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REGULAR MEETING JUNE 13, 2011 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />million dollars, but as the earlier speaker said and because the Council knows about their <br />campaigns asking you to raise another thousand dollars or 1.2 million dollars is very, <br />very difficult. It has been a remarkable feat of many, many people that are willing to <br />invest into the City and she asked for the Council’s favorable support. <br /> <br />Jeff Boetticher, 1441 N. Michigan Avenue, South Bend, Indianan, Chief Advancement <br />Officer St. Joseph High School, thanked the Council for their consideration. He stated <br />that will all the meetings regarding this issue and apologized that they have had extensive <br />conversations with Mayor Luecke and folks at the city level, but if there was a mistake <br />made he wanted apologize that he should have involved all the Councilmember’s sooner <br />in this process. He stated that he wanted to make some clarification regarding St. Joseph <br />High School. He stated that when people hear catholic high school they think it’s <br />something for only wealthy families and some how it is exclusive and that somehow they <br />turn away students. St. Joseph’s High School currently has approximately 800 students. <br />They have an open door policy, if students can pay the tuition, they can attend St. Joseph <br />High School. They realize that their tuition is expensive although when you compare it <br />to other places in the country; they feel that it is a great value. To help with that he gave <br />some facts about St. Joe High School, 24% of students roughly 200 students receive <br />financial aid. These gifts range from $500 to $3100 dollars a year. The student <br />population is about 15% non-catholic and 85% catholic. The minority population is <br />about 25%, so he gives this statistics to give the Council a clear sense of the student body <br />of St. Joseph High School. It’s not a school that educates rich kids only; it’s a diverse <br />population that they hope represents the city well. One of the things that they would like <br />to do with their move and they are going to move there is no going back now, so they are <br />coming to downtown. But something that wasn’t brought up is that earlier on they did <br />look at other sites when they realized that their renovation was going to be very <br />expensive, they own property out by St. Patrick’s County Park, the Diocese owns <br />property out in Granger, and one of things that was decided early on was that it they want <br />to continue to be a school that is located in the city and that is truly a part of the city they <br />needed to be in that downtown area. He thanked the Council for their consideration and <br />just as they invest their efforts everyday in bringing pride to South Bend he would hope <br />the Council would invest in them and help them move to the former hospital location. <br /> <br />The following individuals spoke in opposition to this bill. <br /> <br />S. J. Szabo, 1355 Mishawaka Avenue, South Bend, Indiana, stated that the Mayor <br />proposes quite a list of projects that epitomize wasteful spending by a lame duck <br />administration that is more focused on political payback and a rosy legacy than what is <br />best for the taxpayers. Whose coerce contributions provided the funds that the Mayor <br />wishes to wontedly splash around on his way out the door. The most shocking of the lot <br />is easily the proposal to give tax payer money to a catholic private school. This is a <br />reprehensible violation of the constitutional concept of separation of church and state and <br />a front to trusting taxpayers a disdainful snub of our public schools and an audaciously <br />callus attempt to set a new standard of bad government. To be clear the amount of the <br />gift that the city proposes to give to the Catholic Church is not an issue, doesn’t matter if <br />it’s a million or ten million if it’s ten dollars. The issue is that it is simply wrong to get <br />taxpayer money in any amount to a catholic private school. There is no way it can be <br />justified and you can’t dress it up calling it a trade when the taxpayer is getting no value <br />in kind for this investment. Other than that it is just political rederick to take our minds <br />off the Catholic Church. What’s next, will the Protestants line up for support of their <br />private schools, so that they can teach their kids a religion in an environment that they <br />like without having to answer to state authority about what is taught, what the kids have <br />to learn while they are there. The public has no control what goes on in a private school. <br />The kids are given religious instruction and they can take whoever they like they can set <br />the price as high as they want. That’s why it is called a private school and that’s why the <br />taxpayer money goes to a public school system that responds to standards that take all the <br />citizens of the this city that paid for its establishment, it maintenance. The well being and <br />operation of this catholic private school is not within the realm of concern of tax payers <br />any more or less than if the Protestants would have closed the church for lack of funds. <br />These issues are not the taxpayer’s responsibilities. While it is the right of every private <br />citizen to support whatever private school they wish the city and its taxpayers are <br /> 16 <br /> <br />