Whitko Students Report Activities To Board Members

SOUTH WHITLEY - At the Monday Whitko Community School Corp. Board of School Trustees meeting, three student organizations gave presentations on their groups.

Toward the end of the meeting, school board president Dave Tranter remarked of the students at Whitko, "We've got lots of good students doing lots of good things."

Up first, members of Whitko High School's Students Against Destructive Decisions spoke about their organization and their time spent at the Indiana Teen Institute.

SADD is working on "a lot of things," they told the board, including starting a Students Stopping Tobacco Use Now.

At the ITI, the SADD members said, the leadership conference helped them grow and bring them together while providing them with a new perspective.

Next up, a member of the WHS Helping Achieve New Direction through Students organization spoke of the group's retreat to Iowa, where they learned how to use statistics and think outside the box as well as brainstorming, youth issues and philanthropy. They were asked to look at what changes they could make in their own local communities as well as what are the top priorities in their community.

HANDS is geared toward education and improving the community. The group has five students, one for each grade from eighth to 12th. The WHS HANDS meets once monthly with the groups from Churubusco and Columbia City.

The last organization to be presented was the National Honor Society.

To be a part of NHS, a student must be a junior or senior with a grade point average of at least 3.5 and be recommended by teachers. This year, the group has approximately 55 members.

NHS does individual and group service projects. Each student must do at least 15 hours of community service.

WHS' SADD has approximately 90 members.

In other business, the school board:

• Approved a resolution on the Indiana Bond Bank. According to Whitko business manager Phil Menzie, the resolution will allow the school corporation to roll over the tax anticipated warrants to next year because Whitko Schools has not received their tax money yet due to the reassessment situation. The money was due by Dec. 31.

"It's a cash flow situation," said Menzie.

• Heard the South Whitley Elementary School PTO is currently holding its poinsetta plant fund-raiser, the largest moneymaker for the PTO. This year, all the money raised will be given to the school for field trips.

• Heard the school corporation is still advertising for a math teacher with a computer background at the high school.

• Heard the cost of driver's education is going up $5 to $175 for students in Whitko Schools and $275 for students not in Whitko Schools.

• Heard a meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Whitko Middle School cafeteria to help form a PTO at the school.

Members of the Whitko School Board are Dave Tranter, E. Marie Trump, Hal Trump, Michael Braddock and Pete Mitchell. They meet at 7:30 p.m. on the third Monday of every month.