Courageous Partnership

Ball State and Muncie Community Schools enter the sixth academic year of an ambitious, successful partnership

For a brief time, long before plans were made public, it was identified by a small working group as “Project Moonshot.”

That’s because, as Ball State University President Geoffrey S. Mearns describes it: “We knew what we were doing was ambitious and had risk.”

“Project Moonshot,” as it turned out, was the University’s innovative, strategic plan to work with state government to help revive Muncie Community Schools (MCS), the city’s struggling public school district.

In May 2018, the Indiana General Assembly adopted unprecedented legislation granting Ball State oversight of MCS. Two months later, Ball State and MCS embarked on a historic partnership to transform Muncie’s public school system into a national model for innovative, holistic education.

Now, with the partnership entering its sixth academic year, the results have been promising, with significant improvements to the district’s budget, enrollment, student and teacher retention, teacher pay, pre-K offerings, and academic programming.

But the collaboration has also served as a reminder at Ball State of the importance of setting ambitious goals—and taking the necessary risks to achieve those goals.

To appreciate the extraordinary nature of the Ball State-MCS partnership is to also understand the history of Muncie and its public school system.

In the late-1960s, Muncie was thriving with a strong automotive industry and Ball State, a rapidly growing public institution of higher education, in its backyard. The city’s school system had also significantly expanded, enrolling almost 20,000 students, counting Burris Laboratory School, in 1967.

However, by the 1980s—in large part due to significant economic shifts and the loss of manufacturing jobs—Muncie began a population decline; by 2020, the city had experienced a 20-percent decrease in population. The school system suffered, too; over a 50-year period, student enrollment decreased by more than 70 percent to about 5,000 students in 2017. The once-vibrant school system closed multiple buildings, eventually merging Muncie’s three proud public high schools into one.

Test scores and overall morale worsened, leading many parents to transfer their children to nearby districts. Retention of dedicated, veteran teachers and administrators, if they hadn’t already been laid off due to budget concerns, also became a major issue.

“By no fault of their own, teachers had been through a pretty rough period of feeling unheard with a lack of support due to circumstances out of their control and poor financial management,” said Kelly Agnew, ’96 MAE ’01, a fourth grade teacher at West View Elementary School. “I think the system lost a lot of teachers and faith from the community during that time.”

The school system’s financial woes, meanwhile, were among the district’s most critical issues. In 2017, the local newspaper reported that Muncie Community Schools’ budget was approximately $10 million in the red.

That same year, state government stepped in. First, the Indiana General Assembly enacted special legislation to appoint an emergency management team of private consultants to help lead the district. Then, later that year, the Indiana Distressed Unit Appeal Board voted 5-0 to seize full control of both the academic and financial operations at MCS. The board officially designated the district as a “distressed political subdivision.”

The state, the city, and the MCS community hoped better management would stabilize the school district. But rather than state oversight leading to MCS regaining its own control, a unique and innovative path forward took shape: a local institution of higher education with a century of experience in preparing excellent teachers and school administrators; a new, appointed school board consisting of local community leaders with complementary skills and diverse experiences; and, a state government willing to get creative to put the struggling school district back onto a path of stability.

In May 2018, the Indiana General Assembly adopted the legislation granting Ball State oversight of MCS. Starting in July 2018, Ball State and MCS embarked on a partnership with little to no precedent in the American educational system.

Those who had been working diligently on “Project Moonshot,” now with the full support of the state and Ball State Board of Trustees, were ready to unleash their courageous plan.

“We came to a simple conclusion: if we stepped up and answered that call, people might hold us accountable for the outcome,” President Mearns said. “And we thought, ‘If we’re going to be held accountable for the outcome, we want to have substantial capacity to influence the outcome.’”

In accordance with the new law, President Mearns and the Board of Trustees appointed a seven-member school board, which ensured that individuals with specific experience and skills formed a well-rounded board that would make meaningful, effective, and creative decisions for the district. And with an appointed, rather than elected, school board, politics no longer had a place in governing MCS, a line that seemingly blurs in many states around the nation.

Those first seven appointed MCS board members were: Dr. Brittany Bales, ’10 MA ’14 PhD ’22, former instructor of special education, Ball State; WaTasha Barnes Griffin, executive director, YWCA of Muncie; Mark Ervin, ’81 MA ’85, attorney, Beasley & Gilkison LLP; Dave Heeter, ’83, corporate executive vice president, Northwest Bank; Jim Lowe, associate vice president for facilities planning and management, Ball State; Keith O’Neal, lead pastor, Destiny Christian Center; and Jim Williams, attorney, DeFur Voran.

“I thought the bones of the system were really good, and while some change was going to be painful, there was a decent foundation on which to build,” said Mr. Williams, who has served as president of the MCS Board of Trustees since the partnership began.

“I never for a moment considered it to be one of those situations where it would be a long haul in receivership,” he continued. “I thought there would be a natural path out; I just wasn’t sure what that would look like. The partnership was, by far, the best of many alternatives.”

For Mr. Heeter, his mission as an MCS board member was personal in nature. A longtime ardent supporter of Ball State and its athletics programs, both of Mr. Heeter’s parents, Bob, ’48 MA ’54, and Barbara, ’46, Heeter, were once teachers in the Muncie school system and Ball State graduates.

“I felt like I had an understanding of the city and a sense of history as to education in the community. And also, on a personal basis, I just felt maybe it was something my parents would’ve been very proud of me to do to help,” Mr. Heeter said. “I think I felt a certain level of responsibility to help any way I could and to try to make the public school system in Muncie better.”

Appointing a board was a first step. Utilizing its resources, Ball State was able to include parents, students, and community members in the strategic planning of MCS’ future. From listening sessions with the community to annual professional development events for teachers and staff, a new culture has been established that focuses on placing learners first. And with deep experience in philanthropy and grant writing, Ball State deployed resources and experts to rapidly transform the financial standing of Muncie schools.

“Really, I thought that the first step was going to be taking a deliberative and thoughtful approach to governance that inspired confidence among the families, the students, the faculty, staff, and the community,” Mr. Williams said. “This is not something that has been done before, so approaching it in a thoughtful and deliberative way that looked forward and did not spend time with recrimination—looking backward—that was step one.”

In July 2019, the MCS Board took another important step by hiring Dr. Lee Ann Kwiatkowski as the district’s first director of public education and chief executive officer. Dr. Kwiatkowski had been serving as senior education advisor for Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, and while she knew a jump back into school administration—particularly in Muncie, with so much change abound—would be daunting, she was encouraged about the opportunity after having an initial conversation with Mr. Williams.

“I had spent several years working on policy, learning about best practices, research-based strategies. I knew what needed to take place in districts, and I really thought this would be the perfect opportunity to implement some of those tactics. And I wanted to be able to see that my work was making a difference at a student level,” Dr. Kwiatkowski said. “Getting into the schools regularly and seeing how I could affect students and their families and teachers was very attractive to me.”

Since the beginning of the Ball State-MCS partnership, the results have been remarkable: student enrollment is up for the first time in 15 years; the budgets have been balanced each year since 2018 and are now millions of dollars in the black; and teacher pay has not only increased by more than 30 percent, but MCS is now one of the top-paying districts in the state.

In 2020, Muncie Community Schools implemented a five-year strategic plan that focuses on five pillars: high-quality pre-K education; recruitment, development, and retention of educational leaders; student-centered teaching and active learning; social and emotional learning; and family and community engagement. Already, pre-K enrollment at MCS has increased by more than 300 percent since its partnership with Ball State began. At the same time, an innovative Newcomer Program geared toward refugees has attracted 60 new students to the district.

For community supporters like Wilisha Scaife, MA ’14, the Ball State-MCS partnership has been invigorating. Ms. Scaife, a Muncie Central graduate whose three children are also MCS grads, has spent considerable time volunteering in Muncie classrooms and helping facilitate professional development workshops in her role as a professional learning specialist with Ball State’s Teachers College.

“It’s been wonderful to see the coming together of like-minded educators who truly care about students and their families, working to assist teachers in engaging students to ensure academic success,” Ms. Scaife said. “And there is so much more to do. I remain hopeful and believe we can do better and be better together.”

The hard work at Muncie Community Schools continues into the start of the 2023-24 academic year and beyond. School officials are encouraged by the positive results of the partnership with Ball State yet remain focused, for example, on improving elementary school literacy levels and continuing to build out the district’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) curriculum.

And that’s the point. Thanks to the courageous steps of many, including those in state government, at Ball State, within the school district, and others, the focus at Muncie Community Schools is back to where it should be—on the students.

For those at Ball State, the risk of such an endeavor has been well worth the reward.

“It’s part of our DNA, and it continues to be—that concept of courage and innovation,” President Mearns said. “Anytime you’re doing something new, there’s always risk associated with that, and that’s what courage is.”