MCCSC advances $181M budget for 2026 amid declining enrollment, rising costs

The Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) board of trustees voted Tuesday (Aug. 26) to begin the legal process of adopting its 2026 budget, authorizing the district to advertise proposed spending for the 2025-2026 school year. Across all funds, the district expects to spend no more than $181,004,367 in 2026.

Of the $181 million total: $86 million will come out of the education fund (classroom expenses and teacher salaries), $38.6 million will come out of the operations fund (transportation, maintenance, administrator salaries), and $33.3 million from referendum funds. The remaining $23.1 million covers debt service and school pension obligations.

That total is about $6.7 million less than the 2025 budget. Despite the decrease, the maximum estimated funds to be raised from the community are about $6.5 million more for 2026 than in 2025. This means that MCCSC plans to rely more on property taxes this year as it experiences reduction in state and federal funding due to new legislation, the elimination of specific programs, and enrollment declines, according to superintendent Markay Winston.

At the Tuesday meeting, Winston gave an update on the district’s two-year financial plan. She said MCCSC will lose about $13 million over the next three years due to Senate Enrolled Act 1, and millions more in subsequent years. Also, due to restructuring of the state budget this year MCCSC lost about $1.5 million due to the elimination of Indiana’s Curricular Materials Grant.

“We expect this loss to continue for at least the next seven years,” Winston said. She also said the district continues to face increased utility, transportation, liability insurance, and other expenses. The next update on the financial plan will be given at the November board meeting.

In May, the school board approved a personnel report that eliminated 61 non-teaching positions, including health, custodial, and kitchen staff. In June 2025, MCCSC announced no teacher layoffs for the 2025-2026 school year due to “encouraging progress in restoring financial balance through natural attrition and non-classroom position eliminations.”

Personnel reports from the four board meetings between May and August include 39 certified staff retirements or resignations, nine appointments, and 78 changed positions. Some position changes were intra-district transfers between MCCSC schools or changes to subjects taught within a school (a full time English teacher changing to teach English part time and social studies part time, for example). In the same time period, four administrators were appointed, three resigned, and 11 changed positions.

Giving a staffing update at Tuesday’s meeting was MCCSC assistant superintendent of human resources and operations Jeffry Henderson. The goal, he said, is to “align staffing to enrollment level.” His presentation cited enrollment and employment data: In the 2019-2020 school year, MCCSC had 10,886 students. In 2025-2026, the district projects 9,930 students.

Meanwhile, the number of teachers has not declined accordingly, which means the student-to-teacher ratio has dropped. MCCSC employed 800 full time teachers as of December 2019 making the 2019-2020 student-teacher ratio 13.6 students per full-time teacher. This year, with 745 full time teachers, according to MCCSC, that ratio is 13.3.

Matt Irwin, the district’s chief financial officer, gave a report on cash balance projections. Slides contrasted projected total fund balances before the two-year stabilization plan, and after. Before the two-year plan was implemented, the projections were for a roughly $25-million total balance to drop by half in 2025 and to go negative by about $2 million in 2026. After the two-year plan, based on actual numbers through July, the $25-million total cash balance is projected to stabilize through 2028.

Irwin still characterized current projections, through 2028, as “less than optimal.” According to Irwin, staffing changes—61 non-teaching positions cut and natural attrition—have stabilized the district’s finances, but don’t account for future anticipated expense increases.

A public hearing on the 2026 budget will take place on Sept. 23 at 6 p.m. at the MCCSC Co-Lab. The board’s vote on the adoption of the 2026 budget is set for Oct. 28.