- Welcome to the July 22nd meeting of the MCCSE Board of School Trustees. We ask that you please come to order. Tonight, or we would typically begin with public comments, but to my knowledge, we have none, okay? So we will proceed to the consent agenda. Now for our consideration as a consent agenda that includes the following, memoranda from executive sessions held on June 17th, July 8th, and 15th, minutes from the board meeting held on July 8th,
- ECA expenditures, financial report, appropriation balance report, register of claims, payroll register, and payroll claims. Do I have a motion regarding the approval of the consent agenda? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Tiana that we approve the consent agenda as presented. All those in favor of the motion to approve, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? Thank you for your
- Loud volume tonight, people. That's great. Motion carries. Next for our consideration is the personnel report and the additional personnel report. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel and additional personnel reports as presented? Move. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Asia that we approve the personnel and additional personnel reports as presented. Dr. Henderson.
- President Hennessey, Dr. Winston, and members of the Board of School Trustees, this evening I'd like to call to your attention the following administrative appointments, changes of status, and retirements. We have an administrator appointment of Sarah Ratzberg as assistant principal of Jackson Creek Middle School. Ms. Ratzberg continues with MCCSC after serving the corporation as a mathematics teacher at Tri-North Middle School. Sarah holds a master's degree in school administration from Indiana Wesleyan University. We have two administrator changes of status.
- Jacqueline K. Spear is moving to the assistant principal position split between Highland Park Elementary and Templeton Elementary schools. Mr. Eric Gilpin is assuming an additional role and responsibility in addition to becoming, being the director of secondary education, he's also going to serve as our school safety administrator. We have two certified staff retirements, Clara Garcia Aguivera,
- who is a teacher of Spanish at Bloomington High School North. She's been with us for 19 years. Additionally, Jenna Kerr, a teacher of Family and Consumer Science at Bloomington High School South. She has been with MCCSE for 37 years. We have two support staff retirements. Ricky Ayers, a supervisory technician in information services, who's been with MCCSE for 30 years. And in addition to that,
- Mr. Nathan Covey. Nathan has been with MCCSE for 41 years, most recently serving as a supervisory for person at the extended services building. Altogether, retirees presented this evening represent a combined total of 127 years of service to our school community. On behalf of MCCSE, I would like to extend a special thank you to all of these individuals for their many years of dedicated service and wish them well in their next adventures.
- At this time, I request that you please approve the recommendations as presented in your board packet in the personnel report and the additional personnel report. Thank you, Dr. Henderson. Do we have any comments from the board? All right. Well, thank you to all the retirees. That's quite a long amount of service. Thinking about 41 years in a single career is something you don't see often these days.
- Okay. All those in favor of the motion to approve the personnel and additional personnel reports signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. We move on to contracts. Do I have a motion to approve the contracts as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Ashley that we approve the contracts as presented. Mr. Irwin. Dr. Winston, President Hennessy, and
- Board of School Trustees. There's two contracts I'd like to call your attention to. The first is the IU Health Athletic Training and Sports Medicine Service for Bloomington High School North Athletics. We are thankful for their continued partnership and commitment to serving our students at Bloomington High School North. They are providing two board certified and Indiana licensed athletic trainers for the training room and athletic events from July of this year to June 30th, 2028. And then the second one that I'd like to call your attention to
- is the contract in MOU with the city of Bloomington Parks and Rec. This is a continuation of them providing on-site management and operation of afterschool programming at Fairview Elementary during the 25-26 school year. Cost of the agreement is $64,600 and will be funded through our 21st century grant. This is one of the grants that was held by the federal government. MOBY did receive notification that it has been released. We're still waiting to see what the federal government does with the other grants that are being held.
- We'll do our best to make timely decisions on those. No new updates to report this time. Thank you, Mr. Irwin. Do we have any comments from the board? I'd just like to say that the IU athletic trainers that are at Bloomington North do an outstanding job. It's a great partnership. Yeah. Thanks, Ross. Thanks for that. Anyone else? Comments? OK. All those in favor of the motion to approve the contracts, please signify by saying aye.
- Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. We now move on to committee reports. Does the board have any comments or reports that you would like to share? Okay, this is about to be the shortest board member on record, board meeting on record I think. So moving on. Dr. Winston, do you have any additional information to share with us tonight?
- The start of the 25-26 school year is quickly approaching and we are excited to welcome our students back to school on Wednesday, August 6th. To help families prepare, enrollment information is available on our website. Simply visit the resources tab and select families. This section provides details on educational programs for learners of all ages from six weeks old through adult education. You'll also find valuable information on health and student services, extended day programs, transportation,
- child nutrition, international student support, and school transfer options. Our team has been working diligently to ensure a smooth and welcoming start to the school year. We look forward to seeing our students back in classrooms learning, growing, and thriving. At MCCSE, we are guided by our commitment to treat every member of our school community with dignity and respect. We value our schools as welcoming spaces for all families dedicated to meeting the needs of each and every student.
- We are grateful to our families for the trust that they place in us to educate and care for their children. School supplies. Thanks to our referendum from 2023, every child will be provided with school supplies. So families, there will be no supply list that you'll need to follow. On Tuesday, August 5th, from three to 4 p.m., our elementary schools will have and host Meet the Teacher Night.
- All of our schools will host a special time for students and families to visit the school and meet their teacher for the new school year. Additional information about school open houses is available on our website. On Saturday August 23rd from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. our first 25-26 parent university session titled Preparing for High School and Beyond is occurring. Please join us for our first parent university mini conference
- held at the Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship at 444 South Patterson Drive. Tomorrow, our MCCSE online program registration will open up so that we can begin receiving applications for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. A couple of special acknowledgments. On July 10th, the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce
- hosted its Women Excel Bloomington 2025 Awards. Members of my team were honored to attend this event as one of our very own Amanda Shettlesworth, Human Resources Benefits and Compliance Manager was the recipient of a 2025 WEB Award. Congratulations, Amanda. The US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association honored her. It's because you didn't get any coffee. It's okay. It's okay.
- honored Bloomington High School North's Girls Head Cross Country and Boys and Girls Track and Field Coach Justin Helmer as the 2025 Indiana Boys High School US Track and Field State Coach of the Year. We congratulate both Amanda and Coach Helmer for their honors and we appreciate their excellence in MCCSC. I just have a couple of additional remarks. When I began to prepare my remarks for tonight,
- I wanted to begin with all of the wonderful and exciting things that our staff are doing in preparation for the new school year. Our teams are diligently cleaning and polishing our buildings, preparing exciting lesson plans, and getting to know you activities as we prepare to welcome our students and our staff back for what will be an awesome year of learning. Principals are planning on welcoming their teachers back for an exciting year. My team and I will begin welcoming
- welcoming our principals back tomorrow morning. Summer camps are wrapping up. School registrations are well underway. Our directors are finalizing bus routes and making sure we have adequate numbers of drivers to transport our children safely to and from school. Our food service professionals are actively preparing and testing new recipes for the new school year. Our instructional technology team is finalizing our iPad and computer inventory
- so that every student and staff member has the technology that they need on the first day of school. Our maintenance and custodial teams are preparing classrooms, hallways, flower beds, mowing lawns, parking lots. Well, they're not mowing parking lots, but they're cleaning parking lots. And entrances for teachers and students. Our health service department is making sure that we are ready to meet the health needs of our students. Our human resources team, well, they haven't been busy at all.
- actually they've been quite busy, finalizing last minute hiring decisions and making necessary transfers. And our curriculum team is making sure that all of our programs from our new MCCSE online program to our expanded three-year-old programs are ready to go. Our special education department is ensuring that the needs of each and every one of our students
- is at the forefront of our teachers, and they're also rolling out a new system that the state has implemented. We'll see how that goes. That's a lot of work that goes into getting ready to open school, and our team is more than ready to have a spectacular school year. We are so ready and excited to receive more than 10,000 excited children back into our hallways, in our classrooms, our playgrounds, our football and soccer fields, and our
- cross-country trails. Some people say that the holidays are the most exciting times of the year, but I believe that back to school is simply the best. There is the wonder in the eyes of every kindergartner and the anticipation of graduation and adulthood in the hearts of our seniors, while our ninth graders just want to make sure they can find their lockers and their classrooms, all while trying to look like they have it all together.
- And while all of this is true and exciting, I would be remiss if I did not address some of the anxiety and uncertainty that our community has experienced in recent weeks and months. I grappled with two possible themes as I prepared my remarks this evening, leading through uncertainty or leading during turbulent times. The more I thought about it, I realized that I need not pick one because both are true.
- Public education as we know it is at a crossroads and how we respond to the challenges before us will define how well we prepare our children for their futures. As we prepare to open a new school year, it is important to remember that more than 10,000 students will enter our buildings and there will be excitement and happiness and enthusiasm in the air. That's right, more than 10,000 children. Those of us in education have the honor and quite frankly the privilege
- to educate the most important people in our communities, our children. Despite all of the noise, ranging from cuts to school funding, or frozen federal dollars for essential programs, or decreased access for early childhood because of state-level cuts, choice scholarships for private school education on public school dime, or future reductions to property tax revenue because of SEA-1, and more.
- One thing is certain, our teachers, support staff, and administrators will all be laser focused on making sure that every child in every schoolhouse in every seat receives the best education that we have to offer here at MCCSC. We intend to have the best school opening ever. That is our obligation. That is our responsibility. That is our privilege. And we do it better than most. When I agreed to step into this role,
- A short 12 months ago, I promised to lead with my eyes wide open. During the past 12 months, my team and I worked tirelessly to listen intently, to learn as much as we could so that we could lead with integrity, honesty, and transparency. Within my first 30 days, with the full support of the Board of School Trustees, we hired policy analytics.
- an external school finance consulting firm to come in and look at our finances. And they later confirmed that we had a structural imbalance, meaning that our annual expenditures were exceeding our revenue and that if we did not course correct, we would have even more significant financial difficulties in the future. What they meant was that the declining student enrollment that we had experienced since the days of COVID
- a loss of more than 833 students in four years, was causing us to receive fewer dollars each and every year, thus making it difficult to maintain current staffing levels. It's kind of like having a household budget and beginning to notice that all of the things that we need and like to have cost more than we realize. What do you do? Because I know that we've all experienced this at one time or another.
- The first thing you try to do is figure out, where did all of my money go? Now, how many times have you said that? Where did the money go? You might begin tracking your spending more closely. And then all of a sudden, you notice that the price of bread, gasoline, and electricity have all gone up. But your paycheck didn't. It didn't increase at the same time or at the same rate. And it no longer goes as far as it used to. In fact, you noticed that more taxes
- are coming out of your check. So you tighten the belt. You continue monitoring your spending. You change your spending habits. And you begin making tough decisions between your wants and your needs. You go out to eat less often. You pack your lunch for work. You remind the family to turn off the lights when they leave the room. And shut the refrigerator door, please. Sound familiar? You might cut back on your cable bill.
- and make fewer trips to the grocery store. You might do as my dad did and tell us that money doesn't grow on trees, you know. Anybody ever hear that? I might tell them I aged there. In other words, you change your habits so that you can adjust to the new normal. That is what we began doing, tightening our belt and adjusting to our new normal. In fact, this is the new normal throughout public education as well as our society.
- In addition, my team learned that this was not simply an MCCSC issue. We all see it every day. Internet headlines about this school corporation or that school corporation, closing programs, eliminating positions, cutting back. Businesses across the land are also making tough choices in the midst of a rapidly changing economic landscape. Monroe County specifically
- has experienced a 7.7% decline in population during the same period that we've experienced a decline in enrollment, which means that fewer working age families in the 25 to 44 age bracket have children within our communities. As well, we studied local data even further. We read reports from local demographers from IU who noted a decline in birth rates here in Monroe County.
- and throughout the state and the country. And we are already beginning to see this play out based on the number of children that are enrolling in kindergarten each and every year. MCCSE, like many school corporations around the state and throughout the country, are also taking note of the increased cost of utilities, transportation, and insurance. These costs have increased astronomically over the last several years.
- These four challenges, and these are just the four I'm talking about tonight. These four challenges alone, demographic shifts in our community, declining student enrollment, lower birth rates, and increased utilities, transportation, and insurance have caused us to quickly work at the direction of the Board of School Trustees to develop a fiscally responsible and strategic approach to tackle the structural imbalance that was threatening our fiscal future.
- So, in February of this year, we announced our two-year strategy to achieve fiscal balance. Our first priority was to begin examining our staffing levels and to align our staffing with student instructional needs, our declining enrollment numbers, and available revenue. For five years, if you look at our data, and most of that we have posted on our website, you will see that there has been a mismatch between the number of students in our schools
- and the number of staff members that we have employed. What this means is that as our student enrollment decreased from 2020 through 2024, our staffing levels did not go down to match our declining enrollment. This mismatch between declining student enrollment and status quo staffing levels has been well documented across the country. It's not specific to MCCSC. Many school districts, hundreds of school districts have found themselves
- in this identical position. To that end, we prioritized natural attrition as our first strategy. We thought that was one of the most humane approaches to take, to begin tackling our staffing dilemma. This strategy was selected because we know that we have averaged approximately 10 to 12 percent annual attrition for the last several years.
- Natural attrition, for those of you who don't know, refers to staff voluntary departures as a result of retirements or resignations. The second strategy that we prioritize was non-classroom layoffs in targeted areas, including central office. This was important because there were dozens of positions that were created directly in response to COVID that were no longer needed to the same degree.
- As a result, our team restructured a variety of supports and services to more closely align to our current realities. In many ways, we have strengthened the quality of supports and services that we will be able to provide to our children. A third strategy that we employed was to transfer staff to fill vacant positions wherever the need arose instead of hiring from outside of the corporation. Collectively,
- These actions resulted in a reduction of more than 200 positions, which, if they remain unfilled, will save the corporation approximately $7 million annually. $7 million. We are only five months into a 24-month strategy to achieving fiscal balance. Five months into a 24-month strategy. To not take the steps
- that we have taken in the last five months would have been irresponsible at best and negligent at worst. And I applaud our board for their bold direction, sensitive guidance and ongoing support as we have navigated these uncertain times. This journey has not been easy and it is definitely not for the faint of heart. This board has stood up to the task at hand and we are delivering on our promise to this community.
- Our recent release of the Referendum Impact Report is just one example of the commitment of this board to transparency, accountability, and strong stewardship. And I thank each one of you for making me a better leader as we navigate through this uncertainty. I also want to express my gratitude and appreciation to Jenny Noble Kachera, MCEA president, and Randy Tackett, AFSCME president,
- for their advocacy on behalf of the teachers and the support staff that they represent each and every day, and also for their willingness to engage with my administrative team as we grappled with how best to achieve fiscal balance while also maintaining academic excellence. This is no small feat, and I am beyond grateful for their commitment to collaboration and communication. I would be beyond remiss if I did not also thank
- my executive team. Without their hard work, tenacity, and commitment to keeping children at the center, we would not have made as much progress as we have so far. They are behind the scenes every day and most nights making sure that we make thoughtful, deliberate, data-informed decisions that keep our students at the center, while also maintaining the dignity and self-worth of every current,
- and former employee as we work to craft a new staffing strategy for our corporation. Thank you for what you do for our community. While there are many, many individuals helping us do this work, I especially want to extend my thanks to former CFO John Kenney and to my two assistant superintendents, Alexis Harmon and Dr. Jeffrey Henderson. Thank you. Every single educator and employee
- within MCCSE is making sacrifices as we adjust to this new normal. We all will be required to give a little bit more, one degree more, in fact. We all feel it. I feel it. Our collective work, my work specifically, is to make sure that the MCCSE of tomorrow is vibrant, strong, and fiscally stable.
- The MCCSC that we all know and love will continue to keep kids first and we will sustain our commitment to excellence, excellence in the arts, excellence in academics, excellence in athletics, excellence in the quality of our classrooms and in the quality of our facilities, excellence in all that we do. Why? Because our community demands it
- And more importantly, because the children that we get to serve, all of the children that we serve, everybody's children deserve the best that we can provide. But let me be clear, there are still more work to do. I share this information this evening as a brief, okay, maybe not so brief, recap of the last school year so that the public can begin to have a deeper understanding of the challenges
- that are before us. As we prepare to open the 25-26 school year, it is important to know that in spite of these challenges that I have briefly highlighted, I am supremely confident in our ability to navigate both the known and the unknown headwinds. As we prepare to open a new school year in 16 short days, please know that we are very clear on our mission. Our children are in good hands and we will continue to deliver
- on our promise and on our commitment to bring the best that we have into every one of our classrooms and every one of our schoolhouses each and every day. That concludes my report. Thank you so much, Dr. Winston, for those remarks and for all the work that you have done over this past year, you and your executive team and the team beyond the executive team. It's incredible to me how much
- labor goes into starting the school year from every single classroom where every single teacher is getting ready for the start day all the way up the chain. Just thinking about routing and transportation and food services and all of our support staff. I mean, it is really just astounding. We are a tiny city, a microcosm in this broader Bloomington and, you know, takes every single person to make this work.
- And I just want to say, I mean, you have such an incredible team, and I mean that genuinely. And we have such an incredible district. And I hate that at the end of the day, we also have to be bearers of bad news in some ways, because that news is not ours to bear, but it's those to bear at the state level and at the federal level and those individuals who continue to make policy and to make cuts in ways that harm public education.
- And so I just want to put that responsibility for a minute where it belongs, because while you bear it on your shoulders, and your team bears it, and this board bears it, and every teacher and staff person in this district bears it, it is not ours to bear. It should be on the shoulders of others. So that's my comment. And thank you. Anybody else? Anything to say? Comments? Well, you said it so well, I don't think we have anything to add.
- Thank you. You covered every angle, corner, everything. All right. Well, with that, we will close this meeting. The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, and we are adjourned.