The West Central School Board approved two teacher transfers at their meeting on Thursday and Superintendent Charles Mellon said it is the board’s hope that this action will lower the need to send out many Reduction in Force (RIF) notices to the staff.
West Central School Superintendent Charles Mellon told the Board that the State will no longer provide a list of textbooks for adoption for schools. He explains that decision.
“It just turned over to a local decision,” said Mr. Mellon. “They’re not going to be having teachers come together to evaluate books and what fits the core standards. You’re supposed to be doing that at the local level. It’s a transfer of responsibility and along with that, that takes away the waiver where if you wanted to use a book that wasn’t on the list, you always had to apply for a waiver and state the reasons why this was something that fit your curriculum. The only thing they left in there was the fees. You can still charge twenty-five percent of the cost of the book for each of the first six years and then it’s back to fifteen percent if you continue using that book.”
The West Central School Board discussed the 2012-2013 school calendar during their meeting last week. Superintendent Charles Mellon said there will be a big change in the next school year.
The West Central School Board discussed all of the technology upgrades that have been done throughout the Corporation. Superintendent Charles Mellon said the Board has focused on making these updates this school year.
“We have a wireless internet connection in all of our buildings and we’ve also increased bandwidth so we can handle about any type of capacity that the students would bring in as far as the different devices,” stated Mr. Mellon.
The latest push to move all of Indiana to the Central time zone has stalled after lawmakers decided not to vote on the measure, effectively killing the issue until next year.
The House Transportation Committee discussed a resolution this week that would have urged the federal government to hold hearings on switching the entire state from Eastern time to Central time. Members of the Central Time Coalition argued that moving the state to Central time would help businesses that deal with Chicago and the West Coast.
North White School Corporation officials sent a request to the West Central School Corporation be a member of West Central’s joint services Co-op for special education services. According to Superintendent Charles Mellon, that request was discussed by the school board officials last week.
The West Central School Board approved the retirement of Middle School Principal, Kay Beasey at their meeting last week.
“She’s been with the corporation for 24 years I believe and she’s done an outstanding job,” said Superintendent Charles Mellon. “There were just some health issues that she is dealing with so she felt it best to take an early retirement.”
The West Central School Board discussed next year’s school budget during their recent meeting. Superintendent Charles Mellon said that the Board got to see all of the paperwork. Continue reading
During the recent meeting of the West Central School Board, Superintendent Charles Mellon said that the Board talked about future plans for the Corporation.
“We did discuss a little bit about the possibility of having a late arrival day for students, possibly once week,” stated Mellon. “We’re looking at Thursday where the students would come in like maybe 20 minutes late. The teachers would arrive at 7:30 a.m. and that would give us almost an hour of in-service each week to take care of the many tasks that now face teachers outside of the classroom. This was just presented to the Board. We need to discuss it with the Association. We have received teacher input just on a survey. That was kind of a first step to make the Board aware and we’ll go back and do a little bit more work and bring it back to the Board when it’s time to approve the 2012-2013 school year calendar.”
The West Central School Board discussed the school’s dwindling budget at their meeting last week. Superintendent Charles Mellon said there are reasons as to why the school is losing money.
“There are two reasons for that,” said Mr. Mellon. “Of course, our enrollment has gone down and then there are different things that they are taking out that were items in the formula in the past like the small school grant, restoration grant and these type of things. I just wanted to convey to the Board that we did get our first draw. We look at being about $310,000 short of what we had last year. We add that on to $323,000 that we were short last year.”
The West Central School Board learned that the Corporation will soon see an increase in utility rates as their electric supplier was recently approved for an increase with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
Superintendent Charles Mellon said that this increase has disrupted the initial plan for the utilization and cost of the wind turbine.
The West Central School Board discussed insurance costs at their meeting last week.
“I just brought up the fact that the State has mandated that we do a self study as far as the amount of funds that our Corporation puts towards the employee’s premium,” said Superintendent Charles Mellon. “That has to be compared to what a state employee is receiving from the State towards their premium. As the mandate states, or the law, you can not pay more than 112% of what the State pays its employee. If you do, then you’re either encouraged to join the State Health Plan or to join a consortium or to make other changes within your corporation locally.”
The West Central School Board has decided to proceed with eliminating the Middle School Principal position.
Superintendent Charles Mellon told us that he has notified Principal, Kay Beasey, of the decision. She has the opportunity to meet with the Superintendent and the Board to discuss the situation. The restructuring of the Middle School/High School has not yet been finalized but Superintendent Mellon said they are working on that process.
The West Central School Board got an update from the Technology Committee at their recent meeting. The Board has wrapped up many of the Capital Projects it had planned for the year and now they can focus on technology. Superintendent Charles Mellon said that policies on social networking are being explored which includes cell phone use, Facebook usage and email. Other avenues are being researched as well.
The West Central School Board is considering eliminating the position of Middle School Principal. Superintendent Charles Mellon says that the action is being considered due to several reasons, mostly due to the Corporation’s financial outlook.
The West Central School Board discussed enrollment at their meeting last week.
The Average Daily Membership (ADM) taken at the beginning of this year was 824 students compared to 865 last year. This translates to a $250,100 loss in state support as tuition money follows the student. The actual ADM count will be in September when all students are encouraged to be in class that day so the School Corporation can receive all the money it can for every student that is enrolled.
At their recent meeting, the West Central School Board members discussed increasing the amount of bleachers at the football stadium. The Board received financial information and several different options were brought to the table, but the Board ultimately decided that the current seating is adequate. Seating is available for 1,120 fans.
The West Central School Board is moving along with the wind turbine project. According to Superintendent Charles Mellon, the next big hurdle will be cleared next week.
“We will be selling the bonds on July 6th,” said Mellon. “With that, we anticipate getting the funding for the project on July 20th. We anticipate some type of groundbreaking in the first part of August as equipment will begin to be delivered and the project completion can be as early as November. We signed the contract a week or so ago and we’re looking for some paperwork from the NIPSCO company and then we will be ready to proceed.”
The West Central School Board members discussed instructional assistants at their meeting Thursday.
The instructional assistants in the corporation were notified of the reduction in Prime Time Funding in the amount of $46,000 and that will result in the reduction of three to five instructional assistants in the Corporation. Every staff member was asked if they would consider retirement or resigning and to notify the administration. All reported that they would like to keep their job. The next step will be relayed to the Board by administrators at a future meeting.
The West Central School Board had to reduce the teaching staff by two-and-a-half teachers and three to five instructional assistants were let go. The school lost 54% of its primetime funding, or about $40,000, that provides for the salary of the instructional assistants.
