MCCSC high school schedule report won't be released until new superintendent is chosen

Editor's note: This story was updated to include comments from a committee member who was identified by the committee chair as a dissenter but says she does not actually dissent.

The local school district’s unpopular — and at least delayed — plan to align high school schedules is unlikely, at least by itself, to address academic inequities, members of a local citizens advisory committee said.

“We did not find compelling evidence that changing the schedules would be the solution to inequity,” said Lucy Fischman, chair of the Monroe County Community School Corp. High School Schedules Advisory Committee.

The committee’s report is expected to be finalized in a matter of days — though school board President April Hennessey said the board does not plan to release the report to the public until a new superintendent has been chosen, which could take months.

The district is getting a new superintendent next year because the school board in a 48-second meeting this month unanimously voted to buy out the contract of current Superintendent Jeff Hauswald for $229,000.

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The board did not state why it was separating from the superintendent, but Hauswald had been unpopular in the community in part because of his proposal last fall to align schedules at all four high schools: Bloomington North, Bloomington South, Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship and the Graduation School. The schools now have different schedules. South, for example, has a trimester with 60-minute classes, while the Academy has a semester and 80-minute classes.

The alignment plan lacked support from teachers, parents and students. Some stakeholders said a schedule alignment, no less one for the following school year and on the heels of difficult years during the pandemic, would create challenges for teachers and students, many of whom have been planning their academic careers for years so they can graduate early and/or complete internships.

About 250 community members gathered on the Monroe County courthouse lawn in late October to oppose the alignment plan. A few days later, after comments from 45 people, including heart-wrenching testimony from students, the school board wrested control of the process away from the superintendent.

In December, the board appointed eight members to a 15-member citizens advisory committee to determine whether a high school schedule alignment would improve academic outcomes, especially among marginalized communities.

According to testimony in their most recent meeting, committee members generally agreed inequities exist in the district but found schedules were unlikely to be the root cause and a schedule alignment would not provide relief — or enough relief — to warrant such a significant change.

Members also said more analysis was needed to determine how best to address the inequities and the district needs to watch out for unintended consequences.

Fishman and committee member Bronwyn Shroyer also said while a majority of committee members agreed on those points, a minority disagreed, with one member believing there was enough evidence the trimester schedule contributes to equity disparities.

Fischman said Bloomington High School North Assistant Principal Jenna Clark was among the dissenters. Clark did not reply to an emailed inquiry but instead forwarded the inquiry to the MCCSC administration. The current administration has a policy requiring all media requests be submitted through the communications department. The online request form indicates a response time of 48 hours, which was past this story’s deadline.

Clark said via email three days after the article's online publication that she was disappointed to be named as a dissenter.

"At no time did I share a dissenting opinion of any schedule, including all of those observed in our four high schools," she said. "I did not share any opinions or beliefs regarding a trimester schedule contributing to disparities."

Data the committee inspected included graduation rates among Black, Hispanic and special education students at Bloomington High School South, which fell sharply in 2023 compared to other student groups. Graduation rates for Black students fell more than 20 percentage points, to 68.8%, from 2022 to 2023. Graduation rates for Black students had been as high as 100% in the five prior years.

Hennessey, the board president, said via email the board is not releasing the report until the new superintendent has reviewed it so that he or she can “form their own thoughts/ideas/opinions before the community does.

“It is a matter of process and respect for whoever takes this position next that we set them up for success by ensuring that these transitions are as clean as possible,” she said. “It does no good to publish a report in the middle of transition when nothing can really be accomplished.”

Hennessey said the release of any report by a citizens advisory committee is established under Policy 9140, which reads, in part, “When a committee is ready to submit a report on its assigned topic, the Superintendent shall arrange a meeting for the purpose of receiving the report.”

The school board is scheduled to meet Tuesday, March 26, at 6 p.m. You can attend in person at the MCCSC Co-Lab, 553 E. Miller Drive, or watch virtually at mccsc.edu/boardmeeting.

Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: MCCSC Bloomington high school schedule alignment report findings