BOURBON – Triton School Corporation Superintendent Jeremy Riffle updated the school board about an incident that resulted in a soft lockdown at the high school Monday.
After Monday’s meeting, Riffle said an individual that was told not to be on campus came on to school premises. The person was greeted by administration at the door. The school resource officer took care of the situation and law enforcement was called. Students were still able to move around their classroom and have instruction.
During the meeting, Riffle said Principal Nate McKeand shared an email with parents of high school students to make them aware of the incident.
The incident happened about 2:45 p.m. By 3:15 p.m., students were dismissed.
Riffle said sometimes people want specific details to be shared “in the town square” and that’s not always possible. Riffle said if people want more details, he’s more than happy to speak with them.
“We will continue to communicate (via) mass messages when it involves everybody. But if it doesn’t involve (everybody), we promise we’re not going to throw information out there for everybody to pull apart and make rumors about,” he said.
He said the school corporation works very hard to keep students safe and takes security seriously.
Riffle also updated the board on student enrollment. He said it continues to be steady.
“If you remember the last five years, typically you would see a pretty big gap between September enrollment and February enrollment. We remain steady. The last few years, we have actually grown and we have the possibility of continuing to do that this year,” he said.
Enrollment at the high school was 434 students and 524 at the elementary school.
In other business, the board:
• Approved the maternity leave for Brea Motalbano and for Janelle Brontrager as the substitute teacher for Motalbano’s leave, Megan Atkins to be drama director for the 2023-24 drama play production, Jason Arvensen as the junior high wrestling head coach, Malachi Greene as junior high assistant wrestling coach, Steve Walkins as the sixth-grade girls head basketball coach and for Rachel Watkins to be the sixth-grade girls volunteer basketball coach.
• Approved Terri Barnhard to stay as board president, Kevin Boyer to stay as vice president and Steve Stichter to stay as secretary of the board.
• Approved to have board meetings at 7 p.m. on the second Monday of each month at the administration building.
• Approved the salary for board members at $1,850 a year.
• Learned sixth-graders this year are starting a new unit on financial literacy.
• Learned the school corporation increased CTE (Career and Technical Educational) internship opportunities. They heard from high school students Logan Meeks and Aiden Ford about how their CTE internships at local manufacturer ITAMCO were going.
• Learned there was a staff day Friday.
• Was reminded of April 6’s Triton in the Kitchen Foundation Gala at the Wooded Knot, Tippecanoe, to raise money for the Triton Student Life Foundation.
• Heard the final exam schedule at the junior-senior high school was changed from five days to three. Feedback from teachers stated the change went well.