Monroe County Community School Corp. will close its early childhood site at Bloomington High School North and consolidate programs at its south facility, a move officials say will allow them to serve more children amid high demand and a persistent shortage of qualified early learning teachers.
Officials say the shift will let them enroll seven more children and fully staff each classroom at the south side location, 401 E. Miller Drive, though some families will face longer commutes. The early childhood classrooms at Bloomington High School North will be empty next school year.
Tim Dowling, the corporation’s director of early learning and enrollment, said the program this school year served 55 children, ages six weeks to 4 years, in five classrooms at North and nine classrooms near Bloomington High School South.
“By combining and consolidating, we’re actually going to be able to enroll 62, with … a bigger increase in infant and toddler care,” he said.
To meet the state’s highest voluntary quality rating, classrooms must include a set number of credentialed staff. Splitting those teachers between two sites limited enrollment, Dowling said.
Consolidating staff at the South site will open additional spots for young learners, as all nine classrooms there will be fully staffed with three adults, at least two of whom will have the required educational degrees. Two classrooms sat unused in the 2025/26 school year.
Dowling said MCCSC faces significant pressure to add early learning spots, citing a “lengthy” wait list, and has already enrolled eight additional infants and 10 toddlers for 2026–27, though demand remains high. He could not provide figures for the wait list or how it had changed in recent years.
As of May, all families from the North location said they will either stay with the program through the summer or return in August for the next school year, Dowling said. The summer session has always been offered solely at the South location.
While the corporation expects the consolidation to produce some “operational efficiencies and potentially cost savings,” Dowling could not provide details, though he emphasized that the decision was not driven by cost.
Nationwide staffing shortage limits sports for early learners
MCCSC, like other school corporations and private providers, has struggled to find enough qualified teachers for early childhood education, Dowling said.
The staffing challenges driving MCCSC’s consolidation reflect a broader national trend.
The U.S. is experiencing a “critical shortage” in the early childhood workforce, according to a 2024 research brief from the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago. A 2024 survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children found 53% of directors and operators representing more than 10,000 early childhood educators in the U.S. reported staffing shortages. National data show high turnover, in part caused by low pay, with thousands of unfilled positions every year.
Even with the additional referendum dollars voters approved in 2023, district officials say staffing — not space or funding — remains the primary constraint on expanding early childhood education access.
Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: MCCSC consolidates early childhood programs amid teacher shortage
Reporting by Boris Ladwig, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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By Boris Ladwig, The Herald-Times | USA TODAY Network
