Book rental and technology fees are going up at Knox Elementary School. The fees were approved by the school board last month.
Principal Michelle Tarnow said the fee will now be $110. The increase will cover the cost of new digital devices for each student to use. Tarnow said the plan is for the devices to remain at school, but Superintendent Dr. William Reichhart noted that students could be allowed to take them home, if the school corporation needs to use eLearning.
At Knox Middle School, fifth grade students will have to pay just over $140, while students in grades six through eight will pay almost $116. Fees at the high school will be similar to last year’s, according to Principal Glenn Barnes.
The school board also finalized the student handbooks for the 2020-2021 school year. Some of the big changes at the high school include going from a six-point to a four-point grading scale and switching from a block schedule to a traditional schedule. Each school day will include seven class periods, typically 50 minutes in length.
Principal Barnes also said that speech and careers classes will no longer be required for graduation, but they’ll still be offered. “Frankly, speech has been a big challenge for some of our students,” Barnes explained. “Not that it’s not needed. I think we do need to be able to offer speech classes. I’m an advocate for speech, but it’s one of those things where some of our students really struggle when it gets to that point and they’re trying to get out with a general diploma. That becomes a bit of an impediment.”
Meanwhile, Knox Elementary School updated its handbook to reflect state-level changes to kindergarten eligibility. Students must now be at least five years old by October 1 to enroll for that school year.
All three schools added language regarding the ongoing pandemic, updated their attendance policies, and revised the description of the role of the school resource officer.
