SYRACUSE - During the May meeting of the Wawasee Community School Corp., several students were present to receive special recognition from the board and Superintendent Dr. Mark Stock.
Thomas Gronedyke was presented a certificate of appreciation from the board for his second place in the state in Project eXceL. Congratulations and certificates also were presented to Elizabeth Olson, valedictorian, Class of 2007, and Lindsey Dent, salutatorian, Class of 2007.Special recognition was given to the Wawasee Middle School Academic Superbowl English team. Introduced by their teacher, Mrs. Heather Neff, team members are: Jennifer Thystrup, Chelsea, Los, Sharayaha Raisler, Kristen Allen, and Maggie Kenworthy. The team finished in first place in the region, and first place in the state. Other Wawasee Middle School teams that did well in state competition were the science team, placing third, and the social studies team, placing fourth.
The board then heard a presentation by Dr. Max Spaulding of the North East Ohio Learning Association. NEOLA conducts school board policy evaluations. NEOLA was started in Youngstown, Ohio, by several professors who did consulting work for school districts.
Its purpose is to review board policies in regard to specific concerns such as bylaws, procedures, how meetings are conducted, personnel, property, students, and how the board and school interacts with the public, to name just a few areas of interest. NEOLA not only reviews a school district's existing policies, but provides templates for updating any policy procedure.
Spaulding stressed that the reason this is important is if a school district ever faced litigation for any reason, having understandable, updated policies in place would be essential to the outcome.
NEOLA reviews existing policies and offers updates that are in compliance with current legislation, both state and federal. They also research applicable court cases.
Examples of how policies can change, according to Spaulding, are most existing harassment policies. He stated that when he started with NEOLA, most harassment policy procedures were about two pages in length. Now, with current legislation and court cases, these polices can run 10 pages or more. The policy on use of electronic items such as cell phones was another example. Most policies regarding such usage were written before phones were capable of text messaging and taking pictures.
According to Stock, the last policy update for the school district was in 1996. That was a revision of an even older policy from the old Lakeland School system, which dated back 38 years.
NEOLA also offers an Internet-based system, as well as the review and template process. For the review and template process, the cost is $7,000, and the Web-based system is $3,850. There is also a yearly administration fee which comes into effect after the first year. The entire review and implementation process can take up to a year, minimum, or longer if needed. The board approved the hiring of NEOLA to conduct this policy review.
Phil Metcalf presented the board with a report on the career and technical program, the Wawasee Area Career and Technical Cooperative, that is available in the school. Metcalf presented information on 14 programs that are available to students. He was also before the board to seek approval for the addition of a new program on early childhood development, which would be included in the fall 2007 curriculum. Approval was granted by the board.
In personnel considerations, the board approved the following actions:
n Michael Casey was approved for employment as a Wawasee High School social studies teacher, beginning in the 2007-2008 school year.
n Daisy Hollon has been hired for the position of mental health therapist, starting in the 2007-2008 school year.
n The board approved a leave request for Paige Price Keim, Milford second-grade teacher, for the period Aug. 14 through Dec. 21.
n James Hite, Wawasee High School science teacher, submitted a retirement request effective at the end of the school year. The board accepted this request.
Wawasee School Corp. Board members are: Dallas Winchester, Mary Louise Dixon, Georg Gilbert, Becky Linnemeier, Mike Wilson.
