Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
AKRON - The Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. will seek North Central Association (NCA) Accreditation districtwide. Currently, the corporation pays a membership fee of $410 for the high school only. Additional fees will be assessed at an approximate cost of $375 for the middle school and $300 for each elementary school.
Superintendent Karen Boling recommended that the board support the accreditation, saying they would be among the first group of schools to pursue this new endorsement.
"The message we would be sending our school community is that we want to be held to higher standards and we are voluntarily seeking outside scrutiny (evaluation) as a means to be held accountable," said Boling. "It speaks well for the school - we have many good things in place and want to continue to ensure our students are getting the best education possible and will compete favorably with students from other school systems."
Boling said holding themselves accountable to an outside evaluating team serves to enhance the self-assessment that is in place. The self-assessment process would continue along with the NCA assessment.
To meet accreditation standards, a certified media specialist will be added at the middle school at a cost of approximately $25,000 per year.
The board voted to pursue the accreditation for a one-year trial period. Board member Bruce Andrews said if pursuing the endorsement will benefit the educational process, he would be for it; if accreditation is the goal, he is not.
Terry Smith reopened a subject that has come under scrutiny at several board meetings by asking if teachers can come to the board with problems without fear of reprisal. Smith asked the board if they want to fix the problem or ignore it and hope it will go away.
Boling said she and principal Ted Straiger have met with each of the teachers at the middle school and felt they got good, honest feedback. She said discipline was identified as a major focus at TVMS and the discipline process will be re-evaluated in May before being entered into the student handbook.
"This board has very distinctly taken the position that reprisals will not be tolerated," said Andrews. "If it happens, I want to hear about it."
Board member Tom Weaver's view was that teachers have been given the opportunity to speak out.
"All we can do is give them the opportunity, we can't make them speak out," he said.
He expressed the opinion that in all workplaces, employees faces the fear of reprisal from a supervisor.
Substitute teacher Tina Bailey said the fear of reprisal is present in the corporation.
"I want to be careful of what I say," she said. "I know there is reprisal. Since I spoke out at last month's meeting, I have worked only one day. There is still work that needs done."
Bailey thanked Boling for looking into the allegations made last month that parent volunteers were being turned away from Burket School.
The second hearing on year-round education brought no public comment. New legislation requires public schools to have two public hearings on year-round school before going to the Property Tax Board with a building project.
The board approved a resolution that would allow R.W. Clinton & Associates to proceed with the construction drawings and approved the adoption of a lease for the Mentone Elementary School building project. Terms of the lease call for a maximum rate of 6 percent with a maximum time of 22 months and a maximum annual payment of $935,000. The numbers may be lowered after construction bids are received.
In other business, the board:
• Heard from Harrison Township trustee Jim Moyer on taxes and assessments. Moyer asked the board to carefully consider expenditures before approving them. He said he has received 42 complaints from residents because $5.12 of the $6.70 tax rate goes to the school. The remainder is shared among seven government agencies in the district. Moyer commented that he is not seeing enough growth in the community to warrant a continued increase in spending.
• Approved a check for $27,500 to Wayne Landis, seventh-grade math teacher who was injured in a fall from a roof.
A special school board meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. May 29 for discussion of a bus garage. The next regular meeting will be June 9.
