MCCSC referendum passed in Tuesday's election

Late and long nights in the basement of the Monroe County Community School Corporation Administration Center have been the reality for the “mommy brigade.”

Their reality has come to this, anxiously watching the results of the referendum unfold.

The long days that turned into early mornings paid off when 61 percent (12,084) voted yes for the MCCSC School Tax Levy Referendum.

“The future will be bright for the next six years,” John T. Coopman, superintendent of schools said.

Three of the “mommy brigade’s” members include Jenny Stevens, Caroline Shaw and Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer, all mothers of more than one child in the school district.

The volunteers are at the core of the “Vote Yes On #2 Our Students Need You” campaign. In fact, Shaw and Stevens have been working furiously since Sept. 23, when they decided to organize a canvassing system. Since then, Shaw, Stevens and other volunteers said they have been getting five hours of sleep or less a night and working 70 to 80 hour weeks for free.  

“This just shows what dedicated parents can do when they put their lives on hold,” Stevens said. “We put our lives on hold while our kids were having mental breakdowns.”

Coopman said the volunteers, including retired teachers and parents, were an essential part of making the referendum pass.

The parents put their lives on hold to help make this referendum, a 14-cent property tax increase for the next six years, pass. This means the average Monroe County property owner will pay an extra $95 in property taxes each year, Coopman said. The referendum will prevent school programs from being cut, teachers from being laid-off and schools from closing.

For Fuentes-Rohwer, her life aligned at just the right time to help with the referendum. She was free during the day because she no longer had to make a run to pick up one of her children from the preschool. Her days were open, but she filled them by spending her time canvassing and organizing volunteers.

On Tuesday, she was running out of the house and gave her 6-year-old son a granola bar and milk and had her 11-year-old daughter get his car seat as she ran out the door. Then she looked at her son and realized she hadn’t even spoken to him.

But she said this sacrifice is worth the benefits of the referendum passing.   

To them, it was not just about their children. It was about approximately 10,000 students in the district, Stevens said.  

Stevens has a daughter who graduated from Bloomington High School North in 2008.

She didn’t want her 9-year-old, who goes to Childs Elementary School, to go to a school where there were fewer opportunities. A school with no librarians. A school with no foreign language. A school with a poor student-to-teacher ratio.

However, a high student-to-teacher ratio has already begun to be a reality within the MCCSC school district.  

And since the referendum passed, the adverse effects of budget cuts will begin to disappear. Beginning in the fall, class sizes will begin to shrink and positions will be restored, Coopman said.

“We want to best utilize and maximize the benefits for the children,” he said.

Tammy Miller, principal of Clear Creek Elementary School, said she knows all about large classroom sizes. The largest class at Clear Creek is 36. Two classroom teachers were laid-off, and teachers were reassigned to different grades.

The referendum passing will help ease the uncertainty that has swept the school district. Miller said because she has been wearing “Vote Yes On #2 Our Students Need You,” shirts the kids kept wondering if they were going to lose Ms. Larson, the media specialist at Clear Creek, for the second time.

With the referendum passing, students will no longer have to wonder which staff member they will lose next.