TVSC Raises Lunch Prices, Honors Retirees
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
The board voted to raise lunch prices for grades kindergarten to eighth grade by 10 cents to $1.60; lunch prices for students in ninth to 12th grades by 10 cents to $1.65; and prices for adults by 25 cents to $3.
Assistant Superintendent Blaine Conley told the board that six weeks ago the Indiana Department of Education reviewed Valley’s lunch program and noted the school corporation hadn’t increased its lunch prices since the 2013-14 school year. It recommended the corporation make the 10-cents increase for the 2015-16 school year.
In its administrative review, the IDOE wrote, “Lunch prices were not increased in the 2013-14 school year and are under the current paid lunch equity pricing requirement of $2.65. Please make sure to use the Paid Lunch Equity tool ... or continue to increase your price 10 cents annually until compliance is established or the school corporation may apply for a waiver if initial requirements are met. It is important that established meal prices cover the cost of producing a meal.”
Conley said Valley was given a waiver last year, but was denied a waiver for 2015-16.
Through the TVSC lunch program, every student is eligible for a paid student lunch, a reduced priced student lunch or a free lunch. Valley receives federal reimbursement on each lunch served, but the reimbursement amounts for each category of lunch served is different, according to information provided by TVSC.
Effective July 1, 2011, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 required schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to provide the same level of support for paid student lunches served as for free/reduced student lunches served. To be compliant, the paid student lunch price must be determined based on a calculation using the difference in federal reimbursement rates between free lunches and paid student lunches.
Conley said he looked at lunch prices at over 30 school corporations in Northern Indiana.
“We currently charge the lowest and we will continue to be the lowest with the 10 cent increase,” he said.
Earlier in the meeting, Superintendent Brett Boggs recognized two long-time school corporation employees who retired effective June 1.
Diane Sheetz retired as the Tippecanoe Valley High School guidance secretary. She served approximately 29 years with the school corporation.
She told the board that her first year with Valley was as a Prime Time aide at Mentone before moving over to the high school for the next 28 years.
“I’ve done a little bit of everything,” she said.
Asked what she will miss the most, Sheetz said, “The kids. And the family. They’re like your family, the teachers.”
Also retired is TVHS art teacher Jan Mills, who served as TVHS’s only high school art teacher for the past 40 years. Mills developed and taught Introduction to 2-D, Painting 1 and 2, Drawing 1 and 2, Visual Communications 1 and 2, Sculpture 1 and 2, Advanced 2-D and one year of Advanced Placement Art History, Boggs said.
When asked what the most rewarding aspects of her career have been, Boggs said she responded, “Through the many years of teaching, my students participated in numerous competitions, and for the most part did well. I like seeing their work up against the work from other schools. I also liked seeing the difference in the students’ work from the beginning to the end of a semester.”
She will miss her colleagues and the kids. For her future plans, she plans to spend more time with family, antiquing, working with her husband in their antique shop, doing her own art and all the other activities she enjoys.
Board President Bryan Murphy told Mills that while his boys were not “artsy,” she made art fun for them.
In other business, the school board:
• Approved a $15,000 grant from the DEKKO Foundation for professional learning communities at TVSC. The grant will be used to cover registration fees, food, travel and lodging at the conference site.
Conley said 12 teachers and three administrators will travel to a conference this summer, with another 15 staff members going next summer.
He said DEKKO “felt very strongly with what we’re doing here.”
• Heard from TVHS Principal Dr. Michael Bendicsen that a committee put together a new handbook for his school’s faculty and staff. It had not been updated since 2006, and the faculty and staff saw it before it was presented to the board.
Murphy said he was very pleased with what he saw. “I thought it was very well done,” he said.
The board will vote on approving it at its July meeting.
• Approved the real estate sale agreement to sell four parcels to landowners next to Mentone Elementary. The four parcels total 0.95 acres “all together,” Boggs said after the meeting, and were valued at $11,000. The purchasers covered all the costs associated with the land sale.
• Approved the two-year agreement with the Warsaw Area Career Center.
Boggs reminded the board that WACC Director Ronna Kawsky made a presentation on the career center to them last month. The agreement is renewed every two years, and Boggs said it was “pretty standard” this year with not much change.
• Heard from Conley that summer school started Thursday and Valley has over 270 kids taking summer school “to get ahead in classes or credit retrieval.” They also get breakfast and lunch, and Conley said Valley was “really meeting the needs of our kids.”
Thirty-three students are taking physical education this summer to knock out half a semester so they can take other classes during the school year. Over 40 kids are taking summer economics and government.
“We have kids who are trying to get ahead,” Conley said.
• Announced upcoming board meetings will be: 7 p.m., June 29, Capital Projects Fund workshop, administration office; 6 p.m., July 13, regular meeting, administration office; 6 p.m., Aug. 10, regular meeting, Mentone Elementary; and 6 p.m., Sept. 14, regular meeting, Mentone Elementary.
• Approved the previous meetings’ minutes, personnel hirings, extracurricular assignments, personnel resignations, retirements, a maternity leave, dissolution of the Tippecanoe Valley Choir Boosters, 2015 summer school contracts, 2015-16 textbook fees and Title I Federal Funding application.
• Commended the high school’s students and staff for a “very nice” graduation ceremony. Murphy commended the salutatorian and valedictorian’s speeches as being “excellent.”[[In-content Ad]]
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The board voted to raise lunch prices for grades kindergarten to eighth grade by 10 cents to $1.60; lunch prices for students in ninth to 12th grades by 10 cents to $1.65; and prices for adults by 25 cents to $3.
Assistant Superintendent Blaine Conley told the board that six weeks ago the Indiana Department of Education reviewed Valley’s lunch program and noted the school corporation hadn’t increased its lunch prices since the 2013-14 school year. It recommended the corporation make the 10-cents increase for the 2015-16 school year.
In its administrative review, the IDOE wrote, “Lunch prices were not increased in the 2013-14 school year and are under the current paid lunch equity pricing requirement of $2.65. Please make sure to use the Paid Lunch Equity tool ... or continue to increase your price 10 cents annually until compliance is established or the school corporation may apply for a waiver if initial requirements are met. It is important that established meal prices cover the cost of producing a meal.”
Conley said Valley was given a waiver last year, but was denied a waiver for 2015-16.
Through the TVSC lunch program, every student is eligible for a paid student lunch, a reduced priced student lunch or a free lunch. Valley receives federal reimbursement on each lunch served, but the reimbursement amounts for each category of lunch served is different, according to information provided by TVSC.
Effective July 1, 2011, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 required schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to provide the same level of support for paid student lunches served as for free/reduced student lunches served. To be compliant, the paid student lunch price must be determined based on a calculation using the difference in federal reimbursement rates between free lunches and paid student lunches.
Conley said he looked at lunch prices at over 30 school corporations in Northern Indiana.
“We currently charge the lowest and we will continue to be the lowest with the 10 cent increase,” he said.
Earlier in the meeting, Superintendent Brett Boggs recognized two long-time school corporation employees who retired effective June 1.
Diane Sheetz retired as the Tippecanoe Valley High School guidance secretary. She served approximately 29 years with the school corporation.
She told the board that her first year with Valley was as a Prime Time aide at Mentone before moving over to the high school for the next 28 years.
“I’ve done a little bit of everything,” she said.
Asked what she will miss the most, Sheetz said, “The kids. And the family. They’re like your family, the teachers.”
Also retired is TVHS art teacher Jan Mills, who served as TVHS’s only high school art teacher for the past 40 years. Mills developed and taught Introduction to 2-D, Painting 1 and 2, Drawing 1 and 2, Visual Communications 1 and 2, Sculpture 1 and 2, Advanced 2-D and one year of Advanced Placement Art History, Boggs said.
When asked what the most rewarding aspects of her career have been, Boggs said she responded, “Through the many years of teaching, my students participated in numerous competitions, and for the most part did well. I like seeing their work up against the work from other schools. I also liked seeing the difference in the students’ work from the beginning to the end of a semester.”
She will miss her colleagues and the kids. For her future plans, she plans to spend more time with family, antiquing, working with her husband in their antique shop, doing her own art and all the other activities she enjoys.
Board President Bryan Murphy told Mills that while his boys were not “artsy,” she made art fun for them.
In other business, the school board:
• Approved a $15,000 grant from the DEKKO Foundation for professional learning communities at TVSC. The grant will be used to cover registration fees, food, travel and lodging at the conference site.
Conley said 12 teachers and three administrators will travel to a conference this summer, with another 15 staff members going next summer.
He said DEKKO “felt very strongly with what we’re doing here.”
• Heard from TVHS Principal Dr. Michael Bendicsen that a committee put together a new handbook for his school’s faculty and staff. It had not been updated since 2006, and the faculty and staff saw it before it was presented to the board.
Murphy said he was very pleased with what he saw. “I thought it was very well done,” he said.
The board will vote on approving it at its July meeting.
• Approved the real estate sale agreement to sell four parcels to landowners next to Mentone Elementary. The four parcels total 0.95 acres “all together,” Boggs said after the meeting, and were valued at $11,000. The purchasers covered all the costs associated with the land sale.
• Approved the two-year agreement with the Warsaw Area Career Center.
Boggs reminded the board that WACC Director Ronna Kawsky made a presentation on the career center to them last month. The agreement is renewed every two years, and Boggs said it was “pretty standard” this year with not much change.
• Heard from Conley that summer school started Thursday and Valley has over 270 kids taking summer school “to get ahead in classes or credit retrieval.” They also get breakfast and lunch, and Conley said Valley was “really meeting the needs of our kids.”
Thirty-three students are taking physical education this summer to knock out half a semester so they can take other classes during the school year. Over 40 kids are taking summer economics and government.
“We have kids who are trying to get ahead,” Conley said.
• Announced upcoming board meetings will be: 7 p.m., June 29, Capital Projects Fund workshop, administration office; 6 p.m., July 13, regular meeting, administration office; 6 p.m., Aug. 10, regular meeting, Mentone Elementary; and 6 p.m., Sept. 14, regular meeting, Mentone Elementary.
• Approved the previous meetings’ minutes, personnel hirings, extracurricular assignments, personnel resignations, retirements, a maternity leave, dissolution of the Tippecanoe Valley Choir Boosters, 2015 summer school contracts, 2015-16 textbook fees and Title I Federal Funding application.
• Commended the high school’s students and staff for a “very nice” graduation ceremony. Murphy commended the salutatorian and valedictorian’s speeches as being “excellent.”[[In-content Ad]]
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