Teachers in Monroe County Community School Corporation’s Title 1 schools will receive lower supplemental pay for the 2025-26 school year.
Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is a federal funding program that provides financial support to schools with a high number of low-income students. MCCSC has paid for these supplements from the Education Fund, which is funded by per-pupil student support payments from the state.
There are seven Title 1 schools in the corporation: Templeton, Fairview, Summit, Highland Park, Grandview, Arlington and Clear Creek. At MCCSC’s board meeting Tuesday night, board members voted unanimously to reduce supplemental pay for teachers in these schools amid state budget cuts to due to reductions in state funding that has supported the supplemental payments.
During the 2023-24 school year, MCCSC proposed the board approve $1,000 for every teacher who works fulltime in an elementary “priority school.”
For the 2024-25 school year, MCCSC had increased the supplement to $2,000. For the 2025-26 school year, the board voted to decrease that payment back to $1,000. But starting next year, there will be no supplemental pay for teachers in Title 1 priority schools.
Even though all board members voted in favor of the reduction, they had some qualms doing so.
“I don't think that this was an easy decision for any of us, and I personally regret that we are in the position where we have to consider this,” said Vice President Erin Cooperman.
Board member Ashley Pirani said she was not comfortable with the decision, but that they had to do it anyway. Board President April Hennessey agreed.
“We implemented this because we understood those particular challenges, especially in retention,” Hennessey said. “But you know, I do think that we know that at this point we are in this spot where we have to make these kinds of fiscal decisions in order to be able to make other sorts of offerings.”
Jenny Noble-Kuchera, Monroe County Education Association president, said about 225 teachers are affected. She asked the board and community to consider how best to retain teachers amid this change. Teachers also won’t be receiving a base salary raise for the next two years.
“What are the alternative sources?” she said. “It seems to us that the legislature, with this, was just one more notch on their belt of public education dismantlement.”
Will it be a snow day?
With the snowy and cold weather this past week, various school districts across the state have either closed or had delays. MCCSC has had three eLearning days and a two-hour delay in the last two weeks. MCCSC Superintendent Markay Winston explained how she makes the decision.
Winston said she’s up late into the night talking with meteorologists about the weather and how to proceed with the school day. Maintenance personnel also drive around the county to assess road conditions.
“I get lots of inquiries about, ‘I look out my window and I can see the streets. Why are we closed? Why are we having eLearning?’” she said. “And I can look out my window, too. And if that is the only metric for determining whether or not we have in-person school, we would have in-person school every day of the week, because I happen to live within the city limits, but we have hundreds and thousands of children who don't live within the city limits, and we have country roads that are not paved and that are full of snow.”
While she understands how these decisions, which are sometimes made at the last minute, can inconvenience families, Winston said she wants kids to be safe. Besides road conditions, she also takes into account low temperatures and the wind chill, which dropped below zero last weekend.
“I will not have children standing and waiting for a bus in that kind of temperature,” she said. “And if it means I get 100 more frustrated and angry emails, then I would say, bring those on. That would be irresponsible. I don't want my child, you don't want your child standing in those kinds of conditions.”
The state requires that students have 180 instructional days; Winston said she makes sure eLearning instruction meets the Indiana Department of Education’s definition of instructional time. The corporation still has two built-in snow days it most likely won’t use until January, when more snow is possible.
The next board meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 27 at 6 p.m.
