Brown County Schools continues to face declining enrollment for various reasons and with that comes a continued loss of funding. But the district continues to bring “world class experiences” to students as they prepare for life after high school.
That was the message Brown County Schools Superintendent Laura Hammack shared with the community gathered to hear her annual report on the school system at the Brown County Playhouse on June 12.
It was the first time Hammack had delivered an annual report to the community on the state of the school district.
“We felt like it was important to begin a tradition of a big moment where we celebrate our successes,” Hammack said, share areas where we recognize a need to improve and talk about the ways in which we are working to realize a world class educational opportunity for our students so that they may become contributing members of our regional workforce.”
One of those successes is Brown County Schools being named a Ready School from the Regional Opportunities Initiative Inc. almost two years ago.
Last year, the district received a $500,000 Ready Schools grant from ROI.
Plans for the money included implementing STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education at all grade levels, funding the Eagle Manufacturing center at the high school, and rebranding the Brown County Career Resource Center as an educational hub for everyone and not just adult students.
Checking in
Through the Ready Schools work, more than 130 interviews were conducted within the community about what makes a successful graduate from Brown County High School. Those interviews helped to form the district’s graduate profile.
It says that students who graduate from Brown County High School will display social, emotional and physical wellness; communicate effectively; engage in curricular and co-curricular opportunities; has prepared for success in a 21st century workforce; and seeks to innovate.
The ROI interviews also helped to define success in Brown County: Students involved in the community; vocational education offerings; developing preschool to adult partnerships in the county; teaching “STEAM,” or incorporating art in STEM education; teaching soft skills, like the importance of handshakes and eye contact at work; and exposing students to entrepreneurship.
Hammack’s report also featured an update on the district’s three system pillars, which were created to ensure students have a successful educational career in Brown County. The pillars are: “The ready student”; innovative teaching and learning; and community and regional engagement.
Implementing Project Lead the Way curriculum from kindergarten to 12th grade is one way the district is trying to create “ready students.” Project Lead the Way content is available in computer science, engineering and biomedical sciences.
“Where the instructional focus is on inspiring creativity and collaborative problem solving,” Hammack said.
Illustrative Mathematics is at the high school level — students learn by solving math problems in real world contexts while constructing arguments.
The research-based mentor program Check and Connect program was deployed this year “where a relationship is developed between a student and a mentor who both advocates and challenges the student to keep education a priority,” Hammack said.
The social emotional learning curricula Second Step and Botin are also being used in all of the schools. Naviance is also used, which is an online college and career readiness program that helps students align their strengths and interests with post-secondary goals, Hammack said.
The district continues to find ways to pair employable skills with workforce certifications and credentials that can be used after high school, like the Governor’s Work Ethic Certificate.
As far as the innovative teaching and learning pillar, Hammack said the “modernization of teaching and learning is truly taking place.”
Earlier this year, the Indiana Department of Education released their six-year STEM strategic plan requiring all students be instructed using the STEM instructional model within six years, including teaching computer science in each grade.
To be prepared for that requirement, Brown County educators have participated in professional development about on topics like computer science and transformation development, Hammack said.
The district is also engaged with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching and the National Center for College and Career Transitions to provide professional development and leadership opportunities for teachers.
Physical learning spaces have also been redesigned to do a “better job of inspiring creativity, innovation and design,” she said.
Two learning spaces, Eagle Manufacturing at the high school and the maker space collaborative learning lab at the junior high school, are “taking learning to new levels where skills for life are truly being built,” Hammack said.
“From the simple art of making to the advanced manufacturing skills necessary to run a PNC mill, our students are leaving the school day with sections of their brain on fire as a result of the way in which engagement has taken place like never before,” she said.
The goal is to put collaborative learning spaces with flexible seating in each school building.
The Brown County Career Resource Center, under the direction of Christy Wrightsman, has also gone through a remodel and rebranding process this past year, Hammack said during her report on the community and regional engagement pillar.
The CRC was identified during ROI work to serve as “a thriving epicenter for the advancement of education no matter where you are in your lifelong educational journey,” Hammack said.
Wrightsman and her team are also offering more options for industry certifications and overall support to students.
Partnerships have been developed between the CRC and local businesses, like Brown County Health and Living, along with Ivy Tech in Bloomington and Columbus Regional Hospital.
“There is truly innovative work happening right now at the CRC, in our schools and among local industry that has never been done before,” Hammack said.
“It’s (the CRC) such a gift to our community.”
Enrollment challenge
In two school years, Brown County Schools has cut their budget by $2.3 million. But more cuts will be needed as less students are predicted to attend school here, which will ultimately affect how much tuition support the district receives.
Each September, a count of students is done to determine the amount of “tuition support” the district will receive from the state. That money goes into the district’s general fund, which pays staff and teachers.
“It is no secret that this school district is facing some pretty serious challenges when it comes to planning for our future,” Hammack said.
Before presenting data on the district’s declining enrollment and state funding, Hammack said the community can choose to take ownership of the data and “be intentional with strategies that will ultimately positively impact the trajectory for which we’re on.”
By school year 2024-2025, Hammack’s enrollment forecast has 1,584 students in Brown County Schools.
For that school year, all of the schools are predicted to be down in enrollment with biggest drops in enrollment predicted for Sprunica Elementary School losing 47 students and Brown County High School losing 42.
“It’s challenging to sustain buildings with enrollments like these, so we want to do is to continue to study our enrollment pattern to assist with making important decisions,” Hammack said.
At the Brown County School Board of Trustees retreat, the board agreed to engage in a professional demographic study to “help inform decision making for our future,” she said.
Class sizes in five years will be below a sustainable average of 23 to 27 students in all of the schools.
“This is problematic for long-term fiscal sustainability, however, we intend to maximize the small school relationships that are developed as a result,” Hammack said.
If estimates are correct, the school district will lose around $1 million over the next five years in tuition support as less students attend school here.
Since 2011, Brown County Schools enrollment has continued to decline when a law allowing students to transfer to other public school districts without paying tuition was passed.
In five years, Hammack predicts the district will be serving between between 516 and 660 less students when compared with school year 2009-2010, Hammack said.
Why do students leave?
Hammack said to turn the enrollment “challenge” into opportunities everyone must understand why enrollment continues to decline.
One of those reasons include a declining birth rate in the county. In 2000, there were about 150 births reported in the county. Now that number is less than 100.
The county’s age 45 and up population has also increased by 73 percent since 2000 while there’s been a decline in the school-aged children population and the child bearing age population, like between the ages of 25 and 44.
And young families who live here are paying a higher cost for childcare as Brown County is ranked the fourth highest in the state for childcare costs, according to the the report.
“We’ve seen it over and over again. Young families would desperately prefer to live in Brown County reside in surrounding counties because of affordability of childcare,” Hammack said.
Finding an affordable home in the county is also a challenge for young families. The mean property value in Brown County is $174,800 compared to $139,400 in Bartholomew County and $149,000 in Johnson County.
“We hear over and over about how they can’t afford to live here,” Hammack said.
Families are also choosing to send their students to surrounding school districts under the transfer law. The district currently has 218 students students attending school outside of the district, which translates to $1.3 million in tuition support going to other districts.
Of those students, 102 attend school in the Nineveh-Hensley Jackson United School Corporation and 28 attend school in Bartholomew County.
The district does have 40 students who attend Brown County Schools over their home district, which adds about $1 million to the school’s budget, Hammack said.
Hammack said parents may choose to send their children to other schools that are closer to their own work.
Other reasons for enrollment decline include sewer and water infrastructure causing issues for families who want to remodel or build homes; a lack of access to broadband internet; going to districts that offer other athletic programming; and the flexibility of online or homeschool options.
A general dissatisfaction with Brown County Schools is another reason, Hammack said.
“We know we have folks who will get upset with something that we’re doing and they will now, because they have the option, choose to move to another location,” she said.
Working together
Hammack said the district is working underneath their three system pillars to make “Brown County Schools the school district of choice in our region.”
“We stand before you with humility to say we cannot do it alone. Now more than ever our community needs to be working together to change the trajectory of our declining school enrollment,” she said.
In January 2017, Hammack announced the district would cut over $1.5 million from the budget. The number of paraprofessionals, teachers and administrators have also decreased through attrition and with no reduction in force notices.
Less staff helps the district’s bottom line as it gets more in line with the number of students attending school here, Hammack said.
For school year 2019-2020 the district will make additional budget reductions totaling $840,000, including the recent approval of a food service program to take over the food service department, which has been running in the negative for the last few years.
“We are getting very lean. It’s going to get harder and harder to hit these marks, but we are committed to making them,” Hammack said.
The cash balance of the general fund is also increasing due to the budget cuts, Hammack said.
In 2017 the cash balance was around $3.4 million and in 2018 it increased to around $3.5 million.
“As an organization we have room for improvement. I know that. I own it. We’re working on it. I also know we have a school community committed to providing the best educational experience for the boys and girls we serve,” Hammack said.
“We care more, we love more and because of that we have to choose option three (take ownership of the challenges and figure out strategies). … The best is yet to come, it truly is. We’re doing the hard work now to realize that end, but we have to do it together.”
