On July 14th, I wrote on this blog about how the November 3rd general election in Fishers was looking more interesting.  Now, the election appears a little less interesting.

This is not to demean the contest for three at large city council seats.  There are three Republicans and one Democrat vying for the seats.  The top three vote-getters will win four-year terms on the council.

But it appeared on July 14th that a school funding referendum would be on the ballot.  On July 17th, the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board discussed a possible general fund tax referendum to be held November 3rd this year.  The board members voiced no opposition to the idea of holding the November plebiscite at that time.

But something happened between July 17th and July 21st.  On the 21st, the board members changed course dramatically.  The board chose to take no action at this time, with the intention of holding the referendum as part of the May primary election in 2016.

The reason given for the change was to allow more time to engage the community.  You could interpret that as the community feeling this is all happening too soon.

The school board doesn’t have a lot of time to spare.  HSE Schools asked for an operating fund referendum in 2009, which passed and was effective in 2010.  Operating referendums expire after 7 years, so the current additional property tax rate will run out at the end of 2017.

There will be a lot of conversations between members of the community and school officials between now and late January, which is the deadline to file for a May referendum. Let’s see what happens after those conversations end.