By GLEN WERLING
Southern Wells High School agriculture teacher and FFA Advisor Alexis Howell tendered her resignation effective at the end of the academic year to the school board at Monday night’s monthly meeting of the board.
Howell has accepted a position as an ag teacher and FFA advisor at a high school closer to her childhood home in Ohio.
Howell has served as ag teacher and advisor at Southern Wells since the 2019-20 school year. She was hired following the retirement of longtime ag teacher Steve Stauffer.
Members of the school board expressed their reluctance in accepting Howell’s resignation, observing that she continued the excellence in both the ag and FFA programs.
“I know I speak for all of us when I share that we are so sad to lose Ms. Howell as she has done an outstanding job with our FFA program and students since coming to us here at Southern Wells,” said Superintendent Dr. Brian Sloan.
Because as FFA advisor the academic year continues into early summer, Howell will be attending the state FFA convention in Indianapolis with the Southern Wells students June 13-16.
In other business, board members Kevin Scott, Chad Roush, Aaron Westfall and Todd Fiechter adopted the changes in textbook fees for all grade levels for the 2022-23 school year.
The fees are as follows: $145.01 for kindergarten, $168.22 for first grade, $186.29 for second grade, $172.45 for third grade, $182.44 for fourth grade, $178.65 for fifth grade and $145.04 for sixth grade.
Junior high and high school costs vary per student based upon courses taken.
With this year’s adoption of new math textbooks, there were some modest increases in fees, observed Elementary School Principal Cari Whicker, but she added that’s to be expected since it’s been seven years since the math textbooks were last updated.
High school Principal Kim Conner observed there were also some modest increases because of the math textbook adoption but some of those costs were offset by a decline in some technology fees.
The board members also learned from elementary school physical education teacher Mike Carter and Whicker that Carter received a grant from the Indiana Dairy Council/Indianapolis Colts Play 60 for a stationary smoothie bicycle.
He had rigged up a way to mix smoothies on his regular bicycle and did that for a couple years, but when he saw the opportunity was available to write a grant application for a stationary smoothie bicycle, he and Whicker wrote the grant application — and they got the grant.
He uses the bike to mix smoothies for the students in his classes. He uses the Food Network website for its smoothie recipes and then after preparing them for the children, he shares the recipes with the children for them to try at home.
“Not only are you getting a healthy snack, you’re getting exercise at the same time,” Carter said about the bicycle after bringing it to the board meeting to demonstrate how it is used.
He then proceeded to prepare a smoothie with milk, honey bananas, frozen fruit and orange juice. Westfall rode the bike and mixed the smoothie. The final product was shared in small plastic cups with the board members and the audience members in attendance.
The board members also recognized five third-grade students who got a perfect 650 on the state iRead test.
The five students were Jaycee Carroll, Layla Shelley, Sophia Kahn, Blakley Schortgen and Ethan Swartz.
“For them to accomplish that is pretty amazing,” Whicker said.
The board members also approved on first reading several changes in the student handbooks for the 2022-23 school year.
Conner observed that at the high school, language regarding work permits was removed as that policy has been rendered obsolete by changes at the state.
A section was added establishing procedures for creating clubs and there is a new section clarifying student services under scheduling.
Cellphone usage by students will be permitted for recording purposes.
Also, the pre-arranged absence form was removed from the handbook. There were 58 forms turned in this school year and 25 of them were butted against a vacation already scheduled by the school corporation. Most of those were just for one day. The school already permits up to seven absences during the school year. The absences from school prior or following a scheduled vacation will simply be included in those seven permitted absences, Conner explained. She added that the staff preferred getting rid of this policy.
Whicker said the language in policies for student dress code and homework were both updated.
Regarding the dress code, the board members asked Whicker and Conner to get together and better coordinate the dress code requirements between the two schools prior to the second reading and adoption of the handbooks at the May 17 meeting of the board.
Whicker added that a policy addressing the inappropriate use of computers was updated to reflect the changes in computer technology and the way computers are used by students at Southern Wells.
Also updated were the school’s policy on recess participation and language was added regarding the student counselor/social worker participation in lessons in the classrooms.
The board members also addressed several other items that will be listed in the Wells County Briefs in the News-Banner later this week.
glenw@news-banner.com
