PIERCETON - Whitko High School Principal Parrish Kruger informed the Whitko School Board of a pending curriculum change for next year.
Kruger said he expects a resolution to come before the school board at its next meeting that would change the order of classes WHS students took.
Instead of freshmen taking biology, chemistry then physics, they would take a class called Integrated Chem Physics. Some freshmen would be able to take an honors biology class.
Kruger said that the only reason the curriculum put biology first in the past was simply alphabetical.
For the second straight summer, Whitko Community Schools will hold a program that provides free lunches to anyone under 18.
Last summer, an average of 20 to 25 lunches were served each day.
Financial Operations Director Tom McFarland said that this year, the program will go off site from Pierceton Elementary School to a location at Sellers Lake and one off U.S. 30.
McFarland said that while the program was successful last year, it didn't target groups of kids it was hoping to.
Two sets of parents expressed concern of what they called a lack of communication between Pierceton Elementary School and parents.
Roger and Kris VanCuren expressed their concern for their daughter's grade of incomplete for an art class at Pierceton Elementary.
Roger VanCuren said he was told by the teacher it was because his daughter had a "respect problem."
VanCuren took issue with that, and said he had never previously been told by the teacher that her daughter had a problem with things like talking in class.
"It seemed like an 'us against them' mentality," said VanCuren. "We shouldn't feel helpless sending our child to school."
The VanCurens did say they met with Superintendent Steve Clason and felt much better after that meeting.
Eric and Nicole Smith have two children at PES, and expressed their concern with how a situation was handled with their son.
Eric Smith told the school board that his son was given an in-school suspension for allegedly calling his teacher vulgar words.
The father took issue with that, saying his son wouldn't use language like that, and that beside the teacher nobody was asked if they had heard his son use those words.
This incident happened while The Smiths were out of the country, and they said neither they nor his children's grandparents, who were watching them, were notified of the ISS.
Another incident with his son came after an alleged altercation on the playground.
Eric said he wanted an apology for his son, to see his son's record to make sure it was clean, and a copy of how punishments are gradually handed out.
He said he was upset that a parent-teacher conference wasn't set up to talk about his son.
Eric then read a letter from his son stating how much he felt like he was being treated unfairly at PES.
Nobody from the school board or Pierceton Elementary School made a public comment in response to either the VanCurens or Smith.
Pierceton Elementary Principal Barb Ihnen, South Whitley Elementary Principal Bruce Hansen and Whitko Middle School Principal Jerry Klausing gave results from Northwest Evaluation Association testing.
The testing is designed to gauge students in elementary and middle school proficiency in reading, math and language usage.
South Whitley Elementary School will hold its book fair April 12-15 while Pierceton will hold its book fair April 14-20.
Pierceton Elementary will hold its book fair April 14-20.
The board agreed to a deal with Development Concepts to assist in the implementation of a communications/marketing plan. The cost cannot exceed $2,000.
Robert Tenney was the school board's appointment to the Pierceton/Washington Township Library Board.
The board approved advertising for bids for wiring projects at both PES and SWES.
Sue Lopshire gave a presentation on using graphic novels based on historical events or classic books to better help introduce younger students to the material.
The school board's next meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. April 18 at the administration building in Pierceton.
