AKRON - Unanimously Monday night, the Tippecanoe Valley School Board approved a resolution in support of restoring all of Indiana to the Central Time Zone.
The board also discussed an addition to school board policy prohibiting school employees from possessing a firearm on school property. The board will vote to approve or deny the policy at its Sept. 13 board meeting.
Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. Superintendent Brett Boggs told the school board that last summer a newly formed group, Central Time Coalition, started an effort to return the entire state to the Central Time Zone.
The mission of the coalition is "to promote the allocation of available sunlight in a manner that provides the greatest health, safety and welfare to the citizens of Indiana. This mission will be accomplished when Indiana is restored to the Central Time Zone."
Boggs said, "They did quite a bit of research on this topic."
In their research, they came up with numerous positive impacts to students, families and staff if Indiana goes to Central Time Zone. Currently, most of the state is on Eastern Standard Time, but some counties are on CTZ.
Boggs provided some of those impacts to the board.
Excessive morning darkness in Indiana's EST counties has caused safety hazards for students waiting for school buses, walking to school and driving to school. On Central Time, Indiana's latest sunrise would be approximately 7:15 a.m. with morning twilight beginning 30 minutes earlier. The majority of travel to and from school would occur in sunlight.
The Central Time Zone's one-hour-earlier sunsets would promote indoor time for homework and earlier bedtimes, Boggs said.
Studies have proven that students' readiness to learn and their classroom performance is increased when their environment is compatible with their internal body clocks. Central Time would provide an environment that is substantially more compatible with all of Indiana's citizens' internal body clocks, he said.
The division of Indiana into Eastern Time Zone and Central Time Zone sections causes confusion and creates scheduling problems for schools and parents.
Finally, Boggs said, a reduction in school delays resulting from darkness in combination with other factors will increase the quantity and quality of instructional time in schools.
After all five of the school board members consented to the resolution, Boggs told the board he appreciated that and will send a letter to the coalition supporting CTZ.
"It will make a difference," Boggs said of changing the time zone.
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 in or school property, in or on property used by a school for a school function or on a school bus.
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.
The Indiana School Board Association, Boggs said, interprets this law to mean a school must prohibit the possession of firearms on school property under Indiana Code.
Indiana Code provides an exemption in which a school corporation may allow an employee to possess a firearm if the employee is a security guard working for the school corporation on school grounds or at a school activity. The exemption also allows a school employee to possess a firearm on school grounds or at a school activity when specific authority has been granted by the superintendent or school board.
The school resource officer is not an employee of the school corporation, thus his possession of a firearm and ammunition is not impacted by the new law.
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 policy presented by Boggs to the school board states that "no school employee shall possess, handle or transmit any firearm on school property, unless the employee is a security guard working for the school corporation on school grounds or at a school activity."
It also states a school employee may be given specific authority to carry a firearm on school property by the superintendent or school board. Such authority must specify the specific time and event for which the employee has the authority to carry the firearm on school property.
The policy also lists the devices to be considered a firearm.
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.
The superintendent shall immediately notify the appropriate law enforcement agency when an employee engages in behavior described in the policy.
School board members had several questions about the policy, which Boggs will try to get answered by the corporation's attorney. He then will provide those answers to the board in September before the board votes on the policy.
