SAHS nominated

Each state’s number of National Blue Ribbon Award nominees is based on population.
Indiana was allowed eight this year. Out of more than 2,750 schools, public and private, South Adams High School earned one of those nominations.
The Starfires’ application for the award, which honors elementary, middle and high schools for academic excellence or progress in closing achievement gaps, was turned in Friday. Winners will be announced in the fall.
“I’m very proud of our staff, our students and parents, just the entire community, to have this chance to earn this big honor,” said superintendent Scott Litwiller. “I’m proud of everybody involved that has really given us this opportunity.”
The application process is extensive — about 40 hours of work is involved — with administrators breaking down the school’s last five years of test scores into sub-categories including race, gender and income. Also included is an extensive set of written statements that explain the school’s curriculum, instruction, assessments and connection with the community.
Principal Trent Lehman got his staff involved in the process, asking department chairs to write summaries about their areas and then meshing their thoughts together to provide and overall image of the learning environment. He noted that the quality of the staff is a key to success at SAHS, which was named a Four-Star School by the Indiana Department of Education in 2012.
“One thing I’ve learned is that sometimes one of the best things you can do is just get out of the way,” said Lehman, who is in his sixth year leading South Adams. “You hire great people and you don’t be a stumbling block. You empower or you provide resources to let them do what they’re passionate about, what they’re excited about.”

English teacher Lana Shoaf, who is in her first year at South Adams, said that support is key. She noted that she hasn’t had the same experience with jobs in other school corporations.
Encouragement in continued learning through professional development opportunities is also a strength of the administration, said Margie Dobler, who spearheads the school’s Project Lead the Way program.
“The administration has the students’ best in mind, so they allow the teachers to do what, in the teachers’ judgment, is best for the students. It just creates a good environment all around. … It’s just a great place to be.”
Like Jay County’s East Elementary School, which earned a National Blue Ribbon in September, SAHS has not always been a high-achieving school based on Indiana’s A through F grades. But it has made big strides over the past five years.
South Adams had a D grade four times in a five-year stretch ending in 2010, but jumped to an A in 2011 and has done well ever since. It earned an A again in 2012, a B in 2013 and an A again last year.
Even so, the dip in 2013 — the school was initially given a C before the grade was bumped up to a B — led to a greater focus on using test data. The goal is to not just look at the whole, but to learn what teachers can do to help individual students in specific areas in which they might be struggling.
“It’s about helping each kid grow … and we really try to do that the best we can,” said Lehman.
Math teacher Craig McKean praised the efforts of the school’s end of course assessment (ECA) teachers in preparing students for ISTEP testing. And he and Dobler noted the importance of creating a strong learning environment and opportunities for all students, from those who are college bound to those who are headed for the workforce after graduation.
An award like the National Blue Ribbon, the South Adams staff said, would be excellent recognition of the work the entire community has done to make the school strong.
“I think it kind of validates all the work that not only the teachers, Mr. Lehman, Mr. Litwiller have done, but what the kids do,” said art teacher Luke McClung, a Jay County High School graduate. “I think it speaks about the effort the kids are putting in.”
“At this point there’s so much negative about what’s happening in education,” added Dobler. “I just think it’d be awesome to have a big positive.”