Families in Lowell, Indiana, are bracing for a future without yellow school buses. Tri-Creek School Corporation has approved a plan to eliminate all school bus transportation by August 2028 and phase out school-sponsored sports and extracurricular clubs for grades K-8 by August 2027, citing a $3 million deficit driven by state property tax cuts.
The cuts, first reported by CBS Chicago, will hit a district that serves Lowell along with Cedar Creek, Eagle Creek, and West Creek Townships. The station reports that Tri-Creek officials have blamed the shortfall on decreased funding tied to Indiana Senate Enrolled Act 1, the 2025 law that reworked the state's property tax formula. Additional cuts to high school sports, classroom instructional support staff, and student safety programs are still pending, according to the same report.
A District Already Stretched Thin
Tri-Creek's geography makes the loss of busing especially painful. The corporation covers 179 square miles across southern Lake County and currently runs 72 daily bus routes spanning 1,863 miles to carry more than 3,000 students to class, according to Tri-Creek School Corporation. The district says local Tax Increment Financing districts in Lowell already restrict growth in its taxable assessed value, a structural issue that has kept its Operations Fund in the bottom 25% of Indiana school corporations for per-student funding even before the state cuts arrived.
Senate Enrolled Act 1 grants homeowners a 10% property tax credit capped at $300 starting this year while gradually lowering net assessed property values statewide, a mechanism Hoodline detailed when the law first passed. Indiana Senate Republicans have said the measure will deliver $1.3 billion in savings for homeowners between 2025 and 2028. Because Indiana public schools rely heavily on property taxes, that relief for homeowners has translated directly into revenue losses for districts like Tri-Creek.
The Scale of the Statewide Squeeze
The Indiana Legislative Services Agency has estimated public schools statewide will lose $744.4 million between 2026 and 2028, with the steepest single-year drop reaching $336 million in 2028, per the Indiana Coalition for Public Education. That 2028 timeline lines up with the year Tri-Creek plans to fully end its bus program. Tri-Creek is not alone in feeling the pressure: a record 38 Indiana public school districts have certified property tax referendums totaling roughly $500 million for the November ballot this year, according to state reporting.
Under Indiana Code Title 20, Article 27, traditional school corporations are not legally required to provide general transportation for students, giving Tri-Creek's board the legal room to eliminate bus service entirely while staying within state education mandates. The law strictly regulates bus safety standards and driver qualifications when transportation is offered, but it does not require districts to offer it at all.
Other Indiana districts have already made painful cuts under the same law. Hamilton Southeastern School Corporation in Fishers eliminated nearly 60 staff positions, including 18 elementary school teachers, in May, a move Hoodline covered when Fishers schools cut deep. The financial strain extends beyond classrooms, too: Knox County has scheduled public budget hearings next month to address revenue losses affecting emergency services and road maintenance, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of Vincennes.
A Referendum With High Stakes
Tri-Creek's board approved the program cuts as school leaders in the district recommended placing a $3 million operating referendum on the November ballot to offset the property tax losses. School board members have framed the $3 million figure as reflecting essential revenue needs rather than an expanded budget request, according to Citizen Portal. The district is treading carefully because voters previously rejected a property tax operating referendum in May 2023, a defeat that was one of only three failed school levies out of ten on Indiana's primary ballot that year, per WFYI.
To make the case to residents, the Tri-Creek Board of School Trustees will hold three town hall meetings at the district administration office, scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday next week, and August 26, where community members can ask questions about the cuts. The open question hanging over those meetings is whether tax-fatigued voters will accept a new referendum to save transportation and extracurricular programs that state law does not require the district to provide, or whether the loss of buses across 179 square miles of rural Lake County will become permanent.
