.
On Tuesday in St. John, voters were split on supporting raising taxes for the schools.
Dawn Czarnik, 43, a mother of three, including a freshman at the high school, said she supports providing additional money for schools as an “investment in the community.”
Denny Nugent, 66, said he opposed the referendum.
“There was so much money spent on the school,” he said. “They need to do more within their means.”
Voters in the Crown Point Community School Corp. also appeared to favor keeping that district’s existing seven-year, $35 million referendum.
Unofficial results from Lake County showed nearly 70 percent of Crown Point voters approved of extending its existing referendum for another seven years.
“It just goes to show you what the community believes in,” School Board Member and referendum committee member Scott Angel said Tuesday evening. “For this to pass, it just goes to show you there was support from top to bottom that they do value education.”
Crown Point’s referendum would leave tax levies unchanged at 21 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. It currently pays for about 70 teachers, nurses in each school and more than 500 extracurricular groups, school officials have said.
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