The Monroe County Community School Corporation’s board of trustees held a productive meeting Tuesday evening. Between the votes cast and decisions made, here are the key takeaways from its April 23 meeting.
1. Childs and Templeton to merge
Childs Elementary and Templeton Elementary will consolidate starting in the 2025-26 school year, thanks to a nearly unanimous board vote. Next year, new interim superintendent Markay Winston will work with the Monroe County Education Association, teachers, staff, families and the community to develop a consolidation plan by Dec. 31, 2024, according to the resolution.
Board secretary Ross Grimes abstained from the merger vote. Between redistricting, bringing in an interim superintendent and the Dec. 31 timeline, he said the resolution wasn’t his preferred option.
“We need to evaluate all the parameters, especially within the administration,” Grimes said.
All the other board members voted to approve the merger. The board emphasized the resolution can be amended if needed, especially given the superintendent change.
“It is a little bit flipped upside down, because we cannot do the planning and implementation work,” board president April Hennessey said. “We the board, which is primarily a policymaking sort of entity, have taken on something that is a non-policymaking thing. And so, I want us to think about this as a baton handoff to our administration to say, ‘this is something that we are deeply invested in.’”
Superintendent Jeff Hauswald answered a list of questions about the merger, which he said the board provided over email to be answered at the meeting. On questions of transport, Hauswald said the district could potentially create a school-to-school shuttle, and otherwise parents could rely on bus transport. He said Title I funding won’t immediately be affected because it’s distributed at a district level. However, over time, Templeton will likely receive less and Childs more.
The board will also work individually with parents of children with special needs to ensure their transition is as smooth as possible, Hauswald said. The full list of questions and answers are available online on BoardDocs’s library, listed under “Redistricting Document File.”
2. No redistricting vote, but contract coming soon
The board wasn’t able to vote on redistricting measures. However, it plans to request a rezoning contract from a Missouri company. The company reportedly reached out after the board requested proposals, and the three-person committee of board members Brandon Shurr, Ross Grimes and Ashley Pirani reviewed the sole request.
If the board moves quickly, Grimes said, the company could have multiple potential redistricting plans available by late summer.
Grimes said the board still needs to decide certain goals for redistricting. The stated goal would be to balance socioeconomic status in elementary schools, which is measured by the number of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, but it’s unclear how wide a difference in percentage would be “acceptable,” according to Grimes.
The board also hopes to look at population density, as it’s changed since past redistricting attempts. In addition, there’s questions of transportation, the capacity of the existing buildings and the district’s transfer policy.
3. The board selected an interim superintendent
Markay Winston was appointed the interim superintendent for the 2024-25 school year. She’ll replace current Superintendent Jeff Hauswald, who the board bought out of his three-year contract at a series of executive sessions and special meetings
Winston currently serves as the deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction.
The district will start the search for a new superintendent after November’s school board elections. If all members remain, they’ll begin the search process at the end of 2024, but if any are replaced, they’ll start in January when the new members are sworn in.
4. Early childhood education will start rolling out
The board passed a resolution allowing nonprofit early childhood education and preschool organizations to apply for MCCSC partnership, which will allow the MCCSC to subsidize pre-K at non-district schools. Partners must be federally-approved preschool programs, and they can’t be religiously affiliated. The board must approve all partnership applications at a public meeting.
Students in these programs must be age four or older by Aug. 1 and cannot qualify for “On My Way Pre-K,” which provides low-income families with preschool vouchers.
The first partnership application, with Bloomington Developmental Learning Center, was approved at Tuesday’s meeting. More are expected at the board’s May 21 meeting.
The timeline has made some parents worried about finding room for their young children. There are generally more students who need pre-K and daycare than there are spots available, and spots often close by February, according to parent Facebook posts. For parents deciding whether to participate in MCCSC programming, having providers approved in May could leave them with few or no options, they said.
5. A bylaw protecting teachers’ unions was passed
After deliberation, the board passed a new bylaw preserving the right for teachers’ unions to discussion. The bylaw reflects a previous state law guaranteeing unions discussion rights. The passage of S.B 486 in 2023 amended and weakened these protections.
The state law changed the provision that school leaders “shall” talk to union leaders to “may” talk, which weakened the power held by teachers’ unions. The bylaw changes the language back to “shall.”
“The bylaw will ensure a continuation of the right we teachers have enjoyed in Indiana for a half century, to have our voices heard on issues that affect us and the children we're dedicated to teaching,” MCCSC teacher Paul Rodes said on behalf of the Monroe County Education Association.
6. The MCCSC is participating in a national social media lawsuit
The district will also participate in national litigation surrounding the mental health impacts of student social media use. In February, lawyer Austin Brane from law firm Wagstaff & Cartmell invited the MCCSC to participate in a nationwide lawsuit against social media companies such as Meta and TikTok.
In the resolution approving the district’s participation, the board cited social media use as a “disturbance” that diverts school resources which could be better used elsewhere.
The lawsuit will not cost the district. It’s “without risk,” board member Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer said.
The district previously participated in a lawsuit against JUUL in 2021.
7. Data from the MCCSC strategic plan is now available
The MCCSC has finished breaking down its strategic plan. With its eighth presentation, on diverse staffing, the district has now gone through nearly every piece of its five-year strategic plan, which started in 2021.
Data from each presentation is now available online.
Next meeting, on May 21, they’ll break down the plan as a whole, providing attendees with a comprehensive overview, and will begin looking towards the 2024-25 school year.
