The Knox Community School Corporation is the latest local district to decide to go after unpaid debt by intercepting state income tax refunds, while North Judson-San Pierre is considering it. The Knox School Board recently approved a memorandum of understanding for the Tax Refund Exchange and Compliance System (TRECS), according to Superintendent Dr. William Reichhart.
Corporation Treasurer Kasey Clark says things like unpaid textbook rental fees often add up to $30,000 to $40,000 a year. “And they don’t realize what an impact it is,” she adds. “I mean, that’s almost a teacher’s salary that we’re not collecting every year.”
North Judson-San Pierre Superintendent Dr. Annette Zupin says the school corporation has taken families to small claims court in the past, but TRECS could be a better option. “I think that the key piece to this is that you’re not taking them to small claims court where you could have reputations damaged or stress like that, nor do you go in and try to garnish their wages,” she told the school board last month. “It’s money that, perhaps, wasn’t really in their pockets before it gets there.”
Still, efforts to ease the burden on families went a step further at Oregon-Davis. The Starke County Community Foundation’s Hardesty Memorial Endowment Fund agreed to cover the entire $25,000 debt there, after O-D’s school board signed onto the system in March.
At North Judson-San Pierre, Zupin hasn’t presented a formal agreement for the board’s approval yet, but members did agree last month to let her work on one for May or June.
