SA puts focus on individuals

BERNE — Originally given a C grade, South Adams High School has been bumped up to an B.
Regardless of grades though, all three principals in the school corporation put a focus on the individual student as they talked with South Adams School Board at its meeting Tuesday. The elementary and middle schools, and the corporation as a whole, received A grades when the state announced the scores in December.
SAHS principal Trent Lehman informed the school board that he appealed two scores and one was revised, which was enough to change the school’s overall grade to a B. That change will not be made official until the state board of education meets in February.
The high school had been an A school each of the previous two years, and Lehman said he and his staff have been working to try to determine why the grade dropped this year.
“When you are headed in a good direction … and then you have lower scores like we did, it makes you look closer at it,” said Lehman, while noting that his had more “at risk” students in 2013 than in previous years. “It’s kind of like when I was a coach. You seem to analyze your losses more than you did your wins.
“It has made us … start looking at individual students closer. … We have not done as good a job as we could be doing of using that data, but because the scores were low we really dove into that closer.”
He noted that he and his teachers plan to make better use of data from acuity tests to focus on areas in which the students as a group or individually might need more help.
Michelle Clauser, standing in for elementary principal Shellie Miller, and middle school principal Jeff Rich also noted that focus on each individual. student is important.
“That’s what we’re interested in, because a child can pass the ISTEP and it does not necessarily mean they’ve grown. A child could not pass the ISTEP and they could have had a great year; they have grown tremendously,” said Rich. “We’re thrilled with an A. It makes us feel good, but let’s focus on the process for the individual students.
“Every child is very complex. They come from complex backgrounds, and we need to reach them.”
Director of facilities Dave Vorhees and technology director Myra Moore discussed issues from last week’s snowstorm with board members Arlene Amstutz, John Mann, Landon Patterson, John Buckingham, Ray Gill, Julie Mansfield and Amy Orr.
The school had problems with a pipe in a heating unit and a frozen water pipe in the elementary school area of the building. Both pipes caused leaks, Vorhees said, but damage was kept to a minimum.
All of the electronic equipment that got wet because of the water leak in the elementary school was able to be salvaged, Moore said.
She also talked about challenges related to the power outage on the morning of Jan. 6. It caused all of the school’s servers to go down, and about two days were necessary to troubleshoot and get everything back up and running.
Moore said she and other staff members will review the technology plan and look for areas where improvements can be made.
The Board of Finance annual meeting was also held Tuesday, with Amstutz and Mansfield being voted as president and secretary respectively. The investment report showed an average balance of $5,532.861.73 at Bank of Geneva and $30,168.14 at First Bank of Berne. The corporation made about $23,000 in interest in 2013.
In other business, the board:
•Heard a presentation from Josh Wenning of Region 8 Education Service Center about the role of the organization in helping school districts. Region 8, which covers northeast Indiana including South Adams and Jay County, provides services such as purchasing of buses, food service and classroom supplies, professional development, staff applications and project-based learning.
•Unanimously voted to keep the same officers for 2014 with Amstutz as president, Mann as vice president and Mansfield as secretary. The board set its regular meetings for 6 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month. It also set a work session to discuss social media policies, facility plans and capital projects for 5:30 p.m. Feb. 25.
•Approved support staff appointments of Rebecca Biberstein as recording secretary and treasurer, Annette Schwartz as deputy treasurer, Sandy Flueckiger as extra-curricular treasurer, Tim Baker as general legal counsel and Bob Rund of Lewis & Kappes as legal council specializing in education law. It also established security bonds of $50,000 for treasurer, $30,000 for deputy treasurer and $30,000 for extra-curricular treasurer.
•Heard from Litwiller that he and Gill will be attending a school board leadership seminar Friday. There is also a collective bargaining seminar scheduled for Feb. 7.
•Approved overnight field trips for the wrestling and girls swimming state meets, provided that Starfire athletes advance to the state finals; family medical leaves for Ashley Buckingham, Kristi Cressman and Lisa Brotherton; and the hiring of Ashton Morgan and Anissa Burson as 19-hour Title I aides and Steve Tatman, Curt Amstutz, Jennifer Thomson, Karen Moser, Danna Kistler and Trisha Moser as staff for the spring musical.
•Heard from Litwiller that property tax revenue for 2013 came in at just over $3.8 million, which was 96.03 percent of the certified levy. That is up about $60,000 and 0.87 percentage points from 2012.
•Learned from student representative Ellerie Baer that the student council is planning a blood drive for early February and a spring social event for the residents at Swiss Village.
•Accepted anonymous donations of $500 to both the baseball and cross country programs.
•Decided to submit an application for a waiver for school days missed Jan. 6 and 7.[[In-content Ad]]