On Tuesday, August 25, the Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) Board of School Trustees heard various updates and engaged in discussion.
Facilities Master Plan
Superintendent Dr. Markay Winston shared that the MCCSC would begin a Facilities Master Planning (FMP) process: the “Designing and Building to Sustain Excellence” initiative. The process will allow the MCCSC to design high-quality academic, artistic, and athletic environments aligned with community and student needs in the next 10 years.
Over the next 8-10 months, approximately, the process will evaluate student educational needs, local demographic trends, ongoing maintenance needs, financial projections, safety and security, and more. The community and MCCSC families, teachers, staff and students will be involved in planning.
“Our facilities should reflect and support the academic experiences we want for every student who enters our doors,” said Winston. “Our ‘Why’ for having a Facilities Master Plan is so that we have a collaboratively developed roadmap that serves to align our facilities to the educational needs of our students and the values that are of the utmost importance to our community.”
The Facilities Master Plan is intended to provide the MCCSC Board of School Trustees with objective data and community input to help inform all Board discussions, including financial planning, potential redistricting, building modernization, or other topics.
Regular updates on the FMP will be shared publicly.
Preparing for a Strong School Year Start
Alexis Harmon, assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction, and assessment, highlighted the preparations for the school year opening. A few highlights include:
- All schools hosted welcoming events for students and families.
- MCCSC safety terminology was updated to align with the Standard Response Protocol (SRP), published on the MCCSC School Safety website.
- More than 530 students are enrolled in 3-Year-Old Preschool and 4-Year-Old Pre-K programs through MCCSC or partner providers. Thanks to public support for the 2023 referendum, most families enroll at no cost or less than half cost.
Human Resources and Bond-Funded Projects Update
Dr. Jeffry Henderson, assistant superintendent for human resources and operations, welcomed new teachers hired in the personnel report.
Henderson also shared updates on bond-funded building projects, including the opening of the new facilities in the Bloomington North Athletics and Parking Improvement Project. The project includes new track and field throwing facilities, an athletic facilities building with visitor locker rooms, a synthetic turf soccer field, batting cages, a concessions area, and a new parking lot.
Financial Planning
Chief Financial Officer Matt Irwin shared the school corporation’s quarterly update on its 2-Year Strategy to Achieve Financial Balance. The strategy was announced in February of 2025 to establish a sustainable budget in the face of declining student enrollment, decreases in state and federal funding, local population decline, and expenditure growth in employee wages and benefits. Irwin showed that MCCSC has progressed from a negative cash balance projection for 2028 to a positive cash balance projection.
“This picture is showing us what we want to see,” said Irwin of a financial projection chart. “Cash balance projections show that we are moving into a position of financial strength.”
Redistricting Study Discussion
The Board of School Trustees also discussed the findings of the MCCSC Redistricting Study Commission, a group of 92 teachers, staff members, parents, guardians, students, and community members. The Commission’s findings were shared at the April 2026 Board of School Trustees meeting and are on the mccsc.edu/redistricting website.
Board members discussed broadening the definition of redistricting to restructuring or reorganization.
“My position is that some kind of redistricting, reorganization, or restructuring, is inevitable,” said Board President Erin Cooperman. “Even if we were willing to say socioeconomic balance is not part of our criteria. Even if cost effectiveness alone were our only criteria — which, I don’t think it should be — but even if that were it, I think this report said that our current utilization rate is 69% across the corporation and that the industry standard is 85%. So even if we were only talking about redistricting, reorganization, or restructuring, to adjust for declining enrollment and financial realities, I personally think it’s inevitable.”
The Board also discussed the need to define parameters for what redistricting should achieve. As a few examples, Board members mentioned defining the maximum gap between the highest and lowest free and reduced lunch percentages at schools, or a cost savings metric.
Following discussion, collectively, the Board of School Trustees directed Superintendent Winston to organize a work session for them to discuss parameters as their next step in redistricting consideration.
“There is not a lot we can task the administration with until we begin to define those parameters,” said Board member April Hennessey.
The public can stay updated on MCCSC news and find the MCCSC public financial dashboard and more at mccsc.edu/community.