Board schedules session for February (01/16/07)

Improving ISTEP scores and reducing drop-out rates will be among the items for discussion when the Jay School Board meets for a goal-setting session in February.

"That'll be part of our goal-setting session - how to increase the graduation rate," superintendent Tim Long told the board Monday night. "Our stated goal, of course, is always to improve."

Reports earlier this month showed Jay Schools with a slightly better than average performance on the state's ISTEP test and a slightly below average performance in terms of graduation rates.

Board members unanimously approved applying for participation in Project Lead the Way, an engineering program for vocational students at the high school. "Our goal," said Long, "is to beef up the curriculum."

The board also approved applying for a loan of $370,000 from the state's Common School Loan Fund to speed up the investment in computers with the goal of putting a computer on every teacher's desk. The loan would be at one percent interest and would be paid back no sooner than 2008.

"There's no guarantee we're going to get that money," said Long. "It's really one of those hit or miss type things."

Long appointed board members Bryan Alexander and Larry Paxson to serve with him on a committee investigating how best to respond to the possibility of state-mandated full-day kindergarten. The committee will report back to the board at a later date.

Long said a committee looking at policies on the use of school facilities has met. He and board member Jay Halstead plan to report back with recommendations later this spring.

School corporation business manager Brad DeRome told the board Jay Schools finished the year with cash flow of nearly $380,000. "This is a 'surplus' once again for the year's spending," DeRome reported. "We have spent less than our revenues for the last four years in a row."

DeRome said medical and prescription expenses for the year were up 8 percent over 2005 levels, which was better than had been expected. "We had trended much higher," he said. "It did kind of fall off a little bit" at the end of the year.

In other business, the board:

•Elected Bryan Alexander president, Greg Wellman vice president, and Jay Halstead secretary. Alexander and Halstead were also elected president and secretary of the board of finance respectively.

•Retained Portland attorney Phil Frantz as legal counsel.

•Appointed DeRome as school corporation treasurer and Jane Carlin as deputy treasurer and authorized the pair to have access to the school system's safety deposit box.

•Named Alexander as board liaison to the Indiana School Boards Association.

•Set regular meeting dates for 2007 on Feb. 26, March 19, April 23, May 21, June 18, July 16, Aug. 6, Aug. 27, Sept. 17, Oct. 22, Nov. 26, and Dec. 17 at 6 p.m.

•Accepted a $300 grant from the Indianapolis Colts to Rex Pinkerton's third grade class at Judge Haynes Elementary School for a headstone restoration project at Mount Zion Cemetery.

•Authorized Matthew Swartz, Melissa Mulenkamp, and Jared Nussbaum as FFA representatives who may sign farm program paperwork with the Farm Services Agency.

•Approved the hiring of Beth Stafford as a half-time mild intervention assistant and half-time English as a second language assistant at Pennville and Bloomfield elementaries and the hiring of Shelly May as an office assistant at the administrative office building.

•Approved Jennifer Cassel, Christy Johnson, and Robert Johnson as volunteers at Westlawn Elementary School.

•Accepted the resignation of Beth Stafford as a special education instructional assistant at General Shanks Elementary School and the resignation of Donna Glassford as a special education instructional assistant at Jay County High School.

•Authorized medical leave for bus driver Carol Lykins.

•Approve extracurricular activities assignments for Chad Somers as assistant wrestling coach at West Jay Middle School, Kelly Bricker as assistant track coach at West Jay, Joe Glassford as volunteer sixth grade boys basketball coach at West Jay, and Christine Garringer as head girls track coach at West Jay.

•Approved field trips by the juniors and seniors to Kings Island as an after-prom event, Latin students to the Toledo Museum of Art, East Jay seventh graders to Cedar Point, and agriculture students to the National Farm Machinery Show.

•Granted bus use requests by the Jay County Boys and Girls Clubs and the Catholic Youth Organization.[[In-content Ad]]Jay Schools superintendent Tim Long was honored Monday by the city of Anderson as the first recipient of the James Cameron Award for his service to that community.

In Martin Luther King Day Jr. ceremonies held Monday at Anderson's Paramount Theater, Long, former superintendent of Anderson Community Schools, was presented the award for promoting the ideas of peace, unity and equality.

The Anderson Herald-Bulletin reported in today's edition that, "Long gave a short but emotional acceptance speech, nearly breaking into tears from the outset. He thanked the community and 'those who've gone before us,' paying special homage to longtime Anderson businessman, radio personality and civil rights advocate Will Carter, who died in the fall.

"We can't forget that as we look to our past, the future was up here singing today. The children are why we're here," the newspaper quoted Long, referring to the children who had sung moments earlier.

Jay School Board members congratulated Long on the honor Monday night with a spontaneous round of applause.