Enrollment is down at the Culver Community School Corporation, and Superintendent Brad Schuldt said the corporation is down 49 students, according to the Average Daily Membership count.
Schuldt explained that the largest impact on the enrollment was caused by groups of students moving with their families completely out of the district. He said 80 students moved out of the district and 60 moved in – totaling a loss of 20 students.
Culver Schools Superintendent Brad Schuldt says their ISTEP results are in, bringing some good and bad news. He says the elementary school grades three through six had the largest gains in scores of any of the 13 middle and elementary schools in Marshall County, and more than 80 percent of the students passed.
Schuldt said that for four consecutive years, the elementary school has increased scores in every category, and a vast majority of students passed both math and language arts sections.
The Culver School Board last week approved several new hires at the elementary school and high school. Superintendent Brad Schuldt says Erin Proskey has been hired as the new elementary school assistant principal. Proskey previously taught at Knox, but comes to Culver after holding an assistant principal position at Tippecanoe Valley.
A new social studies and special education teacher has also been hired. Gina Hierlmeier will fill both teaching positions and will also serve as the girls’ varsity basketball coach. Christina Wright has also been given a position at the school as English teacher, and Jeff Allen will be the new assistant technology director.
The board also adopted the elementary and middle schools’ new handbooks, and Schuldt says that while there are a number of modifications, not many of them are major. He says the new handbook is available at their website at www.culver.k12.in.us. The board also approved the upcoming school year’s lunch prices. Schuldt says lunch will cost $2.55 at the middle and high schools, and the cost for lunch at the elementary school will be $2.45.
The Culver School Board has switched to their summer meeting schedule, having met last on June 4 with no meetings scheduled until July 16. Superintendent Brad Schuldt says the board is currently working on filling a number of open positions including the assistant principal position at the elementary school. Two teachers have retired from the corporation, and two other employees have moved on to other projects.
Schuldt says Assistant Principal Craig Hopple has left the corporation to take a job in Plymouth at Lincoln Jr. High.
Three other positions are also vacant: the social studies and English positions at the high school are currently open, as well as an IT assistant position for the corporation. Schuldt says the board will likely discuss filling the positions at the July 16 meeting.
“If you build it, they will come.” That phrase comes alive in Culver, as a number of volunteers have converted what was previously farm fields and weeded areas into something useful: soccer fields for Culver Community Schools.
“We have about five acres out there that used to be just farm field and just weeded areas, and over the last couple years we’ve had some volunteers in the community working on trying to develop that a little bit. They didn’t build any buildings at all, but they’ve got it kind of leveled off and they’ve made two small soccer fields for lower elementary grades and one soccer field that’s a little bit closer to full size,” said Superintendent Brad Schuldt.
Schuldt says that the field will be used primarily in the evenings after school, or for Saturday soccer programs. While players would previously have to share the field or just wait for the evening to use the field in the playground at the north end of Culver Elementary, they can now use one of the new soccer fields.
Schuldt says that there was no expense involved in making the soccer fields.
It’s no big construction or anything like the Liverpool stadium expansion, we didn’t spend any money on it. It’s all community volunteers getting it ready and that kind of thing, Schuldt said.
The only downside to establishing these new fields is the impact on parking. Schuldt says that the parking lot in that area only has about 25-30 spots, and sometimes when they have girls’ softball games, those spots can be filled fairly quickly. With the addition of parents bringing their children for evening and after-school soccer leagues, the parking lot will be filled to capacity– but Schuldt says they have opened up some of the grassy areas for parking as well, so that won’t be a problem.
The decision as to what to do about the items on display in the closed Monterey Elementary School building is still being discussed, as Monterey Town Board President Jim Fleury approached the Culver School Board this week requesting an update on the situation.
Fleury asked the board whether or not they would allow him to make arrangements to have a number of items removed from the building that hold sentimental value to the community. Superintendent Brad Schuldt said the board would ultimately have to decide what items can be removed, and requested that Fleury make a list of items to be removed from the building and where they would be taken.
Kindergarten enrollment for Culver Community Schools is scheduled for Thursday, April 26 at 6 p.m. in the Culver Elementary School Cafeteria. According to Superintendent Brad Schuldt, the Kindergarten Roundup will inform parents of what health records are required, forms needed for registration, kindergarten screening, Indiana curriculum standards, and other programs available for kindergartners.
The days of students lugging backpacks stuffed full of books and folders may soon be at an end, thanks to the recent movement from traditional hardback textbooks to electronic books. Culver Community Schools Superintendent Brad Schuldt recently told WKVI that Apple has recently begun providing textbooks for the iPad, and as of last week, two textbooks that the high school currently uses have been ported to the iPad.
Schuldt said that they are very interested in gradually moving into the digital age with most, if not all, of their textbooks on the iPad, but it remains to be seen how fast book providers will release their books digitally.
Culver Community School Corporation’s One-to-One Technology Initiative is receiving some positive attention, and Principals Albert Hanselman and Julie Berndt informed the board this week of an upcoming presentation hosted by Apple to allow visitors from other school corporations to see the iPad initiative in action. According to Superintendent Brad Schuldt, the event will give visitors a chance to talk to Apple representatives regarding products, services, and their costs, as well as speak to Culver employees regarding the use of the technology and get an idea of the major successes and problems with the program.
The Culver Community School Board this week gratefully accepted an $800 donation from the Kiwanis Club that Superintendent Brad Schuldt says will be used to help kids who are in need.
Schuldt says that the Kiwanis Club has on a near-annual basis made donations to the fund, which is handled by School Nurse Kathy Hermanson and Deb Stevens, social worker for the school.
The Culver Community School Board made a number of organizational changes at their recent meeting, including the appointment of a new Vice President. Jack Jones was originally nominated, but he declined the position, telling the board that he would be more comfortable in the Secretary position.
Ryan Sieber was ultimately nominated and elected with a unanimous vote.
The budget for the year of 2012 was approved by the Culver Community School Board this week, with one disappointing detail: a loss of $558,000 in funding compared to last year. According to Superintendent Brad Schuldt, this decrease in funding is due to a number of reasons.
The restoration grant from the state has been reduced to $0, as well as the small schools grant. In addition, the change in the formula used to calculate funding for schools was changed at the state level, and declining enrollment due to a variety of reasons also played a part in the decline of funding.
With the recent petition in Tippecanoe Township to deannex from Culver Community Schools Corporation and reannex into the Eastern Pulaski School Corporation gaining support, Culver schools find themselves in a tough spot. Because funds follow the students, a loss of students because of the deannexation could hurt Culver’s already tight budget.
The petition is still being circulated and has not yet been presented to the Culver School Board. The board will have to approve it in order for the process to continue; however, approving it could mean the loss of many students and a large chunk of federal dollars.
Superintendent Brad Schuldt says that though the board has not yet officially seen or heard anything, they will handle it when the time comes.
Contracts are once again ink on paper for the Culver Community Schools Corporation. After a team of administrators and the Culver Community Teacher’s Association went through a series of negotiations, a contract has finally been ratified by both the CCTA and the school board.
Superintendent Brad Schuldt praised the CCTA highly for their efforts in the negotiation, and their drive to help the corporation by making some concessions in producing this contract. The contract that was approved included no raises for the staff, including incremental raises which are given annually based on years of experience—a first since collective bargaining has been in effect. In addition, they agreed to contribute more of their own money to cover their insurance plans. Schuldt was impressed with the teachers’ willingness to cooperate in the contract negotiations.
Since the closing of the Monterey Elementary School, there have been rumors that some of the students will go to the Eastern Pulaski School system, instead of going into Culver Community.
Culver Community School Superintendent Brad Schuldt was asked if he anticipates losing students because of the closure.
“We expected this to be an issue, and in fact, when we did some financial planning, the numbers that we used did include a reduction of students over the next two years,” said Schuldt. “Of course the big question is going to be how many students will be moving. That is a number that is changing rather regularly. I know that some of the families have requested transcripts to be sent to a new school corporation. That’s pretty much how we can keep track of people who have actually made the move.”
A tough and controversial decision was made last night by the Culver Community School Board, as they ultimately voted 5-2 to discontinue operation of Monterey Elementary School. The closure of the school was due to a need to meet budget cuts in the amount of $855,928 over two years from the state. While this decision may not have been the most popular one, the Board felt it was the best decision for the school, as well as the teachers, the students, and even the parents.
“The vote ended up being five members voted for the motion, two members voted against the motion, and the motion was to discontinue operation of Monterey Elementary school effective at the end of this current school year,” said Superintendent Brad Schuldt, “and that the students beginning next year would be a part of the Culver Elementary School body.”
