MENTONE – Official count day for schools is this Friday, but numbers from last Friday show Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. has an increase in students this year over last. Superintendent Brett Boggs said student enrollment on count day will be used by the state for school funding purposes at least for the first half of the school year. A second student count day is in February. “It looks like we should have a slight increase this year,” he said. Hopefully, he added, Valley has seen an end to the enrollment decline it’s seen the last few years. Friday, total enrollment at Valley schools was 1,988 students. Enrollment was 1,960 on Aug. 9; 1,933 on Feb. 15; and 1,981 on Sept. 14, 2012. At the high school, enrollment Friday was 658 students, while the middle school had 464, Mentone Elementary had 475 and Akron Elementary had 391. Parent Joe Secrist asked about transfer students. While Warsaw Community Schools had 74 students transfer from Valley, Boggs said 43 students transferred from WCS to Valley. Proportionately, Valley was getting more of Warsaw’s students then Warsaw was getting from Valley, Boggs indicated. Some of the reasons families may be leaving Valley, Boggs said, is because of child care availability in Warsaw. With gas prices around $4 per gallon, Boggs said parents also want to live closer to where they work. A large majority of applications Boggs gets now for students to attend Valley are from people who moved out of the district but still want their student to attend Valley schools. Board President Bryan Murphy reported Valley has had its highest number ever of students transferring into the district. Boggs reported that as of Aug. 30, a total of 95 non-resident students have been approved as transfers into the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation. Twenty of those are at Akron, 33 at Mentone, 18 at the middle school and 24 at the high school. The corporations of residence for the transfer students are 43 from Warsaw Community Schools; 26 from Rochester; 15 from Triton; six from North Miami; two from Manchester; two from Peru and one from Wawasee. The 2012-13 school year concluded with 71 non-resident transfer students attending TVSC. Boggs said there’s obviously some people who see value in having their children attend Tippecanoe Valley Schools. In other business, the school board: • Approved the 2013-14 capital projects fund plan, school bus replacement plan and budget as discussed at the budget workshop and public hearing. The proposed budget totals $22,393,403. • Heard the Distinguished Alumni Dinner is at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Tippecanoe Valley Middle School. Seven alumni will be honored. The meal will be prepared by the middle and high schools’ cafeteria staff, and served by student council members. After the dinner, radio personality Rita Price will interview each of the seven inductees. On Friday, the alumni will meet with students and then do interviews in the afternoon. At half time of Friday’s home football game, the alumni will be recognized. • Announced upcoming board meetings will be at 6:30 p.m. at Mentone Elementary School Oct. 14, Nov. 11 and Dec. 9. • Approved the proposal for the fall driver education session. The session will be from 3:45 to 6:15 p.m. at TVHS starting in late September through mid October. The session will be 12 days at 2.5 hours per day. The driving will be done from 3:45 to 6:45 p.m. starting around Oct. 14 and continuing until all students have six hours of driving. This puts the completion date of the fall session at or around Dec. 20. The per-student fee for the fall session will be $280, or $200 for online participants. A minimum of 20 students will be required for the fall session to be offered. • Approved resignations, hirings and extracurricular assignments, including Scott Smith as TVHS assistant athletic director.
