A team working with the Indiana University School of Education and IU Kelley School of Business to develop and implement learning structures based on science, technology, engineering and mathematics updated the Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corp. school board on its activities at the April 18 school board meeting. All board members were present.
Team members included Assistant Superintendent Jason Bletzinger, Edgewood High School math teacher Chad Musselwhite, Edgewood Junior High School science teacher Chantal Cagle, Edgewood Intermediate School fifth grade teacher Susan DeMoss, and Edgewood Primary School kindergarten teacher Alissa Drewes.
The project is part of a larger STEM initiative at the school corporation, which is funded in part by a $1.5 million grant over six years from the Monroe County Redevelopment Commission awarded during December 2015.
Team members began with a strategic planning meeting in February and have met roughly every week since.
“In the landscape of public education in Indiana, you have to think strategically as a school corporation,” Bletzinger said. “If you don’t, you’re going to be out of business. It’s just as simple as that. So, we have to think about why we do what we do, how we do it, and what we do.”
Throughout the presentation, the group emphasized sustainability. They said the end goal is to prepare students graduating from RBBCSC schools for the jobs of the future by giving them a strong foundation in STEM, so as the group plans, they think about the future.
“Boards come and go, the administration comes and goes,” Bletzinger said. “We need to be able to develop this from the ground up so that way our educators carry the torch.”
In the short-term, the group said it plans to establish the mission, vision and goals for the STEM initiative as well as a communication plan. This will come through identification of stakeholders, the establishment of school and corporation-based leadership teams, and assessment of STEM-based education as it is being done at RBBCSC today.
“Our goal by the end of this project, which is December 2016, is to be at the developing-implementation stage, where we have those teams set up in the buildings, we’re starting to have those conversations,” Bletzinger said.
According to the group, teacher, student and community buy-in are especially important to the initiative’s sustainability.
“We want to make sure that we present our ideas to the staff and the community and to all stakeholders involved that this isn’t something we’re just trying out,” Musselwhite said. “This is the way the world is now. And we want it to really take hold in the school system and in order to do that, you want to get the right people involved.”
Drewes told the board about her observations at the Camp Invention summer program she attended. The program’s stated goals are to teach elementary aged children collaboration, creative thinking and problem-solving skills through invention.
“These kids, they love to get their hands dirty with things,” she said. “They love to invent. They love to have these manipulatives in their hands.”
She followed her comments with a demonstration she did with her own kindergarten class to show that electricity runs through the human body and can be used to create a closed circuit and cause a toy bird to chirp.
Board President Dana Kerr said he loved what the team was doing. He added that it was important that the school corporation promote activities like the STEM initiative and this team’s efforts.
“So many people that I’ve spoken to in the county government have said, ‘You need to let people know what you’re doing,’ because one of the goals is to attract people,” he said. “Well, to do that, they have to know what you’re doing.”
Elsewhere in the meeting, the following personnel changes were approved.
Barbara Aydelott was terminated from the position of EIS café assistant effective April 6; Benedict Jones resigned as EJHS café assistant effective April 12; Emily Hawkins resigned as EPS latchkey effective April 1; Jammy Robertson resigned as corporation bus driver effective April 8; and Netha Story resigned as EJHS point room academic design program teacher effective May 31.
Micah Mobley was appointed EHS boys track assistant coach effective Feb. 15; Jon Justis was appointed EHS freshman basketball coach effective March 14; Kara Bletzinger was appointed Edgewood Early Childhood Center speech and language pathologist effective Aug. 3; Caitlin Leichter was transferred from EPS kindergarten teacher to EIS teacher effective at the end of the current academic year; Erika Edwards was appointed EPS latchkey assistant; Melissa Lancaster was appointed director of special education for Forest Hills Special Education Cooperative and director of EECC effective July 1; and Gabriela Zapien was appointed to full-time English as a new language resource teacher effective April 18.
The next RBBCSC school board meeting is May 16 at 7 p.m. in the School Service Center at 600 S. Edgewood Dr. in Ellettsville.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2016. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.