Each year the Oregon-Davis School Corporation does their part for cancer research by collecting donations for the American Cancer Society.
Elementary school special education teacher Roberta Salyer is responsible for starting the program and for keeping it running for ten years now. Last year the school raised $1,200 for ACS. This year their goal was $1500. Classrooms had donation jars in them over the last few weeks and people could make donations at yesterday’s mini relay for life.
After competing only one year prior, the Knox Community High School graphics department was noted in the Phoenix Challenge National Magazine for taking home a silver award for Flexo Press printing. Flexography is used for producing labels on packages. It utilizes a raised rubber plate to imprint on products. Candy wrappers, bottles of pop, anything you see in the store with a label on it was most likely produced with Flexo Press printing. This is the second year that Knox has sent students and their graphics teacher, Mr. Sullivan, to Charlotte, NC for the Phoenix Challenge. Schools from all over the nation and Canada compete in the program. The Knox team ranked third in the nation. The students who participated this year were Sarah Horstman, Elizabeth Radelja, Mario Rodriguez and Nathan Lynch. Thanks to their success this year, the Phoenix Challenge program will continue to be funded through the Knox School Corporation in years to come.
A familiar face at Culver Community High School will be back next year in a dual role. Speech teacher Luke Biernacki is the new assistant principal for the middle and high schools and and athletic director for the entire corporation. The Culver Community School Board hired him last night after a brief executive session. Superintendent Dr. Vicki McGuire says combining the administrative roles will allow for more dedicated academic accountability by the principals, as well as working on improving graduation rates. Biernacki says the opportunity is a perfect fit for his career goals.
“I’ve had my administrative license for a couple of years and been looking to move up,” he said in an interview after the meeting. “I’ve always wanted to move up with this corporation. It’s been a wonderful experience for the past six years. What I love most is the people I work with and the students and the community. It’s the best I’ve ever seen, and I look forward to continuing to work with them.”
Biernacki adds he wants to continue to meet the students’ needs and provide them the best possible experience. He’s also looking forward to working with new Culver Community High School Principal Brett Berndt and coaches as he transitions into his dual role.
The North Judson-San Pierre School Corporation will take part in the federal summer food service program this year. Free breakfast and lunch will be available to all children through age 18 each Monday through Thursday from June 9 through 26. Food will also be served to adults who are enrolled in a state approved education program for the mentally or physically disabled. All meals will be served at the North Judson-San Pierre Elementary School cafeteria. Breakfast will be offered from 7:30 until 8 a.m. daily. Lunch will be served from 11:15 a.m. until noon. Adults may eat there for a nominal charge. Adult breakfasts cost $1, and lunches are $2.
The Culver Community School Board appears poised to hire a combination assistant principal and athletic director for the middle and high schools. They’re meeting Tuesday, May 27 at 7:15 p.m. EDT at the administration office for that purpose. Culver Superintendent Dr. Vicki McGuire stresses the schools will remain separate. She says the corporation is just combining the administrative roles in order to save money. The meeting is open to the public. It will follow an executive session, presumably for the purpose of reaching a final decision. Final action on all personnel decisions must take place during a public meeting.
The North Judson- San Pierre School Board approved a contract to add wireless Internet to the schools. They received two bids for the project. IT Solutions offered a lower price, but it did not include installation or tech support. Cubit Technology’s price includes both. Director of Media Services Sheila Akers is confident in their ability to successfully do their job. The school board voted unanimously to go with Cubit. The project will be paid for with a common school loan. Even though the board isn’t sure how much money they will get, they had to act quickly. Installation needs to begin by July 7 in order to be finished when school starts.
The North Judson – San Pierre school board has postponed definite decisions about how to slash $1.2 million from the corporation’s budget.
They’re awaiting more information about retirements and transfers. Monday evening the board members did approve a budget calender. Treasurer Guy Richie will present information to the school board and superintendent on July 15.
The Culver Community School Board has hired a new high school principal. Brett Berndt will take over that job July 1st. He replaces Albert Hanselman, who recently took a job as the director of the North Central Vocational Educational Cooperative.
Berndt previously served as dean of students at Culver Community High School.
Superintendent Dr. Vicki McGuire says the corporation is now looking to fill the combined position of assistant principal and athletic director. Whomever they hire will serve in that capacity at the middle and high schools. McGuire stresses the schools will remain separate. She says the corporation is just combining the administrative roles in order to save money.
Applications are currently being accepted. McGuire says the school board hopes to approve a hire at their June 16 meeting.
The North Judson-San Pierre School Board will consider final recommendations to slash $1.2 million from the corporation’s budget when they meet this evening. Superintendent Lynn Johnson has repeatedly stressed the committee tasked with finding places to cut wants to eliminate positions and not jobs. She says several faculty members are retiring this year, and those positions likely will not be filled in order to bridge the gap.
The board may also move forward with the implementation of wireless Internet access this evening. The goal is to have that infrastructure in place when school starts in August. Other items on tonight’s agenda include approval of textbook fees and school meal prices for the upcoming year and discussion of the summer swim proposal at the high school pool. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the board room at the N.J.-S.P. central office.
The Oregon-Davis High School’s Student’s Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) organization teamed up with the school’s two resource officers to make the consequences of drunk driving eminent to students who will be attending prom this weekend.
They staged a two-vehicle crash with a fatality and multiple injuries in the school parking lot Friday afternoon. Some of the students wore prom dresses and were made up to replicate real car crash victims. Empty beer cans were also scattered across the cars and outside of the vehicles to imply the drivers were intoxicated.
Knox Elementary School is once again offering a three-week Kindergarten Countdown to help students who have little or no preschool experience get ready to start school in the fall. Curriculum director Peggy Shidaker says it gives youngsters an idea of what to expect.
“They experience the type of class atmosphere and learning that actually happens or will happen when they enter kindergarten. They have an opportunity to ride a school bus, which the kids absolutely love. They’ll eat breakfast with their peers, and they’ll eat lunch with them as well. Since it is actually kindergarten readiness, the students will be immersed in those literacy and math skills to help those students enter kindergarten at the same academic levels as their peers, or at least close to the same academic levels as their peers who have had some preschool.” Continue reading
The Culver Community School Corporation will take part in the Summer Food Service Program. It’s funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and offers free meals to all children 18 and younger. The program was created to ensure children have access to nutritious meals when the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs are not available. Meals are also served to persons over the age of 18 who are enrolled in a state-approved educational program for the mentally or physically disabled.Free meals will be served beginning Tuesday, June 3 and continuing through the summer. All meals must be eaten on site. All nutrition sites are closed on Friday, July 4. Click here to view locations, dates and times Culver Nutrition Sites.
West Central School Board members are getting ready for the next school year. Items on the agenda for their board meeting tonight include setting school breakfast and lunch prices, considering changes to the student handbook and discussion and possible adoption of a student accident insurance plan for 2014-2015. Board meeting and pay dates for the upcoming year will also be set, as will a budget calendar. Discussion and possible approval of classified staff contracts is also listed on the agenda. The board will also continue the discussion of insurance for the school corporation’s wind turbine when they meet this evening at 7:30 p.m. EDT in the board room at the school corporation office in downtown Francesville.
Students at Knox High School are staging a popular musical this weekend. Catch “Guys and Dolls” on Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5 in the high school auditorium. Saturday’s show starts at 7 p.m., and Sunday’s performance begins at 2 p.m. Tickets are $7. The play made its Broadway debut in 1950 and won a Tony award for Best Musical. It’s an adaptation of several Damon Runyon short stories written in the 1920s and 30s about gamblers, gangsters and others in the New York underworld.
North Judson-San Pierre High School students and their dates are putting the “prom” in promenade on Saturday. For the first time, the school is hosting a grand march in the high school gym from 6 until 7 p.m. The community is invited to come see the prom goers in their formal finery before they head off to the main event at Chesapeake Run Golf Course east of town.
The Starke County Youth Club aims to be a support system for children, families and the three county school corporations.
“We know that schools are under tremendous pressure to have kids succeed academically, and that a lot of funding for schools is tied to how kids perform on standardized tests. That’s really a lot to ask of a school community. It is part of our job to ensure we are supporting what the schools need to accomplish.”
Executive Director Irene Szakonyi says the Starke County Youth Club does that by providing after school enrichment programs for 600 youngsters at four sites across the county. All of the programs are based in local schools, so Szakonyi says the staff is in constant contact with teachers, administrators and others to make sure students are getting what they need. She says children who succeed academically have a greater likelihood of being successful adults. Continue reading
The Kankakee Valley boasts some of the best high schools in the state, according to recent rankings by a national publication. John Glenn High School in Walkerton ranks 17th on the 2014 U.S. News and World Report list. The magazine awarded the school silver medal. Students there have an opportunity to take advanced placement tests, and 36 percent do. Of the school’s 611 students, 85 percent are proficient in English and 84 percent are proficient in math. Knox Community High School earned a bronze medal from U.S. News and World Report. The publication notes 25 percent of the 606 students enrolled take AP courses and tests, 77 percent are proficient in English and 69 percent are proficient in Algebra. Continue reading
The Indiana Department of Education released graduation rate data Wednesday for the 2012-2013 school year.
The graduation rate is up from 2012. The average rate for all schools was 88.6% and most of the local schools are above that rate.
John Glenn Schools had the highest graduation rate of the local schools at 96.6% and Culver Community Schools had the lowest graduation rate at 77%.
The Culver Community School Corporation is one of many area schools to consider moving to a “Balanced Calendar” in the near future. The Balanced Calendar approach would not mean a year-round school approach, but rather would spread out the required 180 school days over the course of the year, allowing regular break time for holidays, spring and fall breaks, as well as remediation periods. A meeting will be held on Wednesday April 9th at 7:00 p.m. EDT in the Culver Community High School Auditorium to present the possible benefits of the calendar change. Attendees will be asked to fill out a survey regarding their opinions at the conclusion of the meeting.
The North Judson-San Pierre School Board could vote next month on proposed cuts to the budget necessary to slash more than $1 million from the general fund. Corporation business manager and treasurer Guy Richie says they’re trying to eliminate positions instead of jobs. “If somebody retires, we are eliminating the position if at all possible,” Richie told the school board. “That way no one has lost an income. They retired and we didn’t bring anybody back in. That was our first concern that we did not go into our employees pockets out of this. I think we’ve done a good job when you look that we’re going to cut a million dollars next year and have not yet told a single employee they do not have a job here.” Continue reading
