By GLEN WERLING
Southern Wells’ early childhood education program is well on its way with a move by the school board Tuesday evening to begin the process of transforming the family and consumer science room into a preschool room.
Board members Todd Fiechter, Chad Roush, Andrew Pursifull and Delora Schneider gave Supt. Dr. Trent Lehman permission to award a contract for the remodeling of the room to Pridemark Construction of Muncie for $112,800.
Remodeling is expected to be accomplished over spring break.
High School Principal Kim Conner reported the preschool has a name — Southern Wells Little Raiders — and a logo.
Applications were ready to be sent out Tuesday, she added, although without internet access it was challenging to connect with the wireless printer.
“We are working on setting up a preschool Facebook page to let parents know what we’re doing,” Conner said, adding that the calendar for the preschool mirrors the calendar for the rest of the school. The difference is the pre-planned one-hour delay days. The preschool will have its normal hours.
The jobs for the preschool have been posted, Conner said, “so we’re waiting on applications for those.”
Conner spoke with the ag class members and they agreed to make some small picnic tables for the preschool playground this year and the design class students will be fabricating the playground equipment next school year.
“We’re off and rolling,” Conner said. “Hopefully by the next board meeting we will have some enrollment numbers.”
In other business, the board members:
• Granted all building level administrators a 4 percent pay increase, which will be retroactive to the beginning of the 2022-23 school year.
• Hired Jeff Sprunger as the new varsity football coach. Sprunger replaces Mike Roeder as head coach. Sprunger was the former head football coach at Whitko High School 2016-2018.
• Learned from high school athletic director Dustin Beucler that he is beginning sixth grade programs for girls volleyball and boys and girls basketball
• Approved contracting Coppersmith Electric of rural Berne for $275,000 to install a generator to provide electrical power for the high school during electrical outages. The school corporation has had a generator as part of the plans for the high school for several years. As part of those plans, the switching equipment that will allow the school to transition seamlessly from an external power source to an internal one was installed earlier. The bill for the generator will be paid in a large part from excess cafeteria funds. The generator will play a vital role in keeping the coolers in the cafeteria operational during any power outages.
• Approved paying Don Myers Plumbing, Heating & Cooling of Berne $69,707.95 to replace the restroom water fixtures at the elementary school.
• Approved the following fundraisers: Ben’s Pretzel kits Feb. 23 through March 9 to fund the junior senior high school trip and the Washington D.C. trip; discount card sales as an all-school fundraiser at the high school; softball camp starting in March.
• Approved maternity leave for fourth grade teacher Kaley Stroup beginning April 21.
• Learned Betsy Needler will be hosting Cynthia Hogan as a student teacher this spring from Western Governors University.
• Hired Courtney Caldwell as an instructional assistant to replace Kiann Palmer.
• Hired: Lucas Miller as the junior varsity baseball coach; Ross Palmer as head girls’ golf coach; Monica Edgeman as head boys and girls cross country coach; Allison Blevins as junior varsity volleyball coach and Chad Eltzroth as second shift custodian.
• Accepted donations from: Domestic Church, Clean Fuels National and Poneto Baptist Church to cover unpaid lunch balances; Vantage Point Archery for the archery program; J&A Plumbing & Electric to the volleyball program; Elks Lodge 796 to the DARE program to pay for T-shirts; an anonymous donation to the prom fund.
• Approved repaying the loan from the curriculum materials fund to the Rainy Day Fund. The transfer was originally made to bring the curriculum materials fund to an even balance at the end of 2022, as the state does not permit any school corporation funds within its budget to end the year with a negative balance.
• Approved changes to the lice control policy to match the requirements of the state policy.
• Approved changes to the public comment policy to include additions for commentary by the public on agenda items as well as a period at the conclusion of board meetings for the public to address non-agenda item school corporation-related topics. Speakers will be limited to three minutes each and no topic will be discussed beyond a half an hour.
• Approved claims, the fund report, the appropriation report, bank reconciliation, bank statements and credit card statement.
• Approved the following conference requests: Laura Fiechter for Business Professionals of America National Leadership in Anaheim, Calif., April 26-30; Virtual Indiana Association of School Business Officials conference for Lora Warner Feb. 7-8; National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference for Joshua Heim in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 15-18; the Indiana Football Coaches Association State Clinic March 10 -11 for Jeff Sprunger; and the March 10th Blackford High School Student Art Show for Heim.
• Learned from Lehman that the Internet was down all day at Southern Wells, apparently caused by an issue from the provider. In this day and age, he observed, that being without the Internet for an entire day can be a challenge for both the teachers and the students as so much of the learning requires Internet access. But Lehman observed he learned without Internet and the students were able to get by fine. “We just hope it doesn’t happen again tomorrow,” Lehman observed.
• Approved updates to the school corporation’s COVID-19 policies as required every semester by the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Act.
• Approved an update to the Classified Handbook making the following changes: Under Leave and Absences it was added that leave days may only be used on normal working days, and Use of Tobacco is now Use of Tobacco And Vaping. It is the policy of Southern Wells Community Schools to prohibit the use of tobacco and vaping on any school property. School Resource Officer Chad Bradley was asked by the board members if he has encountered any resistance from patrons regarding Southern Wells tobacco free policy at any of the extra-curricular activities. Bradley replied that he could only recall one time and it was about two years ago from someone who simply didn’t realize there was a policy in place.
• Approved the following field trips by the Southern Wells Livestock Judging Team: Illinois Central College in East Peoria, Ill., March 14-16; Joliet, Ill., March 29-April 2; Blackhawk College in Kewanee, Ill., March 3-5; West Lafayette May 19-20; Dubois County April 21-23; and Jasper High School March 7-8.
• Reviewed on first reading Indiana School Board Association policies, which will replace the school corporation’s policies that in years past have been drafted by Neola of Indiana Inc. All 100 pages of the policies, which are available for review on the school corporation’s website, will be adopted at the next regular meeting of the board.
The board will meet again at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 14, in the high school media center. The meeting has been moved from the usual start time of 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. to avoid a conflict with the parent-teacher conferences scheduled for that day.
glenw@news-banner.com
