Valley Alters Prom Policy

MENTONE - Promgoers at Tippecanoe Valley High School will no longer be allowed to bring a guest 21 years of age or older to the prom - or to any dance at TVHS.

An exception was made this year for two students who attended a school board meeting and asked to take their boyfriends who were at least 21 years old. School board members allowed the exception to the rule.

TVHS principal Charles Mills said Monday the exception caused problems among other students who wanted to bring guests who didn't fit the age restriction.

Because of the exception made to the rule this year, Mills said, students were in his office saying, "Why not me, too?" and parents were calling him regarding the exception made.

He also said the feeling at the high school is: "If you don't like the rule, go to the school board and they'll change it."

"As soon as we start to make exceptions to rules," Mills said, "pretty soon everything becomes an exception.

"This is a high school event and we're trying to keep it a high school event," he said. "We have to draw a line."

In the past, Mills said, students have brought dates as old as 30 years old and requests have been made to bring middle school students.

Mills said his recommendation to the school board and that of the prom committee is to support the rule.

School board members agreed that they need to stick to the rules. They also said they were impressed with the way the two students who made the exception requests handled themselves.

In other business:

• Shelly Walgamuth, Manchester High School teacher, former TVHS teacher and parent of a TVHS student, addressed the board last month regarding her daughter's absence from school April 20.

Superintendent Karen S. Boling explained last month that a student started a rumor that two students were going to bring a gun to school on April 20. Nearly 200 students missed school that day.

Walgamuth said her daughter's absence was ruled as an unexcused absence and she was not allowed to make up homework from that day.

Last month she asked board members to investigate the school's attendance policy regarding her daughter's and several other students' absences on April 20.

She also said the student handbook does not discuss unexcused absences and asked board members to investigate the attendance policy.

School board president Rod Eaton said the board would look into the attendance policy and make sure one of the board members contacted her regarding her concerns.

Board member Tom Weaver asked Eaton Monday if Walgamuth was contacted. Eaton said she was.

"She didn't like what I had to say," he said. "But sometimes I don't like what I have to say."

Eaton said he got a copy of Manchester High School's (where Walgamuth teaches) attendance policy "and it's almost word-for-word what ours is."

Walgamuth's daughter was still not allowed to make up her homework from April 20, and her absence remains unexcused.

Eaton said Mills is working on rewriting part of the attendance policy.

• School board members heard from Marian Hunter, a bus driver for Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. for 30 years who retired May 31. Hunter was the third woman bus driver hired in the school corporation.

She said she and all the bus drivers love the children and enjoy their jobs as bus drivers.

"If we didn't love the kids, we wouldn't be doing it," she said. "Our kids need help. Our kids need love. They need respect and they need to be taught respect. These kids are our future."

"I appreciate you taking the time to come (to the board meeting), Weaver said. "We're not all bad in this corporation. We got a lot of good employees."

Weaver also congratulated Mills on a good high school graduation ceremony, and board member Hal Hoffman thanked the teachers who sat along the sides during the ceremony. Hoffman said the seniors were "perfect" and behaved like ladies and gentlemen.

• School board members recognized Josh Leon, Tippecanoe Valley Middle School student, for being selected to participate in the Jim Holland Summer Enrichment Program in biology at Indiana University.

• School board members approved the following: Cindy Kimmel as a track coach at TVMS, a new school board policy on pest control, KEYS grants for Tiffani Harman and Aimee Hagg, student/faculty/athletic handbooks, two bus driver retirements from Robert Mattix and Evelyn Kuhn, summer school contracts, a Title I grant and Katie Miller as Mentone Elementary School principal.

• Heard from a concerned parent regarding safety in the schools and locking down the schools so no one would be able to enter who was not supposed to be there.

Boling said the middle school will have a surveillance camera and an entry buzzer installed before school starts in the fall "or shortly thereafter."

The Safe Schools grant will pay for the equipment, Boling said. She was not sure how much the surveillance camera costs.

• Upcoming school board meetings are scheduled for July 9 and Aug. 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Mentone Elementary School. The public is invited.

The Tippecanoe Valley School Board members are: president Rod Eaton, David O'Brien, Hal Hoffman, Tom Weaver and Mark Wise. Superintendent is Dr. Karen S. Boling.