MENTONE - Employees of Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. can not possess a firearm or ammunition on school property.
Monday night at the Tippecanoe Valley School Board meeting, the board unanimously approved the new policy. The board previously discussed it at its August meeting.
Effective July 1, a new law in Indiana went into effect allowing an employee who has a legal firearm permit to possess that firearm or ammunition if the firearm or ammunition is locked in the employee's vehicle trunk, in the glove compartment of the locked vehicle or stored out of plain sight in the locked vehicle.
A section of the new law states a school corporation may ban firearm possession even if legally possessed by an employee.
Indiana Code already prohibits the possession of firearms in or on school property, on a school bus or on property being used by a school for a school function. A person who violates the law commits a Class D felony.
Monday, Superintendent Brett Boggs said the Indiana School Board Association interprets this law to mean a school must prohibit the possession of firearms on school property under Indiana Code.
The new law addresses possession of firearms and ammunition by employees and not by students. The prohibition of possession of firearms by students on school property is still law in Indiana.
The penalty for firearm possession, according to the policy, may be suspension from work, either paid or unpaid, and up to and including termination of employment.
Angie Miller, Mentone Elementary School principal, gave the board a report on the 2010 summer school courses and attendance.
Twenty-one classes were offered to TVSC students in grades one through 12th. To teach the classes, there were 19 teachers and 11 assistants employed.
Session I summer school classes were spread over all the TVSC school buildings, while session II was held only at the high school, Miller said.
"Eighty-six percent of students who enrolled in summer school participated," Miller said.
There were 433 students who signed up, with 372 of them attending.
Valley provided transportation for session I classes, but not session II. Miller said it was indicated to her that if Valley had provided transportation for session II, more students who signed up would have attended.
Overall, however, she said she felt summer school was successful this year.
Tippecanoe Valley High School Principal Kirk Doehrmann discussed changes regarding the student random drug and alcohol testing program with the board.
Under the current policy, once a student is found to have a positive test through the program, has completed the terms of the disciplinary action imposed and before the student is allowed to participate in any activity or drive to school, a follow-up test of that student is conducted. Currently, TVSC pays for the follow-up test.
Doehrmann proposed Monday the follow-up tests be paid for by parents. He also proposed that students who test positive for illegal drugs will be tested for the rest of the school year, at the time of the random drug testing, at the parent's expense.
Doehrmann said the reason they want parents to pick up the costs of the follow-up tests is because TVSC has limited funding for the drug testing. Tests are $60 each.
After a few minutes of discussion, Boggs suggested he work with Doehrmann and come back to the board in October with a draft of the changes.
In other business, the school board:
n Approved the Capital Projects Fund plan, the School Bus Replacement Plan and the 2011 budget. The 2011 budget is $21,597,048. The public hearing on the budget was Sept. 2.
n Accepted the request for qualifications from Performance Services and Triangle & Associates for the wind turbine power project.
n Approved the administrative contract for Miller as the Mentone principal.
Miller will receive a base administrative salary of $68,000 minus the 1 percent salary reduction approved by the school board for all TVSC administrators July 26. She will pay the same premium for health insurance as the other administrators.
The contract is for two years.
n Heard Valley will recognize its first group of Distinguished Alumni Friday. The first "class" includes Amanda Alexander, Dion Anglin, Britton Burkhart, Joseph Cook, Jerrod Feldman, Kirk Robinson, Eric Rodenberg, Sara Kerkhoff Rundell, Matthew Shilling and Paula Shireman.
n Heard Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett sent Valley a letter congratulating the school corporation on its recent success on the ISTEP+ Algebra I Graduation Exam. One hundred percent of the 28 eighth-graders passed the exam.
n Recognized Akron United Methodist Church for donating more than $500 to Akron Elementary. The money will be used to purchase milk for students who can not afford the daily expense during snack time.
n Announced upcoming meetings will be Oct. 11, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m.; and Dec. 13, 7:30 p.m. All three meetings will be at Mentone Elementary School in the board meeting room.
