PIERCETON - Whitko School Board approved full-day kindergarten starting with the 2011-2012 school year at its monthly meeting Monday night.
In previous years, it was noted that full-day kindergarten wasn't an option due to finances and space. With restructuring in the schools, it has now become an option.
Rozlyn Bishop, a fifth-grader at South Whitley Elementary, was recognized as the Whitley County Spelling Bee winner.
She will compete at the 57th annual Journal Gazette Regional Spelling Bee at IPFW March 12. She will compete for a chance to move on to the national competition.
She was presented a certificate by the board Monday night.
Cindy Riemersma made her feelings known concerning a recent situation with her daughter Jyl.
Jyl, a special needs senior at Whitko High School, was cut from the production of "Hello, Dolly" after previously appearing in other productions.
While the situation has been resolved, and Jyl has been made a part of the production in set and costume design, Cindy said she was disappointed at the way the whole situation was handled.
Whitko Superintendent Steve Clason informed the board that legislation has passed that will move school board elections from May to November to coincide with the general election.
This means that the swearing in of new school board members, as well as reorganizational meetings, will take place in January rather than July.
Clason said he received notification that it appears Whitko will receive the same funding as last year, though the formula to calculate that has changed.
Starting next school year, Whitko will pilot a program called School Reach.
The program will use mass e-mails, texts and phone calls to notify parents of delays and cancelations.
A company called Mambo Schools is scheduled to update Whitko's website for next year as well.
With new changes to the website, Clason said the plan was to allow for payments from parents to be made online.
Pierceton will hold a school carnival Friday for its students at the school. It is rescheduled from last week because of weather.
Pierceton Elementary will host a program called Camp Invention this summer.
It is scheduled for June 20-24 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.
Teacher Kathy Graber will serve as the director.
The day camp is based on the STEM principle and will have kids go through different modules each day.
There is no cost to the school.
The cost of the program is $190. For more information on the program, visit www.campinvention.org
ISTEPs at Pierceton and as well as Whitko Middle School for select grades was scheduled to start today.
A new social media policy was approved by the school board that defines what teachers can do on social networking sites like Facebook.
Clason explained that, while teachers can do what they want on their personal sites, in terms of anything affiliated with the school, interaction with students or parents is prohibited.
Commencement for Whitko High School will be June 10.
Whitko has pursued a communications consultant who will help the corporation better integrate itself into social media as well as how it deals with newspapers, radio and getting information out to parents and staff.
