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Bartholomew Con School Corp official explains debt service fund and Envision 2030 financing
Summary
Brett Bozeman, BCSC's assistant superintendent for finance, explains that the district’s Debt Service Fund pays bonds for Envision 2030 projects, warns that Indiana’s circuit-breaker caps are creating a multimillion-dollar collection shortfall, and says recent state tax reforms are making tax-rate neutrality harder to maintain.
Brett Bozeman, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations for the Bartholomew Con School Corp, said in a recorded Fiscal Cents video that the district’s Debt Service Fund is the legally restricted fund used to repay long-term bonds sold for construction and major capital projects.
"The fund Indiana School Corporations use to manage that repayment is called the Debt Service Fund," Bozeman said, adding that "The Debt Service Fund is a legally restricted fund that school corporations use exclusively to repay long term debt." He explained that when a district issues bonds it receives funds up front and repays principal plus interest over a defined period, often spanning 10 to 30 years.
Bozeman stressed that debt-service proceeds are limited by law. "In the case of schools, the money from debt service cannot be used for teacher salaries, new books, or hiring of additional staff," he said. The fund is supported by a dedicated local property tax levy that districts calculate annually to meet scheduled bond payments.
The district must also plan for reduced collections caused by state property-tax limits. "Indiana circuit breaker property tax caps do apply to the debt service levy," Bozeman said, and he warned, "BCSC expects the circuit breaker to cause a multimillion dollar shortfall in what is collected versus what is levied." He said those shortfalls are accounted for in long-range financial planning.
Bozeman described how the district times borrowings so projects can be added without raising the tax rate. "One of the defining financial characteristics of the Envision 2030 plan is that it is intended to be structured to be tax rate neutral for BCSC property owners," he said, explaining the practice of a 'rolling off' of prior debt to create levy space for new projects.
Envision 2030, he said, is funded exclusively through the debt service fund and is designed to modernize and expand facilities from 2024 to 2030, including career and technical education spaces. Bozeman noted that Maple Grove Elementary is under construction on the west side of Columbus.
He warned that recent state legislation is complicating those plans. "It is crucial to highlight that legislative changes, specifically Senate Enrolled Act one's reform on property taxes, now challenge our ability to maintain a flat tax rate," Bozeman said, noting a small uptick already observed in 2026.
Bozeman also described the public role in issuing bonds: "Before bonds can be issued, the school board must approve the project and the borrowing," he said, and noted that public notice and a public hearing are required prior to board approval. Once bonds are issued, repayment schedules and associated levies are part of the public record and reviewed annually.
For more information, Bozeman pointed viewers to a budget workshop scheduled for 07/20/2026 on the BCSC YouTube page.
