SCS educators express frustration with staff reductions for next school year

Shelbyville Central Schools educators are already feeling the budget crunch for the 2026-2027 school year.

Jonathan Baldwin, a fourth grade teacher at Coulston Elementary School and President-Elect of the Shelbyville Central Teachers Association, appeared before the SCS board Monday urging continued support for educators and their needs as budgets get tighter.

Baldwin urged the school board to consider:

• Examining administrators’ roles across the district
• Consider cuts in operations budgets before using funds from the education fund
• Do not reduce the number of instructional assistants in schools

Two Loper Elementary School educators followed Baldwin at the podium to speak during the public comment section of the meeting expressing frustration with cutbacks in library staffing and STEM programs in the next school year.

“We do look at every way we can possibly save money. We’ve done a lot of different things,” said SCS Superintendent Dr. Matt Vance (photo) to the group of people who showed up to support the speakers at Monday’s monthly meeting. “I understand a reduction is not exactly popular. I wish we were not in that situation. We are doing everything we can.”

Vance stated the school system is not eliminating teaching positions. For the second straight school year, there will be seven certified positions with openings that will not be filled. That includes an administrative position, according to Vance.

“We saved $1.2 million coming into this school year. Right now, we are about $1.1 million for the next school year,” he said.

“One way we could have done this is just cut a lot of people and that would give us the money we needed,” continued Vance. “We don’t want to do that. We are doing everything we can to try and keep people in positions and in jobs. That’s why it’s a reduction (in staff) and not an elimination.”

The school board delivered special recognition at the meeting to four educators who have been with the school system for 25 years. They are:

• Loper Elementary’s Kim Berry
• Shelbyville Middle School’s Joe Anspaugh
• Shelbyville High School’s Christopher Lux
• Shelbyville High School counselor Jolynn Badgero

Also honored was Shelbyville High School’s Academic Team that recently won a state championship at Purdue University. The interdisciplinary team was comprised of Aiden Alton, Jessica Price, Kenneth Wright, Mylez Clark, Toby Wettrick, Sophia Wainscott and Lucille Haacker.

Vance closed the meeting with updates on current construction projects within the school district.

The Shelbyville Middle School renovation is on schedule and under budget, according to Vance. Phase two is expected to be done by the end of this month.

The renovation of the bathrooms and locker rooms at Shelbyville High School are off schedule but still under budget. Locker rooms are still expected to be completed before the start of the fall sports season.

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