Responding to a request from the Monroe County Community School Corporation board, this week district superintendent Jeff Hauswald presented a possible plan to merge the attendance areas for two pairs of elementary schools.
The idea would be to divide the grades for the bigger attendance areas between the two existing buildings for each pair of schools.
The purpose of merging the schools would be to improve the balance of socio-economic status (SES) among students in different elementary school buildings.
The key metric for SES of students is defined by the Indiana Department of Education—as the percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch, based on income eligibility guidelines.
One merger would involve consolidating the attendance areas for Childs Elementary and Templeton Elementary. At the end of a three-year transition period, Childs would serve the combined attendance areas for pre-kindergarten through grade 2. Templeton would serve grade 3 through grade 6.
A second merger, which could be implemented by itself or combined with the first one, would consolidate the attendance areas for University Elementary and Fairview Elementary. At the end of a three-year transition period, University would serve the combined attendance areas for pre-kindergarten through grade 3. Fairview would serve grade 4 to grade 6.
Hauswald presented his report to the board at this Tuesday’s meeting. On Tuesday, the board voted to put the same item on its agenda for the first meeting of 2024, which is set for Jan. 23.
Based on the brief deliberations among board members on Tuesday, they’re not looking to decide on the school consolidations at their January meeting. Instead, they’re hoping to hear from the public with reactions, not just to the proposal, but also about the public’s expectations for the process the board will use to reach a decision.
At Tuesday’s board meeting, board member Brandon Shurr said that he hoped that people would talk with friends and neighbors about the proposal between now and the January meeting.
Reached by phone, board president April Hennessey confirmed to The B Square that the board is not looking for a quick vote on the idea of elementary school consolidation. She said, “We’re so far away from a vote.” The board put the item on its January meeting agenda so board members can continue to have conversations about it and people can give public comment, Hennessey said.
Hennessey said that any decision to implement a consolidation as soon as the 2024-25 school year would “feel fast” to her personally, but she did not want to speak for other board members.
Responding to a B Square question about Hauswald’s timely turnaround with a report—taking just a month between board meetings—Hennessey indicated that SES imbalance is not a new topic. She said improving SES balance has been on the board’s list of priorities for a long time.
About the challenge of improving the SES balance across school buildings, Hennessey said, “We know how imbalanced it is.” Now the board is looking to start tackling the problem, she said.
The proposal improves the SES balance by combining the attendance areas of schools that have a big difference between their percentages of students who qualify for free and reduced lunches.
For the 2023-24 school year, Fairview Elementary’s percentage is 78, compared to 37 for University Elementary. Templeton Elementary’s percentage is 64, compared to 15 for Childs Elementary.
Dynamic Map of Proposed Elementary School Consolidation
I think people would be more supportive if they went to a handful of regional campuses. This plan results in higher transportation costs and doesn’t drive efficiency. Efficiency is applying revenue to delivering educational outcomes.
1) Overall attendance is < 66% of the student population regularly attending school (state #'s)
2) Increased bussing time and cost
3) Parents who have kids at both ends of the elementary school would be challenged for pickup/drop-off
4) Impact to sense of community when schools are located outside of their local community. If you are at a school for a few years, would people feel inclined to donate to local PTOs
5) If your SES low school in a combined model isn't as low what happens to state funding and support/grants? The same goes for the SES high school as well.
6) If the school my child is going to isn't local, isn't convenient, how many will just leverage the voucher program and move their kid out of MCCSC? I think this needs to be evaluated under the law of unintended consequences.
I have no skin in this game as my child does not attend elementary school. I am open for improvements and changes. However, just bussing kids all around the city, as a solution to adult problems, I am not sure will solve the problem.
this is a great list and i especially want to echo your suggestion of regional campuses. our school district is designed around neighborhood-scale elementary schools. just a quick count, i see 13 elementary schools feeding into only 2 highschools. the upshot of this system is that almost everyone, especially within city limits, lives within a mile of an elementary school. in fact, a lot of people live a lot closer. and as a Fairview parent, i have really enjoyed this.
in that context, University Elementary school — at the very edge of city limits, on the wrong side of the bypass — fits in as a good location for the people that live way out there.
but if University elem becomes a magnet school for people who live in Crestmont on the far other side of the city, it becomes a travesty, a deep injustice. but a central consolidated elementary would make sense.
which brings me to #6. my kids are 4th and 6th grade today so it’s possible my youngest will be assigned to University next year or the year after. and if that happens, it will be a very hard choice, i’m not sure what i’ll decide…but pulling him out of MCCSC entirely is my first choice. and once that happens, the genie will be out of the bottle and one of the 22% of Fairview families that doesn’t qualify for free lunches may well leave MCCSC for good.
forcing students who live in the city to go outside of the bypass to places with literally 0 safe transportation options is almost my only complaint about MCCSC but it’s a huge complaint. it is literal violence against the kids who live in the city. highway is death. BHSN’s location is violence against >90% of its students.
MCCSC needs to think more like an urban school district. for many decades, they have been abandoning their urban schools (for example, Harmony in Elm Heights, Hunter at the edge of Prospect Hill, and Bloomington HS at seminary square) to focus on suburban schools. that mistake needs to be reversed, not used as an excuse to punish students.
as an aside, it takes a lot of chutzpah for a district with an inoperative bus system to consider using bussing to solve their problems.
Yeah for mccsc. This is long overdue. The other consideration is redistricting
This idea was discussed on NextDoor 10 months ago