After the rush of Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we all hunker down to endure the blah of the remainder of winter. In my family, we can only stare at each other inside our home for so long, though, before we start going a little loopy.

I’m excited, then, to have learned about the Tecumseh Lodge’s Mid-Winter Pow Wow that will take place at the Hendricks County 4-H Fairgrounds in Danville, Ind.on Saturday, Jan. 4. It caught my eye as a unique activity that will be educational for my kids and easy on my wallet.

Click here to read more.

Christmas break arrives this week for most of us, if it hasn't already, and the kids will be looking for stuff to do in their newfound free time.

Fortunately for us parents, there are two family-friendly movies playing this week that will entertain the kids without wrecking your holiday budget.

This Thursday, Dec. 19 (tomorrow!), at 7 p.m., the Kiwanis Club of Danville is showing "A Christmas Story" for Kiwanis Klassic Family Movie Night at the Royal Theater in Danville.  Tickets are sold at the door and are a mere $3 per adult and $1 per child under the age of 12.

All proceeds from ticket sales go back to the Kiwanis Club of Danville to be used right here in our community in the form of several sponsorships and projects.

This 1983 "klassic" is set in small-town Indiana in the 1940s and chronicles Ralphie's quest to receive a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.  It is rated PG and has a run time of 94 minutes.

This edition of Kiwanis Klassic Family Movie Night is sponsored by Diesel's Sports Grille and Hackleman Auto Collision Repair -- both located in Danville.

The Royal Theater is located at 59 S. Washington Street in Danville, on the east side of the historic Courthouse Square.

Then this Friday, Dec. 20 at 7 p.m., Washington Township Parks & Recreation is showing "The Polar Express" inside The Pavilion Center at Washington Township Park in Avon.

Admission to this movie is free!  Concessions are sold at very reasonable prices, but you can also bring your own treats.  (It's allowed.  I promise.  You don't have to sneak it in.)

"The Polar Express" is an animated film starring Tom Hanks.  It follows a young boy who boards a magical train on Christmas Eve and rekindles his belief in Santa Claus.  The movie is rated PG and has a run time of 100 minutes.

This is part of a monthly movie series at The Pavilion Center through March that is sponsored by the Hendricks Power Cooperative.  You can click here to learn more about it.

The Pavilion Center is located back by the Splash Pad.  For those with GPS, the address is 435 Whipple Lane in Avon.

See you at the movies!

One of my favorite Christmas activities is to drive around and look at Christmas light displays.  Nothing's worse, though, than driving around with a minivan full of excited kids, unable to find any lights.

Fortunately, I have a couple of friends who have found light displays in Hendricks County and in Indianapolis.  No sense in me reinventing the wheel, so here's where you can find their lists:

Visit Hendricks County blogger Amanda Miller found these five holiday light displays in Hendricks County.

For light displays in Indianapolis, look no further than one of my favorite blogs, Indy With Kids.  Here's their frequently-updated Indianapolis Christmas lights list.

The White Christmas at 935 Grayson Trail in Brownsburg is not in operation this year.  On The White Christmas Facebook page, the homeowner cites time constraints but hopes to have the display up for Christmas in 2014.

As I stumble across light displays on my own, I'll add them here.  And if you know of any, feel free to comment below!

Parents of Danville Community School Corporation (DCSC) students are likely to be in for a shock next week when a public notice will be printed in the newspapers.  That notice will announce that the school board is filing a petition with the Indiana Department of Education, alerting them to their intention to cease bus transportation in 2017.

Do.  Not.  Panic.

I attended a public meeting last week at Danville South Elementary that was led by school superintendent Dr. Denis Ward and assistant superintendent for finances Tom Johnson.  They showed us a news story from FOX59 in November and explained that something called “protected tax levies” are going put a serious crimp in the school corporation’s ability to provide bus transportation, beginning in 2014.

I am a world-class dummy when it comes to understanding taxes and levies and school funding and such, so I took a lot of notes and asked a few questions at that meeting so that I made sure I understand things correctly.

Here’s what I got from it.

SIX FUNDS

The DCSC gets its money, for the most part, from six major funds.

The general fund makes up roughly 59 percent of the corporation’s budget and is used for things like supplies, utilities, salaries and benefits for teachers, administrators and support staff, etc.  This fund is supported by state tax dollars – sales tax, income tax, gaming tax and the like – and is not impacted by property tax caps or protected tax levies.

The other five funds are impacted by this issue:  the debt service fund, the school pension debt fund, the capital projects fund, the transportation fund and the bus replacement fund.  These five funds – plus a one-time 2013 state general fund loan repayment fund that corrects a mistake on the state’s part in 2012 – total about $9.4 million.

Here’s how each fund broke down in 2012, according to information prepared by the Legislative Services Agency:

• Debt service fund:  $5,987,610
• School pension debt fund:  $310,609
• Capital projects fund:  $1,513,192
• 2013 state general fund loan repayment:  $59,465
• Transportation fund:  $1,205,746
• Bus replacement fund:  $262,531

CIRCUIT BREAKERS AND PROTECTED TAX LEVIES

We’ll get back to the six funds in just a moment.  First, it’s important that we all understand some terminology here.  I didn’t understand any of this stuff before last week’s meeting, so in the off-chance that you’re in the same boat, here’s what I learned.

Circuit Breakers

Most of us know what circuit breakers are in relation to electricity, right?  If the flow of electricity into your home becomes too great, a circuit breaker flips and shuts everything down to keep your house from burning down or blowing up or doing whatever it would do from too much electricity.

The same concept applies when we’re talking about property taxes.  Every homeowner must pay a portion of the home’s value in taxes, but if that portion becomes too large – more than 1 percent of the net assessed value of your home – the circuit breaker flips to keep your wallet from burning down or blowing up.  Your tax rate tops out at 1 percent.

That’s great for the homeowner who gets property tax relief.  That’s not so great for the schools, which lose funding as a result of the reduction in tax dollars available to them.  

In the case of the DCSC, the circuit breaker loss is about $793,111 per year in funding.  Ouch.

In 2013, the corporation has been able to spread that $793,111 loss across every fund – minus the general fund, which you’ll recall is not supported by property taxes – to the tune of 8.5 percent per fund.

Here is the circuit breaker loss in each fund, then, for 2013:

• Debt service fund:  $508,487
• School pension debt fund:  $26,378
• Capital projects fund:  $128,505
• 2013 state general fund loan repayment:  $5,050
• Transportation fund:  $102,396
• Bus replacement fund:  $22,295

Protected Tax Levies

The state legislature has enacted a new law that will take effect in 2014 that protects the debt service fund and the school pension debt fund from being reduced as a result of circuit breakers.  The thought process behind this law is to force schools to pay their debts first before funding other programs.

How does that affect Danville schools?  In 2014, the DCSC will only be able to spread that $793,111 circuit breaker loss among three funds, rather than six, at a rate of 26.6 percent per fund.

Remember:  the 2013 state general fund loan repayment fund will be gone in 2014.  The two funds relating to debt will be protected from circuit breaker loss.

Here is the projected loss in each fund for 2014:

• Debt service fund:  $0
• School pension debt fund:  $0
• Capital projects fund:  $402,529
• 2013 state general fund loan repayment:  $0
• Transportation fund:  $320,744
• Bus replacement fund:  $69,837

Everyone with me so far?

THE TRANSPORTATION ISSUE

In one year’s time, then, the transportation fund will fall from $1.2 million to $885,002, thanks to the circuit breakers and the new protected tax levies.  This fund pays for the salaries of the bus drivers and maintenance on the buses.  One can’t reasonably expect the DCSC to be able to keep the same number of drivers and the same level of maintenance on buses with less than three-quarters of the original funding at its disposal.

The bus replacement fund will drop from $262,531 to $192,694.  This fund, as you might guess, pays for new buses.

You might be thinking that a solution is to not purchase any new buses.  That won’t work, though.  

State law requires every school corporation to replace its entire bus fleet every 12 years.  Danville schools have 42 buses in their fleet, so to abide by state law, they must replace three or four buses per year.

Buses cost between $90,000 and $130,000 a piece.  Recall that in 2014, the school corporation will only have $192,694 at its disposal.  That’s a problem.

State law also prohibits moving money from one fund to another, so the corporation can’t take money from, say, the debt service fund and put it in the bus replacement fund.  That, in the finance world, is what they call “illegal.”

THE PLAN OF ACTION

State Senator Pete Miller and Representative Jeff Thompson already recognize the damage that will be done by protected tax levies and are working on drafting an adjustment of that new law’s implementation.  

Rep. Thompson feels confident that such an adjustment would pass the House of Representatives, but he’s concerned about its ability to make it through the Senate.

The DCSC – like the vast majority of corporations around the state – will not be able to properly fund transportation if the protected tax levies are not adjusted.  People will lose their jobs.  Buses won’t be properly maintained or replaced.  Bus routes will disappear.

School corporations cannot just pack it in and stop providing transportation, however.  They must give the Indiana Department of Education three years’ notice that they plan to petition to end transportation.

So what the school board has done is vote to start that three-year clock right now by filing notice with the DOE.  The corporation is still in one heck of a bind through 2017, but at least there is an end in sight to the money hemorrhaging. 

Does the DCSC actually want to stop offering transportation to its students?  Not at all.  

What the corporation wants is for the protected tax levies to be adjusted, thus allowing them to spread the $793,111 loss over five funds in 2014, rather than over three funds.

The beauty of this notification process is that a school corporation can rescind its notice at any time during the three-year period, which is exactly what the DCSC plans to do if the protected tax levies are adjusted by the state legislature.

In the meantime, however, the DCSC must do its due diligence and exhaust all possible ways to resolve this issue.  That includes notifying the DOE that this is a very serious problem in Danville – the schools are not just crying wolf.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Dr. Ward and Mr. Johnson have asked us all to contact Sen. Miller and Rep. Thompson to thank them for taking this issue seriously and for already working on adjusting the protected tax levies.

Then the DCSC will sit back and wait to see if the politicians are successful by March of 2014 before deciding what to do next.  

If the protected levies are not adjusted, the DCSC plans to hold public meetings to determine the best course of action from there.

So when the papers hit the newsstands next week, take a deep breath instead of panicking.  Then spread the word to your friends and family who are panicking:  this is a step in a process, not the ultimate death blow to bus transportation for Danville schools.

"It was the veterinarian who first told Clarence he needed to move to a cooler climate."

And so begins the adventures of Clarence -- a camel suffering from heat stroke who must move away from Cairo, Egypt and finds himself in Danville, Indiana.

"Clarence the Christmas Camel" is written by Philip Gulley, an accomplished author, speaker and Quaker pastor from right here in Danville.  He has published several books and was approached by the Downtown Danville Partnership to write a children's Christmas story this year for the town.

Gulley obliged, and "Clarence the Christmas Camel" was published by Sycamore Printing in the form of a children's coloring book, sponsored by Waste Management.  Illustrations for the story were done by several local artists and members of the community.

At the annual "Christmas on the Square" celebration on the day after Thanksgiving, Gulley's wife, Joan Gulley, read the story at the Royal Theater to all who were in attendance.  It was then revealed that all of the illustrations were posted on windows of businesses around the historic Courthouse Square.

Each illustration corresponds to a page of the story, so by beginning at the Mayberry Cafe on the northwest corner of the Courthouse Square and following the black camel hoof prints around the Square, a person can read all about the adventures of Clarence.

We were out of town during "Christmas on the Square," so the girls and I only recently did the walking tour.  It was a hit!

We read all about Clarence's airplane trip from Egypt to the United States by way of Paris, what kind of food he likes to eat, how some people were rude to him, and how a nice woman from Danville made him feel at home in our little town.

The girls enjoyed reading each part of the story and looking at the colorful artwork.  We also stopped in at the Gallery on the Square and picked up complimentary "Clarence the Christmas Camel" coloring books for each of them.  (You can get them at Mayberry Cafe and at the Danville Public Library, too, as long as supplies last.)

This is a fun, free Christmas activity for the whole family, and if you go at night, you'll be dazzled by all the Christmas lights around the Square.  There are lots of neat shops and eateries around the Square if you want to duck inside from time to time to get warm, do some Christmas shopping or grab a bite to eat. 

It's definitely worth the drive to Danville to check it out, especially if you couple it with the Winterland Light Show at Ellis Park.  (Click here for a coupon that makes a visit through Winterland just $5 per carload!)

Clarence will be on the Courthouse Square through December 31.

In our house, it's just not Christmas without Dr. Seuss.  An annual holiday activity on our family advent calendar is to watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," and our kids -- like millions of others -- develop their reading skills by reading the works of Dr. Seuss.

So when the Danville Public Library offered Christmas in Who-Ville yesterday, we couldn't miss it.

The program began with a Dr. Seuss enthusiast / comedian / magician entertaining the kids with a reading of "Green Eggs and Ham," some information about Theodore Geisel AKA Dr. Seuss, and some magic tricks -- even using some of the kids as "helpers."

My girls had a great time laughing at the jokes, hearing one of their favorite stories read to them, and clapping after the magic tricks.  I made the mistake of not "harumph"ing with the rest of the room during part of the story, so the performer picked on me good-naturedly for the rest of the act, much to my daughters' delight.

After the hour-long program, the kids had the opportunity to meet Santa Claus.  When I say "the kids," I mean all of the kids at the library.  However, my kids have never been fond of meeting St. Nick, so they made a bee-line for the crafts room instead.

In that room, they could make Christmas reindeer from popsicle sticks and they could make their own Grinch masks, all the while inhaling as much juice, milk and cookies as they could.

All told, we spent two fun hours at the Danville Public Library and spent a grand total of nothing.

Don't forget about the libraries when you're looking for fun, educational and free (or dirt cheap) stuff to do with the kids throughout the doldrums of winter.

Need help finding your library?  No worries.  Just click here.