In short: After identifying unfunded needs, MCCSC sought community through a survey, advisory committee and consultation with business leaders and early childhood educators
In detail: Among MCCSC’s discussed and published Goals & Priorities for 2021 through 2025 is a funding goal of “Increasing funding from local sources through community approved initiatives.” In November 2022, voters supported this goal in a vital way by approving an operating fund referendum of 18.5 cents. This served an essential twofold purpose of:
1) funding programming that otherwise would have been at risk as the 2016 operating fund referendum expired at the end of 2022, and
2) allowing the school corporation to significantly boost salaries and wages for all staff, making MCCSC more competitive in attracting and retaining the kind of staff on which the district’s high-quality education relies.
MCCSC is always taking inventory of the learning opportunities it offers, including removing financial limitations for students and families. After listening to families and local employers and realizing that state legislators would not be fully funding early childhood education, the school corporation took several steps, with a Family-Centered & Community-
Focused initiative in mind. The district: