The Destination District
Where this came from
In July, the board of school trustees and the district leadership team, including several leaders new to La Porte this year, spent a day together aligning behind a shared vision for our schools. School boards are not required to hold a retreat. Leadership chose to do so because they believe that unaligned leadership cannot ask anyone else to follow. We left with one shared vision and a goal with a date attached.
What is a Destination District?
A Destination District is a district people actively choose, not one they default to. Families choose it. Educators build careers in it. Students are proud of it. In Indiana, families choose where their children go to school, and a destination district earns that choice every year.
Where we actually are
The state changed property tax law, and $1.4 million left our Operations budget. We entered 2026 needing to cut $1.8 million just to build a budget. Every district in Indiana is doing this same math and making the same hard choices right now.
The turn
Every district in Indiana is in this valley. Ours has an exit date. In 2029, revenue from the Microsoft development begins, and our finances improve substantially, regardless of enrollment. It grows from there, increasing every time another building is added and assessed. Our share is established. The district receives 15% of the property taxes those buildings generate, and the figure we plan against is a conservative estimate.
The referendum we chose not to ask for
We were preparing to ask this community for a referendum in 2026. The board chose not to ask. The need was real, and it has not gone away. The next two budgets are still tight, and we won't pretend otherwise. What changed is the answer. This delivers more than a referendum would have, and it arrives without asking anyone to win an election or raise rates, because it is a share of property taxes generated by a new development.
A shared vision
We are committed to making La Porte the Destination District of Northwest Indiana: the place families choose, educators build careers, and students find everything they need to succeed.
The board decided that people come first, before anything else, and especially in the tight years. Capacity is not a vision. This changes what we can afford, but the money is the means and the district we become is the goal. Very few districts in America will ever have this opportunity, and that is what shapes how carefully we intend to use it.
The goal, and why it is about salaries
By 2032, La Porte will be the highest-paying school district in Northwest Indiana, in every role, from classrooms to kitchens to bus routes, certified and classified. Every district in Northwest Indiana recruits from the same group of teachers, therapists, counselors, aides, and drivers, and pay decides who says yes. The largest single factor in a child's school day is the person standing in front of them. This is not a raise announcement. It is how every other commitment here gets delivered.
The standard rises with the investment. Excellence expected. Excellence supported. Excellence recognized. We are not raising the bar and asking anyone to reach it alone, and the work gets seen and said out loud, all year long.
What begins now
You cannot buy a destination district. The money arrives in 2029, and most of what makes people choose a district costs nothing, so that work starts today: every student and family known by name, in every building; a district that stands in front of its people on the hard days; news heard from us first; recognition all year; a standard we are proud of; and every interaction treated as a reason a family stays. We intend to arrive at 2029 with the culture already built. The revenue will fund it. It will not create it.
How you will know
We are not asking anyone to trust a number six years out. We are asking you to watch what we do between now and then. Every year, in public at a board meeting, we report where we stand against this goal, good news or not. In October, we'll explain what enrollment count day means at the October board meeting. This winter, when the budget decisions get hard, you will hear those from us too. Six years of that is what makes 2032 real. One presentation does not.
Questions, ideas, or disagreement: board meetings are open, public comment is on every agenda, and every board member and administrator is reachable.
One question for every decision in every building and department: Will this move us closer to becoming the Destination District?