The Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corporation school board approved the school corporation’s 2013 budget Oct. 15 ahead of the Nov. 1 deadline set by the state.
Board members present were President Randy Wright, Secretary Dana Kerr and members Debra Walcott, Jimmie Durnil and Larry Thrasher.
The general fund, debt service fund, retirement and severance bond debt service fund, capital projects fund, transportation fund, and bus replacement fund were approved 4-1. Kerr was the dissenting vote.
“I still have concerns about the budget as it stands and can’t support it,” Kerr said. “Yet, also, some people know the resolutions are actually different from accepting the budget, so while I support the resolutions, I’m not in support of the budget, but I don’t feel that we need to go through everything tonight that we went through two months ago.”
RBBCSC Superintendent Steven Kain introduced two new school policies to the board. One was crafted to ensure the security of statewide assessment tests. The other established procedural standards for students who receive concussions.
Kain said the school system adjusted its policy on concussions to include students “participating in all extracurricular activities, be it theater or band or choir, that conceivably – hopefully, no one gets hurt in one of those activities – but on stage you have the mayor’s wife in Indianapolis fell off (the stage) at Butler University, so if someone has a concussion, we want to make sure the doctor okays their continued participation.”
Several revisions were made to existing school policies, as well, as RBBCSC attempts to comply with new state legislation that will become active next year.
There was confusion about the new IREAD-3 exam.
“It is written in such a way that we’re still uncertain what the state’s position is going to be,” Kain said. “The statute does not say that retention is mandatory. It is a possibility. (Indiana Department of Education) has been taking the position that it is mandatory, so that’s still to be resolved at state-level and otherwise.”
An early graduation policy was revised to reflect a scholarship the state will begin providing next year for those students who graduate in three years.
Other revisions made included policies dealing with payroll deductions, student and staff internet use, public and student records, chemical management and hazard preparedness, and the defense of school board members and employees.
A provision of the Indiana State Board of Health concerning air quality last spring required that the school corporation revise its vehicle idling policy.
“We’ve had a policy on buses so that they are not sitting and idling, but State Board of Health has said, ‘You need to eliminate idling by cars on property,'” Kain said. “So, if you’ve been to the Primary or Intermediate Schools in the afternoon, they get out at like 3:25, and starting at about 2:45, I think, people show up and get in line, and they all sit there with cars idling and smoking their cigarettes, which – two violations of policy – so this’ll bring us into management compliance.”
“You just gotta love the mandates, you know, the requirements that – what do they expect the school corporations in the state to have the administrators of the facility telling people to turn their cars off or making sure children get to the car safely,” Kerr commented.
“Well, we probably need some idling cops,” Kain joked.
A two-week limit was placed on animals in the classroom.
“Hopefully, it’s less time than that,” Kain said.
The new and revised policies will be up for final adoption at the November meeting of the school board.
The American Red Cross contacted RBBCSC Assistant Superintendent Carol Gardiner to make a facilities agreement. The agreement would formally establish a relationship with the organization that would allow them to use RBBCSC schools as shelters during times of emergency. The measure passed unanimously.
A previously approved trip to Hawaii for the Edgewood High School band has been changed. Due to high costs, the band requested to go to New York City instead. Band Booster President Bonnie Richmond said the new trip would cost “half as much, if not more, the cost of what the trip to Hawaii was going to be.”
Apart from tourism, the color guard and band kids would participate in clinics on Broadway and, Richmond continued, “we’re either going to have a performance venue provided for us to perform in or they’re going to a local children’s hospital and, actually, the children’s hospital is our No. 1 priority. We’re looking into that as much as possible because we really would like to do that.”
The trip received unanimous approval.
Gardiner gave a presentation recognizing the work of the RBBCSC District Appraisal Team, which was established last spring to help the school corporation comply with a new law.
“It requires the teacher evaluations to rely significantly on student test results,” Gardiner said. “Our current contract is one – has an appraisal plan that is well-known. It is one of the rubrics we could continue using as long as we modify it so that the law is taken into effect.”
The team met last spring to decide on a process for approaching the change. They began work with Indiana University to establish a plan that would work for RBBCSC schools.
“I’m very pleased that we have a collaborative process going here,” Kain said.
When the committee is finished, it will have established a rubric that complies with the law and removes as much emotion from the process of teacher evaluations as possible.
“We do have our hands tied,” Gardiner said. “There are things we have to do. The law says we do. I’ve given you that legislative plan. We have to have the right elements in our plan. Presently, we do not.”
Teachers not on the committee will have an opportunity for input soon.
“There will be no surprises by the end of the year,” Gardiner said.
The RBBCSC Safety Committee recently went to its semiannual training. The law requires that it go twice a year so that it can stay current on certifications.
Kain said during his report that the school corporation was not doing anything that was not required by law other than providing iPads to students in grades 6 through 12.
Edgewood Junior High School will be holding an open house from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 18. The event is open to the community so that they can see the results of the various construction projects the school completed over the last year.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2012. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.