Tippy Valley Reviews Reopening Plans; Board Member Resigns
June 16, 2020 at 2:56 a.m.
By Jackie [email protected]
On Wednesday, a survey was put up on social media and sent to parents of students in kindergarten through high school, asking for feedback for the school corporation’s reopening in the fall.
“This survey will close at noon Wednesday, June 17,” said Tippecanoe Valley Superintendent Blaine Conley. “A re-entry committee representing multiple state boards will collaborate on planning the reopening of our schools. The school board will be updated as we work as a committee. This work will be sent to the health department, who has final authority of approving our plan of reopening our schools.”
The first student day of the 2020-21 school year will be Aug. 12.
“Once again, we value the input from our parents and community,” Conley said.
The school board approved the resignation of board Vice President Lacey Wise and approved Adam Heckaman to become the new vice president.
Wise was approved to be hired as a guidance counselor at TVHS. She said her hiring as a guidance counselor was the reason she resigned from the school board. When the guidance counselor position became open, she spoke to the board about it and decided to apply for the position. She said she can not be on the school board of a school district she works for.
Conley said an application to fill Wise’s position will be put on the school corporation’s website. The requirements to serve on the board is the person has to be a resident of Franklin Township and at least 21 years old. The board will need to fill the position in the next 30 days.
The school board also approved a $9,250 grant from the AWS Foundation for curriculum funding.
“Their mission is help children and adults with enduring intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities live as independently as possible, be included in the community and be included in the community and function at their highest potential. They offered a grant opportunity to provide money for school corporations to purchase curriculum,” said Conley.
In order to earn the grant, the school corporation had to put together a committee, which had to complete a needs assessment about curriculum in the district, research evidence-based practices and consult with an expert from the Center of Education and Life Long Learning at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community.
“This process led us to focus on our applied skills special education programs at the middle school and high school levels,” Conley said. “Our goal was to provide some consistency to our sixth-grade to 12th-grade programming for students who would be earning a certificate of completion upon completing high school.”
The grant will go toward purchasing curriculum for Tippecanoe Valley Middle School and Tippecanoe Valley High School “to support instruction in the areas of math, reading, science, social studies and functional life skills.”
AWS Foundation initially agreed to give a grant of $6,289.50 but increased the grant after additional funds were available.
The school board was also updated on the softball facility project.
Jim Mitterling, project manager for the softball facility project, said the exterior of the softball facility project is 100% done, with the interior of the facility being 85% percent complete.
Things that have been finished are faucets and the sinks in the bathroom and the drainage tile in the outfield. Things that still need to be completed include doors being painted, wiring and the carpet and rubberbase has to be completed in the pressbox.
The upgrade of the infield and outfield is near complete and Mitterling said the goal is have the seeding of the outfield done on June 26.
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On Wednesday, a survey was put up on social media and sent to parents of students in kindergarten through high school, asking for feedback for the school corporation’s reopening in the fall.
“This survey will close at noon Wednesday, June 17,” said Tippecanoe Valley Superintendent Blaine Conley. “A re-entry committee representing multiple state boards will collaborate on planning the reopening of our schools. The school board will be updated as we work as a committee. This work will be sent to the health department, who has final authority of approving our plan of reopening our schools.”
The first student day of the 2020-21 school year will be Aug. 12.
“Once again, we value the input from our parents and community,” Conley said.
The school board approved the resignation of board Vice President Lacey Wise and approved Adam Heckaman to become the new vice president.
Wise was approved to be hired as a guidance counselor at TVHS. She said her hiring as a guidance counselor was the reason she resigned from the school board. When the guidance counselor position became open, she spoke to the board about it and decided to apply for the position. She said she can not be on the school board of a school district she works for.
Conley said an application to fill Wise’s position will be put on the school corporation’s website. The requirements to serve on the board is the person has to be a resident of Franklin Township and at least 21 years old. The board will need to fill the position in the next 30 days.
The school board also approved a $9,250 grant from the AWS Foundation for curriculum funding.
“Their mission is help children and adults with enduring intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities live as independently as possible, be included in the community and be included in the community and function at their highest potential. They offered a grant opportunity to provide money for school corporations to purchase curriculum,” said Conley.
In order to earn the grant, the school corporation had to put together a committee, which had to complete a needs assessment about curriculum in the district, research evidence-based practices and consult with an expert from the Center of Education and Life Long Learning at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community.
“This process led us to focus on our applied skills special education programs at the middle school and high school levels,” Conley said. “Our goal was to provide some consistency to our sixth-grade to 12th-grade programming for students who would be earning a certificate of completion upon completing high school.”
The grant will go toward purchasing curriculum for Tippecanoe Valley Middle School and Tippecanoe Valley High School “to support instruction in the areas of math, reading, science, social studies and functional life skills.”
AWS Foundation initially agreed to give a grant of $6,289.50 but increased the grant after additional funds were available.
The school board was also updated on the softball facility project.
Jim Mitterling, project manager for the softball facility project, said the exterior of the softball facility project is 100% done, with the interior of the facility being 85% percent complete.
Things that have been finished are faucets and the sinks in the bathroom and the drainage tile in the outfield. Things that still need to be completed include doors being painted, wiring and the carpet and rubberbase has to be completed in the pressbox.
The upgrade of the infield and outfield is near complete and Mitterling said the goal is have the seeding of the outfield done on June 26.
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