Advocates and Friends of Avon, please take note!

On Tuesday, the Senate Ways and Means Committee’s sub-committee on School Funding is having a meeting to further discuss the details of the school funding formula outlined in the House version of the Indiana state budget. It is IMPERATIVE we have as many contacts made to not only Senator Miller, but some of the other key members of this committee between now and Tuesday afternoon. The House version of the budget represents some good progress toward bringing up funding levels for Avon schools, and it’s progress we CANNOT afford to lose. The projected numbers for new money flowing into Avon with the House proposal hover around $3 million dollars over the 2 years covered by this budget.

Please take a few moments to contact each of these legislators with your concerns, and implore them to support a budget that reflects the gains in the House-proposed version. Also, please get friends, family members, anyone in your network to take a moment to contact one or more of these legislators!

Peter Miller (R-Avon)
S24@iga.in.gov
(317) 232-9400

Ryan Mishler (R-Bremen), subcommittee chairman
S9@iga.in.gov
(574) 457-3335

Doug Eckerty (R-Yorktown)
S26@iga.in.gov
(317) 232-9426

Ed Charbonneau (R-Valparaiso)
S5@iga.in.gov
(317) 232-9494

Here is a an example message of what the Advocates and other concerned Indiana citizens are using when drafting emails or making phone calls, particularly to the representatives that do not represent their respective districts:

“Dear Senator ___________ — I am a Hoosier voter and taxpayer with children in our local public schools. Please fix the funding formula. Thank you for honoring the House budget and for providing funding to correct the problem of 180,000 Hoosier students who are in the lowest funded public schools.”

For Avon residents contacting Senator Miller, we’d recommend a slight alteration of that message to make it more personalized or pertinent to Avon’s particular struggles with class sizes and decline in staff numbers to accommodate an ever-growing student population.

We’re setting a goal of 50-100 people from the Avon area having contacted these legislators by Tuesday afternoon – please help us attain that goal