Warsaw School Board Hears Of Lice Problem; Various Presentations Given
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Lice is such a problem for one of Jennifer Bell's neighbor's children, she asked the Warsaw School Board Monday night to change a policy.
Bell said her neighbor has a little girl the same age as her daughter. The girl has had lice for the past two years.
Tired of dealing with it, Bell said she went to the school for help. There, she was told there was nothing the school could do about it but comb through the girl's hair daily. The school can't keep the girl from school because the school board approved a policy not to keep children from school if they have lice.
She was told to approach the school board, so she attended Monday's meeting.
Bell said she wanted the policy changed so schools could keep the child at home. She wants the absences to count against the child so the parents will face the consequences and get something done about the child's lice problem.
Lice is a health hazard, Bell said. Despite what the nurses told her, she said children can spread it to one another.
School Board President Deb Wiggins said it was an administrative issue. If it was OK with Bell, Wiggins suggested Bell work with Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz toward a resolution on the issue. Once a resolution has been reached that meets Bell's satisfaction, Hintz will report back to the board.
Hintz asked Bell to leave him her contact information.
"Something needs done with this little girl and her brother because there are two of them," Bell said.
The school board also heard several presentations.
Warsaw Community High School Principal Troy Akers, Edgewood Middle School Principal JoElla Smyth and members of the Kosciusko County Educational Development and Mentoring Program talked about the group's efforts to prevent student dropouts.
Akers said he and Smyth attended a state meeting last year on dropout prevention that blossomed into the group.
Ot Schroeder, State Farm Insurance, talked about how the company coordinated with the state in improving education in Indiana. George Brennan, Lake City Group, said he was astounded by the dropout rates in the community, county and state.
Akers said the combined graduation rate in Kosciusko County hovers around 78 percent. They're shooting for 90 percent.
The committee decided to tackle the dropout problem with two initiatives, graduation coaches and kindergarten to eighth-grade mentoring. Each of the three county schools has two graduation coaches, except Warsaw which has three because of size.
Smyth said the youth mentoring program involves Kids Hope USA, Baker Youth Clubs and Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Six hundred students in Kosciusko County have been identified as "at-risk," she said.
Stephanie Overbey, Kosciusko Community Foundation, said foundation has been invited to a lot of dialogues in the community, but were excited about this one. The foundation decided to provide a $50,000 proactive grant to the committee, with only two strings. The grant had to be used countywide and used this school year.
Since then, the committee has received $110,000 in grants and donations for its efforts.
Lakeview Middle School industrial technology coordinator Scott Carmichael presented the board with a brief overview of the industrial technology program.
Carmichael said it's a learning-based science, technology, engineering and math program. The new curriculum includes a learning lab with 12 different and unique modules. The middle school program LMS is piloting is designed to be an introductory experience. Through the program, students develop various skills such as communication, computation, reading, writing, thinking and others.
Each module consists of seven intensive sessions on a particular topic. Students are given research, challenge and application questions.
Areas students work in include alternative energy, audio broadcasting, bioengineering, computer graphics and animation, electricity, engines, engineering bridges, flight technology, practical skills, research and design and robotics.
"I had fun with the program," said Sarah Shoemaker, one of the students. "It was exciting for me."
Chief Accountability Officer Tom Kline gave a shortened report on Adequate Yearly Progress and Public Law 221. AYP came out two to three weeks ago, he said, and PL221 came out just last week.
Kline went through slide after slide of statistics. Warsaw Community Schools did not make AYP for the last school year, but four individual schools did. By 2014, all Indiana schools must be at 100 percent of kids passing.
For PL221, schools are placed into five categories, ranging from exemplary to academic probation.
Lincoln and Washington elementaries are both exemplary, but Leesburg can't be above academic progress because one subgroup didn't make AYP. Five schools are on academic watch.
Hintz said there was a lot of data to look at with AYP and PL221. As he looked at the various charts Kline showed, he said he was concerned that Warsaw has so many schools on academic watch. There is room for improvement, he said.
