Tag: MCCSC

140-acre rezone to be taken up by Bloomington’s city council again on May 15

Close up proximity map of Summit District PUD.
Overview map of Summit District PUD.

A rezone request for about 140 acres in the southwest part of Bloomington got a second round of scrutiny from the city council last Wednesday.

The first council deliberations took place on April 17.

A postponement until the council’s May 15 meeting got unanimous support.

It sounds like some councilmembers could be ready to take a vote in mid-May. But there’s still another month before a 90-day window closes, on June 26. After that, the new zoning would be automatically enacted, if the council did not act to deny it.

The 90-day clock started ticking after the 7–0 positive recommendation was certified to the city’s plan commission, on March 28.

The Summit District planned unit development (PUD) could allow construction of an estimated 4,250 units of housing in five new neighborhoods, to be built out over the course of the next 10 years. Continue reading “140-acre rezone to be taken up by Bloomington’s city council again on May 15” →

MCCSC board wants public to mull elementary school merger, meant to balance socio-economic status

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1FGkzX6Tfk0hSpxK-djsz6oJBQ2kxAfo&usp=sharing
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1FGkzX6Tfk0hSpxK-djsz6oJBQ2kxAfo&usp=sharing
Data used to build the chart is available here: https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/MCCSC-SES-data-by-elementary-school.tsv

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. Continue reading “MCCSC board wants public to mull elementary school merger, meant to balance socio-economic status” →

MCCSC referendum squeaks by with 1-point margin, Bloomington residents push it over top

A Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) referendum question won approval on Tuesday, based on the unofficial tally from the county clerk’s office.

Purple shading indicates more yes votes than no votes. Orange shading indicates  more no votes than yes votes.

The 8.5-cent property tax increase, which was proposed by MCCSC, and now approved by voters, is supposed to pay for early childhood education programs.

The margin for the referendum approval was thin—just 108 votes out of over 10,000 ballots cast.

Here’s the raw total breakdown: 5,229 yes to 5,121 no. That’s 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent.

The narrow passage reflected a number of concerns, including the fact that voters had just last year approved an MCCSC referendum.

Other voters expressed a lack of confidence in the current MCCSC administration, at least in part fueled by a recent controversy about unifying the daily schedules of all four Bloomington high schools.

The MCCSC referendum showed uneven support inside Bloomington compared to outside the city. That’s based on the precinct-by-precinct tallies released by the county clerk’s office.

Outside the city of Bloomington, two-thirds of voters cast a ballot against the referendum. By the numbers, outside Bloomington, there were 2,567 no votes (66.5%) compared to 1,292 yes votes (33.5%). Continue reading “MCCSC referendum squeaks by with 1-point margin, Bloomington residents push it over top” →

Polls are OPEN: It’s Election Day for Bloomington, MCCSC district

Election Operations is the Election Day polling site for just some voters—those who live in the following precincts: Bloomington 3, 7, 22; and Perry 6, 8, 15, 31. (Nov. 7, 2023)

At 6 a.m. sharp came the announcement from the front door of Monroe County’s election operations building at 3rd and Walnut streets: “Hear ye, hear ye, the polls are now open!”

What democracy sounds like:

In the first half hour of voting, The B Square counted two voters. The polls close at 6 p.m.

Election Operations is the Election Day polling site for just some voters—those who live in the following precincts: Bloomington 3, 7, 22; and Perry 6, 8, 15, 31. Voters can check their assigned polling location on the Indiana Voter Portal. Continue reading “Polls are OPEN: It’s Election Day for Bloomington, MCCSC district” →

Board poised for Nov. 7 election, another vote center committee appointment made

Election operations at 3rd and Walnut (Nov. 2, 2023)

In under a half hour on Thursday, Monroe County’s election board got through its regular meeting agenda, which included an update on the early voting totals for the Nov. 7 municipal election.

Through Wednesday 1,703 people have voted early in person at the election operations center at 3rd and Walnut Streets.

According to Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne, another 309 voters have sent in an absentee ballot by mail, with another 184 ballots that have been sent out in response to requests, but not yet returned.

Also on Thursday, election board chair David Henry, who is also chair of the Monroe County Democratic Party, announced his final appointment to a vote center committee—current Bloomington city councilmember Steve Volan. The 20-year councilmember did not prevail in this year’s Democratic Party primary.

That leaves just one slot on the 11-member committee unfilled, which is supposed to be someone with no party affiliation.

Continue reading “Board poised for Nov. 7 election, another vote center committee appointment made” →

Bloomington school schedule decision: MCCSC board takes control for itself, away from superintendent

MCCSC board member Ross Grimes.
MCCSC board member Erin Wyatt.
MCCSC board member Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer.
Demonstrators outside the MCCSC board’s meeting location.
MCCSC superintendent Jeff Hauswald.
MCCSC board member Brandon Shurr.
MCCSC board member Erin Cooperman.
MCCSC board member April Hennessey participated by Zoom.
MCCSC board member Ashley Pirani.

The daily schedules for Bloomington’s four high schools will not change before the 2025-26 school year, and even if they do, it’s not certain the result will be a unified schedule for all schools.

What’s more, any decision on a schedule change will rest with the seven-member board of the Monroe County Community School Corporation, not with MCCSC superintendent Jeff Hauswald.

That’s all the result of action by the MCCSC board at its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday night. The board was split 4–3 on the question.

The motion to add the question to the agenda, as well as the motion to make the schedule change a board voting matter, was put forward by board vice president April Hennessey. She was participating in the meeting remotely on the Zoom video conferencing platform.

Voting for the board’s role as scheduling decision maker were: Hennessey, Ashley Pirani, Erin Wyatt, and Erin Cooperman. Voting to leave the decision making authority with the superintendent and his designees were Ross Grimes, Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer, and board president Brandon Shurr.

Hauswald had been planning to implement a unified schedule starting with the 2024-25 school year.

Right after Tuesday’s roll call vote concluded, the board’s meeting room at the MCCSC Co-Lab on East Miller Drive erupted in applause from the roughly 120 people who had crammed into the space to speak during public commentary. Continue reading “Bloomington school schedule decision: MCCSC board takes control for itself, away from superintendent” →

Calls for superintendent’s ouster at rally against Bloomington high school schedule changes

Ivan Lynch. MCCSC schedule change protest (Oct. 23, 2023)
MCCSC schedule change protest (Oct. 23, 2023)
MCCSC schedule change protest (Oct. 23, 2023)
Kelton O’Connell. MCCSC schedule change protest (Oct. 23, 2023)
Candace Sampson. MCCSC schedule change protest (Oct. 23, 2023)
MCCSC schedule change protest (Oct. 23, 2023)
MCCSC schedule change protest (Oct. 23, 2023)

In the fourth week of September, high school journalists at Bloomington High School South broke the story  that Monroe County Community School Corporation superintendent Jeff Hauswald was mulling a plan to unify the schedules of all high schools in the district.

The headline in The Optimist, the student newspaper at BHSS, read “MCCSC looking at changing South’s trimester schedule.”

South operates on a trimester schedule. North operates on a semester schedule. The length of class times also differs between the schools. Also in the mix are the district’s two other high schools—Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship and Bloomington Graduation School.

A little less than a month after The Optimist broke the story, last Friday (Oct. 20) MCCSC administration released a memo with the main features of the unified schedule: 60-minutes classes; and a year that’s divided into two semesters, not three trimesters.

In the meantime, the idea of unifying the schedules has met with significant opposition. As of late Monday, a petition that was set up on Change.org  has about 1,250 signatures.

On Monday afternoon, about 250 people—students, parents, and faculty—gathered on the southeast corner of the Monroe County courthouse square in downtown Bloomington to protest the administration’s move.

The Friday memo had caught many by surprise, because they had the impression that the MCCSC administration was still gathering information, in order to make a decision.

Some of the signs at Monday’s rally called for Hauswald’s ouster. Continue reading “Calls for superintendent’s ouster at rally against Bloomington high school schedule changes” →

Despite message in TV ad, non-Bloomington residents can vote on 8.5-cent school referendum

Residents who live in the Monroe County Community School Corporation district (the whole purple area), but not in the city of Bloomington, can still vote in the Nov. 7 election—on the MCCSC referendum question.

All registered voters who live in the MCCSC school district will be able to vote on the school referendum question as part of the Nov. 7 “municipal election.”

That’s despite the message in a TV ad featuring Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne, which has run over the last few days on some Comcast channels like the Food Network.

The ad states incorrectly that only registered voters in the geographic boundaries of the city of Bloomington are eligible to vote in the election. The TV ad is supposed to be taken down by Saturday, Browne has told The B Square.

Voters can check their registration and preview their ballot on the Indiana Voter Portal.
Continue reading “Despite message in TV ad, non-Bloomington residents can vote on 8.5-cent school referendum” →

Huge population variance leads MCCSC to mull proposal for new board seat district map

In 2024, anyone who wants to win election to a board seat for the Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) will likely be navigating by a district map that is different from the current one.

This is a proposed board seat district map for MCCSC, which appears on the July 25, 2023 board meeting agenda for adoption. This map is unofficial in that the boundaries were drawn by The B Square, based on the information available from MCCSC. The white triangles indicate where incumbent board members live—based on public records. Each of the tiny dots plotted out on the map correspond to 1 person as counted in the 2020 census. The image links to a high resolution .pdf version of the map.

That’s because some changes to MCCSC’s governing plan are set to get a vote by the seven-member board at its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday night.

It’s the governing plan for MCCSC that needs to be amended in order to change the board seat district boundaries. (Attendance boundaries for specific schools are not related to this discussion.)

The board kicked off the redistricting process by adopting a resolution at the start of 2023. The resolution stated, in part, that the board “does hereby commit to commencing with the process of board district realignment.”

It was in 1994, nearly three decades ago, when MCCSC last set its board district boundaries.

But it’s not just the pure passage of time that has led the board finally to consider redrawing the boundaries. It’s because after 30 years, with no adjustments made to the boundaries, the relative population figures for the board districts are now dramatically out of whack.

Based on the 2020 census numbers, the board districts show a whopping 72.5 percent population variance. Continue reading “Huge population variance leads MCCSC to mull proposal for new board seat district map” →

Nov. 7 election: School district voters will decide on 8.5-cent tax increase

MCCSC board vice president April Hennessey (June 27, 2023)
Paul Farmer, president of Monroe County Education Association (June 25, 2023)
MCCSC MCCSC superintendent Jeff Hauswald (June 27, 2023)
MCCSC board member Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer (June 25, 2023)
MCCSC board president Brandon Shurr (June 27, 2023)

On Nov. 7, voters who live in the Monroe County Community School Corporation will decide whether to increase their property tax rate by 8.5 cents.

The resolution to put the question on the ballot was approved by the MCCSC board on Tuesday night at its regular monthly meeting.

The vote was unanimous among the seven board members, who were all present at the meeting.

According to the wording of the ballot question, the money to be raised by the additional tax has to be used for the purpose of “expanding and funding free and affordable early childhood education (including preschool) and eliminating student and family fees for K-12 education, funding career education program costs and technology and funding supply and instructional materials for all students.”

According to district superintendent Jeff Hauswald, the effect of the proposed tax increase, combined with some reductions in other tax rates, would  mean about $50 more dollars a year for someone who owns a  $250,000 home.

Tuesday’s meeting was lightly attended, but one person did take a turn at the public mic, in support of the referendum.

Paul Farmer, president of Monroe County Education Association, spoke on his own behalf, because the teachers union has not yet voted on the question. But Farmer said he thinks the MCEA will vote in support of the increased tax. Continue reading “Nov. 7 election: School district voters will decide on 8.5-cent tax increase” →