Longtime West Central Superintendent Retires

West Central Superintendent Charles Mellon
West Central Superintendent Charles Mellon

A local school corporation will have a new superintendent when classes start in the fall. This is Charles Mellon’s last day at West Central. He’s retiring after 34 years with the corporation. Mellon started there as an assistant principal in 1980 and worked his way into the front office.

“It is a great place to raise a family. Most things are centered around school and church in this community. That’s what we enjoyed. A lot of our staff that come in new stay. That’s a good sign that’s a good place to live and a good, strong school corporation,” Mellon told WKVI News. Continue reading

Plenty of Summer Projects Planned at West Central School Corporation

west central logoThe maintenance staff at the West Central School Corporation will have their hands full with several projects this summer.

Superintendent Charles Mellon said a new telephone system is one of the larger, more expensive projects this summer. The old system is too antiquated to gather parts to fix so a new system will be installed. He added that the last phase of the football field lighting system will be complete this summer. Other smaller projects are also planned.

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Lunch Prices to go up at West Central Schools

 
 

The West Central School Board members approved several agenda items including the school board meeting dates, pay dates, and the budget calendar.

Superintendent Charles Mellon said there was a slight change in cafeteria prices for next school year.

“Just lunch is the only change,” explained Mellon. “The lunch price will increase by ten cents next year.”

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West Central Wind Turbine Working Well for Corporation

West Central School Superintendent Charles Mellon
West Central School Superintendent Charles Mellon
The West Central School Board discussed the corporation’s wind turbine and it’s production.

The board is ready to renew the insurance policy so that was discussed. Superintendent Charles Mellon gave the board an update on the turbine’s production in the month of February.

“Once again we were fortunate to only have to pay a twenty dollar service fee for our electric utility,” said Mellon. “We have over about 240,000 kilowatts stored at this time. That will help us get through the summer and I believe we still have our three windy months coming up here in the spring so that was good news for us as well.”

West Central School Superintendent Discusses the State of the School’s General Fund

West Central School Superintendent Charles Mellon
West Central School Superintendent Charles Mellon
West Central School Superintendent Charles Mellon gave an overview of the school corporation’s general fund to the school board when they met last week.

He explained that the school had a decline in enrollment of 52 students over the past four to five years. With that and the addition to some legislation changes, the school has lost over $800,000 within that time frame.

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West Central School Board Approves Technology Plan

West Central School Superintendent Charles Mellon
West Central School Superintendent Charles Mellon
The West Central School Board approved a new three-year technology plan during their recent meeting.

Superintendent Charles Mellon said the plan is usually simply updated, but this year’s plan included another focus.

“One of the major goals in that plan has been to implement the one-to-one technology where every student would have their laptop or some device and we are on target with that,” said Mellon. “By the beginning of the fall of next year, every student will have a device.”

The one-to-one computer initiative was done in the middle school for this school year, and different devices have been handed to the students at the elementary school this year. With this plan, the corporation is on track to have full implementation of the computer initiative, including high school students, by August.

Valuable Instruction Time Lost due to School Delays

 There isn’t a limit on how many times a school corporation can call a delay to the start of school due to weather or other necessity, but there could be action on that sometime down the road.

Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent Dan Foster told the school board Wednesday morning that as of Wednesday, there have been 15 school days this school year where instruction started two hours late due to weather. Foster noted that that time adds up – that’s 30 hours of school instructional time lost because of weather. That’s valuable time of instruction, but the state does not require corporation to make up that time.

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