'Think Big': Public encourages MCCSC to look into redistricting

Monroe County Community School Corp. will host in-person and online forums before making a decision on whether to merge elementary schools in the district.

MCCSC parents, teachers and schoolchildren criticized a proposal to combine Childs and Templeton and University and Fairview elementary schools Tuesday during a period of heated public comment before the school board.

Commenters addressed the lack of formal research surrounding the proposed merger, raised concerns about the impact to school culture and student commutes, and repeatedly encouraged the board to slow down a “rushed” proposal. The merger idea was introduced last month and lacks an established timeline for a vote.

“I’ve heard a lot about rushed timelines, but we have actually proposed no timeline for this, aside from opening this day up for discussion,” April Hennessy, president of the MCCSC board, said. “And so I just want us to be open together, and that’s my request as we begin this process.”

Public comment also focused heavily on the idea of pursuing a full redistricting of school zones, a process that last occurred at MCCSC in 2005.

The board voted to continue discussion of merging Childs and Templeton in March and said it would create both an online discussion forum and host teacher and parent forums.

Public comment reveals wide range of concerns about merger

Public opinion was vastly divided. Some speakers voiced support for the solution, saying said the district needs to balance the economically segregated schools urgently. Others decried the proposal as lacking key research and analysis and encouraged the board to slow down.

Colleen Rose, a parent of two Templeton students, said Monroe County had an “irrefutable” problem with a segregated school system, and said the merger was an opportunity for Bloomington to show its “true colors.”

“I fear that privileged voices will drown the viability of a merger in a million micro-arguments focused on inconvenience and timing, and in doing so, continue to kick this can down the road. This is unacceptable,” Rose said. “To not take action now is to say, both as a community and to our kids, that we prefer segregation over progress.”

Kristi Howard-Shultz is a Templeton parent and secretary of the school’s PTO who spoke on behalf of a few PTO members. Howard-Shultz raised concerns about how the proposed merger would impact Templeton’s multi-age classrooms, transportation times and accessibility, and the potential loss of its Title I certification, which relies on at least 40% of the school’s students qualifying for free and reduced lunch.

“We also feel that we do not have enough information to understand this proposal and our position on it,” Howard-Shultz said. “We are very afraid that families that are already on the margins would essentially be extraordinarily burdened by the current proposal.”

Katie King, a clinical social worker and parent of a Templeton Elementary student, encouraged the board to be conscientious in considering the timing of the proposal just a few years after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I feel the last school year was a recovery year; this is the first school year in four years that feels kind of normal,” King said. “I feel very concerned that we are introducing this shift in our most vulnerable children's lives following a pandemic that has caused academic and emotional challenges for almost every child.”

Conversations about redistricting emerge

Constituents with varying opinions on merging schools encouraged board members to consider redistricting. Hauswald had previously mentioned redistricting during December’s meeting, which he described as a lengthier, more litigious process that requires additional analysis to ensure compliance with state and federal laws.

Gabriel Holbrow, a zoning planner for the city of Bloomington and parent of two Fairview students, said he believed the current proposal overlooked key equity issues in merging the schools, and said the proposal didn’t go far enough in balancing socioeconomic status (SES) in Monroe County.

“This proposal does nothing to address concentrations of poverty at Arlington Heights, Highland Park and other schools, or the concentrations of wealth in Rogers-Binford or Marlon,” Holbrow said. “I implore the board and the administration to look at corporation-wide redistricting, to look at geographically non-contiguous districts, to think big. If you're going to break some eggs, please give us a delicious omelet.”

Aileen Wenzel, an attorney at the Indiana University Foundation and a parent of three Childs Elementary students, said the current proposal lacked necessary research, and warned the decision could sow further distrust between the public and the school board following a year of contentious decisions and disputes about transparency.

“Little research equals lack of trust, and to be frank, there isn’t a lot of trust between the community and this administration,” Wenzel said. “This proposal appears to me to be, at best, a poorly thought-out, short-sighted plan and at worst, a run-around redistricting. Sure, redistricting is more complicated. But just because something is harder doesn't mean we don’t do it.”

School board members raise concerns about stalling conversation

During the board’s discussion, Hennessy said Tuesday’s public comment was “the most conversation I’ve ever seen on a full redistricting” within MCCSC. Hennessy said the board was open to those discussions, but said she worried doing so could stall efforts balance SES now.

“I am willing to take that on, I think there are many people on this board who are potentially willing to take that on. But I do know that – and there’s data to support this – that redistricting is often a much more litigious process,” Hennessy said. “So 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.”

Councilmember Erin Cooperman echoed some of these comments, saying discussions of mergers and redistricting were not “either ors.”

“There’s been this discussion of merger and redistricting as if they’re mutually exclusive options, and I think it’s important to keep in mind that they don’t have to be,” Cooperman said. “A merger would be, maybe, a first step, and then redistricting as a larger solution for the whole district later.”

Following discussion, the board seemed to settle on a plan to solely address the Childs-Templeton merger at the March meeting, though it’s unclear if merging Fairview and University may come up in further discussions.

Councilmember Cathy Fuentes-Rowher spoke during the meeting of the urgency of working towards solutions.

"What I think is very important is that we don’t defend a status quo of segregation, which has historic and systemic and structural histories that we have to be aware of,” Fuentes-Rowher said. “And so when we are sharing our school, our space, our neighborhoods, my child’s future is wrapped up in your child’s future in a very intimate way.”

Reach Brian Rosenzweig at brian@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Public split over MCCSC proposal to merge Childs, Templeton