TVSC School Board - The Fuel That Keeps The Engine Running
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Valley Insight-
Recently, I was asked to write a message that demonstrates how the Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. School Board supports Tippecanoe Valley’s mission statement – “Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation is committed to student success through the development of character, leadership and literacy.” At first I didn’t think that we, as school board members who do not have daily face-to-face time with the students, could help our students achieve success. I soon realized that as school board members we do in fact have an impact on the success of our students. To borrow a thought from TVSC Maintenance Director Todd Glenn, who has said the maintenance department is “the engine behind the scene,” I believe the school board is “the fuel that keeps the engine running.” Our schools have a tremendous responsibility to shape our students into the future citizens of our community and our country. The schools are in the business of educating and developing our students into our next leaders. These students will be our doctors, engineers, lawyers, farmers and maybe even the president of the United States. As a school board, we are charged with being policymakers and helping our administration implement programs that will engage and strike an interest in our students so they have a strong desire to learn. We are responsible to make sure we have the right leaders in place to accomplish this. The school board is responsible to ensure the corporation has the resources available to help accomplish these tasks and to provide educational facilities that are safe and conducive to modern learning. We hold our administrators accountable for administering the policies we set and for meeting Indiana’s state requirements. The school board makes sure that students are improving their test scores and, if they are not, we help determine the programs or activities needed to achieve the academic success of our students. We also approve and monitor the budget to make sure that learning is the number-one priority of our spending. There are several areas school board members do not supervise. We do not critique our teachers, but make sure our administrators formally evaluate our teachers annually. We are not here to coach our teams, but make sure that our athletic directors are instructing and working closely with our coaches. Our coaches not only teach student-athletes how to play the game, but they also teach good sportsmanship, build character and put education first. The methods of educating our students have changed tremendously, even in the short time I have served on the school board. We strive to stay current with the latest instructional practices and constantly evolving technology in offering our students a cutting-edge education. As school board members we do not teach students, but we lead the corporation in teaching our students not only academics, but also about life, by building student success through the development of character, leadership and literacy. We are “the fuel that keeps the engine running.”
