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
