Outside of Templeton, in line for the car drop-off. Monroe County Community School Corporation board members proposed merging Templeton and Childs Elementary Schools to balance socioeconomic disparities.
(WTIU News, Bente Bouthier)
It’s a flurry of activity for Sam Tobin-Hochstadt and Katie Edmonds on a weekday morning – getting a preschooler and kindergartener out the door.
Brushing teeth, combing hair, eating breakfast, shoes, jackets, bags... and then they’re off.
Edmonds takes their daughter, Hannah, to daycare. Tobin-Hochstadt usually bikes with their son, Leo, to kindergarten at Childs Elementary. But today they’re walking.
Edmonds gets her daughter Hannah ready for daycare. (WFIU/WTIU News)
“I walked to elementary school every day with my dad as a kid,” Tobin-Hochstadt said. “And I really wanted to be able to do that with my kids.”
When the Monroe County Community School Corporation proposed a merger between Childs and Templeton Elementary Schools, walkable infrastructure and transportation logistics were some of their top concerns. The suggested grade split for pre-k through second grade and third through sixth also posed challenges, splitting their kids into separate elementary schools.
“We would potentially have kids at two different schools instead of having them be at the same school,” he said. “And that just makes everything much more difficult.”
Tobin-Hochstadt walks his son down High Street to kindergarten at Childs Elementary School, about a mile away from their house. (WTIU/WFIU News, Bente Bouthier)
The merger is meant to balance socioeconomic status of families between the schools. Childs has one of the lowest rates of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch in the district, while Templeton has one of the highest.
“I totally understand why the board is trying to address this and why it's been a challenge for them to come up with strategies to address,” Tobin-Hochstadt said.
The school board voted Tuesday to start evaluating redistricting options. He and his wife, Edmonds, said they support this strategy over the merger because it addresses inequalities among the schools more widely.
Across town, Colleen Rose goes over homework before school with her daughter, Anne Kash, who is in third grade. Her fifth grader, Noel, plays a piano rendition of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood", practicing for class.
It’s a typical morning at their house, before packing up for a drive to Templeton Elementary.
“So, I do mornings because my spouse is a teacher, and he heads out,” Rose said. “So, I get the girls ready.”
Rose works on a math problem with her daughter, Anne Kash, who is in third grade. She says understands people's logistial concerns, but is worried efforts to balance socioeconomic disparities will stall if the merger doesn't go through. (WFIU/WTIU News, Bente Bouthier)
They were excited to hear about the proposed merger between Templeton and Childs. Her husband is a teacher in the district, and they have experience with Fairview and Templeton–which have some of the highest rates of students on free and reduced lunch.
“There's so much concentrated poverty and thus, trauma in the classrooms," Rose said. "That it makes it really difficult to teach. It makes it difficult for kids to learn.”
Her family likes Templeton, its teachers, and the education they receive there.
“We wanted our kids to have an opportunity to while they were young, to experience people who may have different stories from them, different experiences from them, and it has been mostly positive.”
But she said kids coming from generational poverty are shortchanged by the imbalance.
This week, the school board held sessions at Jackson Creek Middle School and Templeton to gather public feedback and hold public discussion on the merger.
April Hennessey, the school board president, says MCCSC is set on addressing educational access in the district as part of its five-year strategic plan, and the merger is one idea.
Hennessey said at both the Wednesday meeting at Jackson Creek Middle School and Thursday meeting at Templeton that the board discussions were limited in interaction with the pubic because of legal restraints. Both meetings opened with public comment and then led into board discussion. (WFIU/WTIU News, Bente Bouthier)
“That isn't just about balancing SES, it's about the disciplinary disparity in our schools, and how that impacts certain populations differently than others,” she said. “It's about, the sort of hiring of diverse individuals that represent our students and our school communities.”
Hennessey said the board proposed the merger as an idea to be evaluated with the community, which is why more analyses hasn’t been done prior to bringing it to the public.
“I've heard things like, ‘Well, we should have started with a better plan.’ But then I've also heard things like, ‘Well, we want transparency, and we want to be part of making the plan.’”
Edmonds left Wednesday’s meeting with mixed feelings. The initial merger proposal's implementation goal for August 2024 was stressful for her family. She doesn't understand why it was that soon if the board is gathering information.
“I think a lot of us would support being redistricted into Templeton,” Edmonds said. “I know I would. And yet, we're very uncomfortable with this method of splitting up the schools in a strange way.”
At Thursday’s meeting, Hennessey said she does not support a merger for the coming school year, because it would not give parents and teachers time to prepare. Board member Ashley Pirani echoed this. Hennessey added she is only one of seven people on the board. Not all of them could state their position, because it could constitute a vote outside of regular meetings.
Rose attended the meeting at Templeton Thursday night. A licensed social worker, she’s waited a long time for disparities between schools to be addressed. She will be disappointed if a merger doesn’t happen, but not surprised.
“The proof will be in the pudding. It's been 30 years since we've redistricted," Rose said. "So, I hope we're ready to do what we need to do and not have another 30 years.”
She does feel optimistic about the board’s commitment to addressing disparities between schools.
The board will discuss the merger again at its March meeting. They’re advertising for experts currently to provide information on redistricting.
