Warrick County School Corp. presents data, options after steep enrollment decline at Tennyson Elementary
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Summary
School district officials presented an informational review of Tennyson Elementary School’s declining enrollment and staffing profile; no decision was made and the board outlined next steps including a family survey and further community outreach.
Warrick County School Corp. district staff presented an informational report to the Board of Trustees on Jan. 27, 2025, outlining steep, multi-year enrollment declines and limited staffing at Tennyson Elementary School; the report stopped short of any formal recommendation or action.
The presentation, delivered during the board’s regular meeting, compiled enrollment and staffing data district staff have been tracking and was explicitly described by a presenter as informational: “this is all informational. And we have not made any decisions,” the presenter said. Board members did not vote on closing or consolidating the school at the meeting.
The district’s materials state Tennyson currently enrolls 60 students and lists the school’s on-site staff as six instructional staff (teachers), three program assistants, a library aide who is present approximately two days a week, three cafeteria staff, and 1.5 custodians. The packet presented to the board also notes that 66.67% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and that roughly 15% of students receive special-education services. The district identified about 10 students who attend Tennyson as transfers from outside the school’s geographic boundary. The presentation said the school’s enrollment decline, measured from 2013 to 2024, was approximately 53.68%.
Parents and community members urged the district to preserve the school. Two parents, Jimmy Boswell and Rebecca Boswell, described Tennyson’s small class sizes, staff dedication and community ties and asked the board to consider alternatives to closure. Rebecca Boswell said the school has operated for years with unfilled positions—she cited no dedicated first-grade teacher since 2022, no dedicated fourth-grade teacher since 2017, a part-time principal who splits time between schools, and social-work and health supports that are limited.
District presenters reviewed steps the corporation has taken to limit costs at Tennyson—split-grade schedules, shared administrators and creative staffing—and described the financial impact per pupil. The presentation compared instructional and total per-pupil expenditures at Tennyson with a selection of other Indiana public elementary schools and confirmed Tennyson’s per-pupil cost is higher because of the school’s small enrollment.
District staff outlined next steps they plan to take if the board wishes to continue gathering information: monitoring kindergarten registration in March, distributing a short family survey to capture strengths and barriers parents see in the small-school setting, exploring targeted marketing and transfer options, and considering transportation adjustments such as designated pickup points. The presentation also enumerated exploratory ideas—shared community services, healthcare partnerships, or program placement in the building—as possibilities the district may study; staff framed those as concepts under review, not proposals endorsed by the board.
Board members and staff reiterated that the district is compiling information to ensure any later decisions about sustainability are evidence-based and that any change would follow established staffing and placement processes to secure positions for existing employees. No motion was made regarding school closure or consolidation at the meeting; staff said the board will continue to monitor enrollment and bring additional information back for future discussion.
The board accepted the informational presentation and moved to other agenda items.
