Grad plan moves forward

Graduation may look a little different.

But there will be a graduation.

Jay School Corporation superintendent Jeremy Gulley took the next step Monday toward holding a drive-in style graduation ceremony, getting approval for the idea from Jay School Board.

In a special meeting held via Google Meets, Gulley explained to the board that Jay County Health Department has signed off on initial plans for a drive-in graduation event. If conditions worsen, he noted, the health department could rescind that approval.

Gulley will meet virtually with JCHS senior class officers today to further explain details of what such an event would look like and seek their approval. He had an initial meeting with them about the idea last week.

If plans move forward, graduation would be held as scheduled at 2 p.m. June 7.

A senior honors event — the scholarship presentation event typically held on the first Monday in May in the JCHS auditorium — would be held at 2 p.m. May 9. It would serve as a dry run for graduation a month later.

Gulley also told board members Phil Ford, Ron Laux, Mike Shannon, Krista Muhlenkamp, Chris Snow, Donna Geesaman and Jason Phillips that he plans to seek their approval on updated graduation requirements at their regular meeting next week. They will match Indiana Department of Education guidance.

“I believe they are sensible,” Gulley said. “They are flexible. And they’ll give seniors choices to meet their goal.”

Also at the next meeting, the board will review the corporation’s extended closure education plan before it is turned in to the state. It details how the corporation is continuing to educate students with school buildings closed.

“Even though we don’t a have any students in our buildings, our teachers are working hard as are our non-certified employees,” said Ford, the board’s president and former JCHS principal, while complimenting Gulley’s leadership.

Some of those teaching efforts are being highlighted on the Jay Schools page on Facebook.

Beyond graduation, there are other efforts underway to honor the class of 2020, Gulley noted.

Those include “senior spotlights” being published on the Jay Schools website and Facebook page. Also, the lights at Harold E. Schutz Memorial Stadium will be turned on for 20 minutes at 8:20 p.m. (20:20 in military time) each Wednesday beginning this week.

Gulley noted he remains committed to having a prom eventually, but that it’s impossible to hold such an event under current conditions and restrictions. He mentioned The Commercial Review’s “innovative” alternate prom invitation to send in photos of individual students in prom attire to be printed on what would have been prom day — April 25.

He has also mentioned the idea of having a “month of memories” for seniors when stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines are lifted. Other issues the corporation is looking at, he added, include how to get yearbooks and graduation attire (caps and gowns) to students.

During a phone interview after the meeting, Gulley noted the corporation will use the two waiver days it had not yet assigned on May 19 and 20. The final day of the school year, via e-learning, will be May 18.

In other business, the board:

•Agreed to issue bond anticipation notes for renovation work related to school consolidation at the elementary schools and West Jay Middle School. Gulley noted it is not a good time to sell bonds, given the current conditions, and the anticipation notes will allow the projects to move forward. Bonds will then be sold at a later date.

•Hired Jerry Bomholt as the new Jay County High School boys basketball coach. (See related story.)

•Accepted the retirement of General Shanks Elementary School third grade teacher Judy Knapke and the resignation of East Jay Middle School instructional assistant Cathy Mock. Both are effective at the end of the school year.

•Heard Gulley report Jay Schools staff delivered 71,449 meals to local children between March 19 and April 9. He also detailed efforts to partner with TLS By Design to sew and distribute masks. The school corporation had more than 100 volunteers offer to sew and they have produced more than 400 masks thus far.

•Modified its rainy day fund to be allowed to be spent for any lawful purpose as approved by the board.

•Declared Redkey Elementary School computer stations that are no longer in use as obsolete. They will be donated to Muncie Community Schools.

•Approved a conflict of interest form regarding G3 Drone Solutions of Hartford City. The company is owned by Jeremy Gulley’s father, Doug Gulley.

•Heard the financial report from business manager Tarinna Morris. She projects a positive cash flow of $509,104 in the education fund for 2020 and a year-end balance of $3.09 million.