Shelbyville Central Schools board approves new five-year contract for superintendent

The Shelbyville Central Schools board approved a new five-year contract for Superintendent Dr. Matt Vance.

That contract was approved Monday at the board’s monthly meeting. Dr. Vance (photo), who is in the final month of his fourth year serving as superintendent, did not ask for a salary increase and was happy to accept a five-year contract – the longest a school board is allowed to approve.

The new contract begins July 1and runs through June 30, 2031.

“The five-year contract means a lot to me because it’s the most they can do,” said Vance. “I just sincerely appreciate the board doing that. I do love working here in this district and in this community.”

Debt Collections

Despite making progress on collecting negative balances on food accounts, SCS still must write off a substantial amount of debt.

No child is denied a meal in the SCS system, but those meals are not free to the school system. With the assistance of TRECS, the school system is doing better in collecting on unpaid meal balances.

“It’s a substantial amount and it’s accumulated over the years,” said Dr. Vance. “We are doing a much better job with this TRECS system. That helps us collect a lot of our food service debt and our textbook debt from the last few years.”

TRECS allows individual income tax refunds to be intercepted to pay off outstanding debt.

In June of 2025, the school board moved $175,000 from the Operations Fund due to negative balances. Since then, with the assistance of TRECS, as much as $33,000 has been collected.

The school system encourages families to apply for reduced or free lunches to help offset the costs for those that need assistance.

The form for the 2026-2027 school year will be available July 1 on the school system’s website.

“Children need to eat,” said Dr. Vance. “People say well there is one way to stop that (debt) … but we are not going to do that. Children need to eat. That is important to us.”

2027-2028 calendar

The calendar for the 2027-2028 school year was approved Monday. The first day for students will be Aug. 4, 2027, and the school year will end on May 19, 2028.

Fall break will occur Oct. 4-8. Winter break is Dec. 20 through Jan. 3. Spring break is March 13-17.

Graduation for the Class of 2028 is scheduled for May 19.

New hiring

Ashley Thompson, formerly the Dean of Students at Franklin Central High School, has been hired as an Assistant Principal at Shelbyville High School.

Thompson is replacing Bri Kompara, who has accepted a position at another school.

SCS transition

Shelbyville Central Schools Business Manager Michelle Babcock attended her final board meeting Monday. She announced her resignation several months earlier to accept a new position outside of the school system.

Ryan Mikus, SCS Director of School Accountability and the former Principal at Shelbyville Middle School, will take her position July 1.

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