MCCSC: MCCSC to slow hiring, introduce cost-cutting measures as part of new financial plan

Monroe County Community School Corp. will start to reduce staff and explore other cost-cutting measures as the corporation braces for decreased enrollment and revenue in the coming years. The reduction in staff is just one of several strategies MCCSC will ultimately employ to reduce costs as part of a two-year, five-phase strategic financial plan. The plan was announced by MCCSC Superintendent Markay Winston during February's school board meeting. Community leaders and teachers welcome students to their first day of school at Fairview Elementary on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. More Winston said the corporation will "carefully reassess" whether to backfill the positions of people who resign or retire this spring. MCCSC said approximately 80-100 teachers and 250-300 support staff retire or resign each year. The strategic plan comes in direct response to a November recommendation by a demographic consultant f or MCCSC to consider closing or consolidating schools in the face of local and statewide population decreases. While Winston and board members did not discuss closing schools during the meeting, Winston said multiple approaches, including "resource optimization" will be used to achieve financial stability as the gap between MCCSC's costs and revenues widens. "There are not enough one-time fixes to address our structural imbalance," Winston said. Winston said slowing population growth and enrollment rates have cost MCCSC approximately $17.2 million in "lost revenue" since 2020, a trend that's expected to continue in the years and decades to come. MCCSC's enrollment has decreased by 835 students, or 7.66%, since 2020. The Indiana Business Research Center projects Monroe County's school-age population (ages 5 to 19) will decrease by 1,053 children, or over 4%, in the next decade. Across the state, all counties outside the Indianapolis metro area are expected to see population decreases in the next three decades. Winston said the rate at which MCCSC has been hiring and adding new positions in recent years is "unsustainable," especially after MCCSC increased teacher and support staff wages with the 2022 referendum. "While there is no one who would dispute the fact that our teachers are deserving of salary increases, the reality is that our current staffing levels do not meet the current student enrollment levels," Winston said. At the same time, families in the district have enrolled their children in more charter and private schools since 2020. From the 2021-22 to 2024-25 school years, the number of students in MCCSC's attendance zone who started attending outside schools increased from 1,158 to 1,637. Fairview teacher Kelly O'Brien helps a student in her classroom on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. In the 2024-25 school year, 38% of those inside the attendance zone who didn't attend MCCSC schools went to charter schools, while 36% attended private schools. These enrollment changes come at a time when the Indiana Legislature is weighing two bills that could further impact MCCSC's finances. Senate Bill 518 would require public schools to share local property tax revenue with charter schools , while Senate Bill 1, a tax relief bill, could limit how much school corporations are able to collect in property taxes through referendums . In November, MCCSC's demographics consultant said it would be unwise for the corporation to redistrict students without strongly considering closing some schools first. His report included 14 scenarios for potential redistricting, five of which included closing or consolidating Childs Elementary. Winston didn't offer many concrete actions beyond the plan to strategically reevaluate staff vacancies that open up this spring. A webpage for the strategic plan references "establishing a revised financial management plan that optimizes revenue generation, resource optimization, reserve building, operational efficiency, and strategic staffing" that will be implemented, in phases, over two years. Tim Dowling, director of early learning and enrollment, said MCCSC will create a "redistricting study commission" that will meet for the first time in March. Dowling said information will go out in the next week about who can participate and how community members can get involved. Winston said she and her team will provide quarterly updates on the strategic plan during board meetings. Winston, Dowling and MCCSC communications director Sarah DeWeese did not immediately respond to questions about whether the strategic plan would include discussions of closing or consolidating schools. More information about the strategic financial plan, including a PDF and video recording of Winston's presentation, is available online at www.mccsc.edu/strategy . Reach Brian Rosenzweig at brian@heraldt.com . Follow him on Twitter/X at @brianwritesnews . This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: MCCSC financial plan calls for smaller staff cost-cutting