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MENTONE - Michael Overmyer, Tippecanoe Valley High School principal, resigned Monday, effective June 30, when his contract expires.
The Valley School Board approved his resignation Monday night.
According to Superinten-dent Dr. Daniel Kramer, no timeline has been established to replace Overmyer. After the position is posted and applications are received, a committee and administrators will screen candidates down to two or three and present the candidates to the school board. However, a decision on how a new principal will be selected also has not been determined as of Monday.
The resignation of TVHS treasurer Jennifer Fraser also was accepted, effective Friday. Fraser will be replaced by TVHS secretary Darlene Drudge.
Per Assistant Superinten-dent Brett Boggs' recommendation, the school board approved purchasing three buses from Kerlin Bus Sales & Leasing Inc. of Silver Lake for a total of $176,902 after trade-in. Two of the buses will include luggage compartments for an additional $1,860 each.
Angie Miller made a presentation to the school board on Swoop Reading time at Akron and Mentone elementary schools.
In her PowerPoint presentation, Miller said Swoop includes coaching groups for grades one and two that are made up of six or less students led by an adult. The instructional strategies support the four-blocks classroom curriculum and students read books at their own personal instructional levels. It teaches reading strategies so a student may become independent readers.
Student levels are identified through Rigby Leveled Assessment, ongoing running records, IEP students and groups are flexible and fluid. Students meet in Swoop groups four days per week, groups meet for 30-minute sessions. All students in the class are engaged in reading instruction at the same time. Group leaders plan on the fifth day.
Benefits of Swoop include: better use of paraprofessionals; a connection between Reading Recovery and the regular classroom; all students receive reading instruction at the same time; time on task; Reading Recovery students are supported in the regular classroom; on grade level readers are learning strategies that will help them as text becomes harder; and everyone is "on the same page."
In other business, the school board:
• Approved the 2006-07 school calendar. The first day of school will be Aug. 18; winter break begins at the close of the day Dec. 20 and school resumes Jan. 2; spring break begins at the close of school March 30, 2007, with school resuming April 9, 2007. The last student day will be May 30, 2007. Kramer said the calendar will allow for up to six opportunities for time to be made up if there are school cancellations without a change to the calendar.
• Approved for Tippecanoe to join the North-Central Energy Cooperative. Kramer said that by Valley joining the cooperative, it will save the school corporation money on purchasing natural gas. There currently are 23 other school corporations in the cooperative, including Plymouth, Warsaw, Bremen, Wawasee and Wa-Nee. The only fee for Valley is a $625 initial fee.
"I think this is an excellent opportunity for us," said Boggs.
• Recognized Kinley Eads, daughter of Jim and Tammy Eads, Mentone, for scoring a perfect 620 on the third-grade math portion of the fall 2005 ISTEP+ test.
• Approved for Matt Mobley to attend a therapeutic crisis intervention conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mobley currently is trained as a trainer for the corporation in TCI.
• Approved, on the second reading, the school board policy regarding public concerns and complaints.
School board members are Dave O'Brien, Bryan Murphy, Hal Hoffman, Mark Wise and Rod Eaton.
