The Culver Community Schools Corporation is the latest local school district to join an effort that aims to boost Indiana’s smaller schools. On Monday, the school board added its approval to a resolution calling on state officials to increase financial support for small, rural school corporations.
“We’re just acting on what we think is our best behalf by trying to come together as a group of superintendents who are in charge of small schools and trying to get our voices heard as a large group down in Indianapolis about the concern we have about the funding formulas and the way funding is going for the small schools in Indiana,” says Interim Superintendent Chuck Kitchell. “So we just added our voice to that list of superintendents, that we hope that maybe the folks down in Indianapolis will begin to listen to.”
Kitchell says the effort was started by Caston School Corporation Superintendent Cindy Douglass. Since then, other small school districts have been joining the effort.
Several corporations have experienced General Fund shortfalls under the state’s current formula, which allocates money based on enrollment. At Culver, enrollment numbers appear to be down this year, according to the principals’ start-of-school reports.
