Shelbyville athletics receives $50,000 donation from Barton Kaufman Trust

Thursday, March 27, 2025 at 6:00 AM

The Shelbyville High School Athletic Department is a beneficiary of the Barton L. Kaufman Trust.

On Wednesday at the Shelbyville Central Schools board meeting, a donation of $50,000 for the Golden Bears athletic department was accepted from the Kaufman Trust.

Kaufman (photo), born in 1941 in Shelbyville, died at the age of 83 on Dec. 3, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Kaufman was an All-Big Ten baseball player twice at Indiana University in the early 1960s. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in life insurance in 1962 then graduated three years later from the IU School of Law.

Kaufman’s father, Nate, founded Kaufman Financial Corporation and Bart joined him after graduation. After his father’s death in 1981, Bart served as chairman and CEO of the corporation.

In February 2012, Indiana Athletics announced its new baseball facility would be named Bart Kaufman Field. Four years later, he was inducted into the Shelbyville High School Alumni Hall of Fame.

In other school board business Wednesday:

Recognized Shelbyville High School (SHS) junior Riley Everette for qualifying for the IHSAA State Swimming and Diving Championships on Feb. 14. Everette broke the program’s 100-yard butterfly record during her sectional race.
Approved an overnight field trip for SHS JAG to attend the National Career Development Conference in Indianapolis from April 24-26.
Approved an overnight field trip for SMS Biology students to stay in the Great Smoky Mountains from Nov. 14-16.
Approved the Shelbyville Middle School trip to Washington D.C. from March 13-17, 2026.

Of note, the school board conducted its first paperless meeting, instead using laptops to follow agenda items. Board vice-president David Finkel presided over the meeting in the absence of board president Mike Turner.

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