Monroe County school corp. to examine redistricting for first time since 2005
The Monroe County Community School Corp. school board will explore redistricting its elementary school attendance zones, a process that last occurred at the corporation in 2005.
If plans move forward, the school board aims for redistricting to be implemented in the 2025-2026 school year. The board voted to begin advertising for “experts in the area of demography, population, and districting” to establish criteria to guide the redistricting plan's development over the next three months.
This would be the first redistricting at MCCSC since 2005, and the first to comprehensively reexamine elementary school attendance zones since 1997.
The decision comes after public comment on a proposed merger of Childs and Templeton elementary schools during last month’s board meeting revealed widespread support for corporation-wide redistricting. During the January board meeting, several parents urged the school board to pump the brakes on the proposed merger and consider redistricting to address the elementary schools' economic disparities, the stated intent of the merger.
“I implore the board and the administration to look at corporation-wide redistricting, to look at geographically non-contiguous districts, to think big,” Gabriel Holbrow, a zoning planner for the city of Bloomington and parent of two Fairview students, said during last month’s meeting. “If you’re going to break some eggs, please give us a delicious omelet.”
MCCSC Superintendent Jeff Hauswald first introduced the proposal to merge Childs and Templeton and University and Fairview elementary schools in December as a way to balance Bloomington’s vastly economically-divided elementary schools. The proposal has been critiqued for its lack of research, potential disruption to transportation and school cultures, and its failure to address district-wide socioeconomic status (SES) issues.
The motion to explore redistricting was introduced by MCCSC president April Hennessy and approved unanimously by all seven board members. No board members commented on the resolution before voting for it.
Hennessy said at last month’s meeting she and her fellow board members were open to redistricting, while saying they feared the lengthier, more complicated process could halt progress with balancing SES.
“This is one of those things that can be held out again, and again and again until it dies. And that is what I don’t want to see, because that’s what we’ve seen before,” Hennessy said at the time.
Public comment encourages board to end merger discussions
Although the board is beginning redistricting discussions, the Childs-Templeton merger is still set to be discussed during next month’s meeting. Board members made no comment on the merger proposal during Tuesday’s meeting.
During the public comment period, several parents urged board members to sunset discussions of a merger.
“With all due respect, if you want community support for redistricting, you need to end the discussion of the Childs-Templeton merger as efficiently as you ended the discussion of the Fairview-University merger,” said Aileen Wenzel, a parent at Childs Elementary.
Dani Raymond, another MCCSC parent, said the redistricting resolution addressed several key concerns she had about the proposed merger, including referring to expert opinions and establishing a set timeline for the 2024-2025 school year. Raymond expressed support for redistricting and ending talks about a merger. She encouraged board members to “walk all the way back” and focus on restoring public trust and coalition-building as they proceed with redistricting plans.
“I think we have an incredible opportunity with this school board and this leadership to create something incredible in this community,” Raymond said. “But if we do not build a coalition of community support around whatever decision we make, we will not be able to move forward with any plan.”
Reach Brian Rosenzweig at brian@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: MCCSC to examine redistricting to balance economic disparities
