In a recent column, I explained why some Hendricks County students appear to live in one town but attend school in another. If you missed it, the upshot was that town boundaries have nothing to do with those for schools. The school boundaries follow township lines, as state law directs.
As with pretty much anything to do with public schools, it’s both easy and logical to wonder if things couldn’t be simpler. If a community extends into another township, can’t they just agree to shift the new residents to their school district? The new developments north of Perry Crossing will send large number of students who live in the Town of Plainfield to Avon Schools. Does Avon really want all those kids? Couldn’t they cut some kind of deal with Plainfield Schools?
That was exactly the situation in the late 1990s, as the Williamsburg in the Woods community near today’s Avon High School was being completed. The Town of Plainfield annexed the subdivision, and some residents were dismayed to learn their children would be in Avon’s classrooms instead of Plainfield’s. They appealed to Plainfield’s school board and county officials, but they weren’t going to succeed for two very good reasons.
The first is that state law defines school boundaries, not local preferences or other circumstances. The second is that by willingly giving up students, Avon Schools would also lose the property tax dollars from those students’ homes. I can’t imagine any school district voluntarily agreeing to forego such a large chunk of revenue. It would be foolish and decidedly not in their taxpayers’ best interests.
People get really confused about those boundaries, but there’s really nothing complicated about them. They simply follow the boundaries of townships. If you live in Lincoln Township, your kids and your taxes go to Brownsburg Schools. There aren’t any secret plans or mysterious decision-making at work here.
There is a process in state law through which residents can disannex their area from its existing school district and become annexed by another, but only if both districts agree. It’s rare, but it happened in 2022. Greene Township, located on the southwest side of South Bend, left South Bend Schools for the neighboring John Glenn district. The move cost South Bend about $1.3 million in annual property tax revenue.
(The other common point of confusion about towns involves postal boundaries. The post office established those long ago, and frankly, they don’t care whether you live inside a town or on the fringes. They don’t even care what you believe your town is named. The only thing that matters is the post office your carrier leaves every morning. So if you’re on the eastern edge of Hendricks County, your mail may be routed through a post office in Indianapolis. In the Postal Service’s eyes, you live in Indianapolis, even though you probably pay taxes to Plainfield and send your kids to Avon. Happy to clear up the confusion.)