MCCSC New 2024 School Board District Boundaries and Upcoming Election Details

Monroe County Community School Corporation’s (MCCSC's) school board districts will have new boundaries for the November 2024 school board election, a change that primarily affects potential school board candidates. 

All MCCSC board districts are “at large,” which means everyone in MCCSC can vote for ALL district candidates, not just a candidate in their own district. Another way to think about this is that each board member answers to all MCCSC voters; in theory, each has an obligation and a political incentive to consider the needs of all children in MCCSC. The residential board district boundaries merely impose a geographical limit on who gets to run for each district. 

This has been a long time coming. The last time school board district boundaries were reconfigured was the mid 1990s. (Due to how school board candidates are elected in MCCSC, there are no legal requirements for redistricting to balance out district populations.) 

In 2017, an ad hoc committee of community members, the Community Committee on Educational Equity, requested that the school board reconfigure board district boundaries. The redistricting topic showed up on a couple school board agendas and MCCSC hosted a community conversation on the topic in November 2017. The MCCSC Board opted to defer until the 2020 census to address this long-overdue task. And then the pandemic hit and put a snag in pretty much everything.  
 
In 2023, MCCSC set out to reconfigure the residential board districts and bring the populations of those districts, which varied from fewer than 13,000 in District 5 to more than 22,000 in District 2, into much closer alignment. On July 25, 2023, the school board approved a resolution to adopt the proposed new districts. 

On January 10, 2024, the State Board of Education approved MCCSC’s new school board district boundaries.

You can see below how the districts have changed. (Note that the upper left-hand corner is Richland-Bean Blossom (RBB), the school corporation in Ellettsville. It is not part of MCCSC.) 

New School Board Districts

Former School Board Districts

To get a better view, you can access maps and written boundary descriptions on the MCCSC Board Docs. 

​Details on the meeting where the MCCSC school board approved the redistricting map in addition to the background details were thoroughly reported by Dave Askins/B Square Bulletin. The Indiana Daily Student and Indiana Public Media also covered the story. 

The school board district boundaries can be more clearly seen in the GIS. (Note: The new MCCSC school board district boundaries have yet to hit Elevate. But the school district has requested that they be added there.)  

Note that the MCCSC school board race is nonpartisan. If you vote straight Democrat or Republican, you still have to vote for school board candidates. 

School Board Districts on the Ballot This Fall

MCCSC 
District 2, Currently represented by April Hennessey
District 4. Currently represented by Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer 
District 5, Currently represented by Erin Cooperman
District 6, Currently represented by Ross Grimes

The other 3 districts—1, 3, and 7—will be on the 2026 ballot. 

RBB
RBB At-Large, Currently represented by Bradley Tucker 
Bean Blossom District, Currently represented by Jimmie Dale Durnill
Richland District, Currently represented by Lawrence J DeMoss

The other two seats—one for Bean Blossom and one for Richland—will be on the 2026 ballot. Elections in RBB follow the same approach as MCCSC. Everyone in RBB can vote for ALL RBB district candidates, not just a candidate in their own district. 

Upcoming Election Dates for School Board Races
May 21 – School Board Candidate Filing Opens
June 20 – School Board Candidate Filing Closes
July 3 – Deadline to fill ballot vacancy 
October 7 – Voter registration deadline
October 8 – Early Voting Begins
October 24 – Absentee Ballot applications due
November 4 – Early Voting Ends at Noon
November 5 – Election Day 

How to Run for School Board
Indiana School Boards Association (ISBA) has a good primer on how to file to run. It includes information per who can run as well. Additional information can be accessed on ISBA’s Are You Considering Running for School Board page. There are candidate webinars in May. 

What Does a School Board Member Do? 
ISBA has a write-up that explains what school board members and superintendents do. 

Monroe County School Board Forums
ICPE–Monroe County has partnered with the League of Women Voters and the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce to host school board forums and school board questionnaires for school board candidates in districts up for election in Monroe County Community School Corporation and Richland–Bean Blossom Community School Corporation. School board forums for both MCCSC and RBB will be held before early voting begins—Tuesday, September 24, 2024 (RBB) and Monday, September 30, 2024 (MCCSC). 

How to Help with the School Board Forums
If your organization is interested in being a sponsor of this effort, please reach out to us at [email protected]. Organizations must be nonpartisan. 
If you wish to personally help, formerly join us ICPE-MC and contact us at [email protected]. We could use the help from setting up the placards to time keeping. 


*Note that this post is about MCCSC school board districts, which determine who can run for which school board seat. It is not about school attendance zones.