By SYDNEY KENT
The board of Norwell Community Schools approved a motion to pay teachers $950 stipend and teaching assistants a $720 stipend on their Jan. 18 paychecks at the meeting on Tuesday evening.
The money for the stipend came from the recently awarded K-3 Early Literacy Achievement Grant in the amount of $32,850 from the Indiana Department of Education. Superintendant Mike Springer noted that the amount awarded was significantly higher than other grants in the area. The funds are specifically to be used for teachers.
The district was also awarded a Special Education Para-Professional Training grant in the amount of $11,355. The funds will be used to train up to 12 future assistants in three levels for assistive technology, visual support, medical needs and orthopedic needs, according to Education Services Director Mindy Schumann.
An additional grant in the amount of $18,211 was awarded to the district to use towards increasing K-12 robotics programming for materials, equipment, stipends for coaches and more.
In other routine beginning of year business, the board voted to elect Gene Donaghy as the board president, Chad Kline as the vice president and Deb Adams as the treasurer.
Construction continues with plenty of painting, finishing and flooring installation at Norwell Middle School, according to Dylan Markley with Weigand Construction.
“We just had one of our last walks with the fire marshal,” Markley said. “We’re also looking at getting furniture over spring break for the administrative offices.”
Of the many updates, Markley noted that crews worked longer days during Christmas break and weekend hours in order to successfully switch over switch gear, which replaced a temporary power source.
During an annual board of finance meeting, the board learned that the district ended the year with a bank balance of $20,573,215, which is a staggering $7,053,434 higher than the year before. Approximately $11 million of those funds are allocated for the new middle school. Additional numbers include a total of $975,017 earned in interest from The First Bank of Berne, though $200,305 was from outstanding interest owed.
Springer noted that the interest earned was nearly the exact number needed to pay for new furniture at the middle school. Part of the reason for the increase in funds, Springer explained, can be attributed to an increase in state and local funding and the way the district is managing the funds.
Also at the meeting:
• The district received $1,000 from the Wells County Foundation Grant Distribution from the Northern Wells Community Scholarship Education Fund. The funds will be equally split for baseball, show choir, softball, and girls basketball.
• The board accepted donations of $250 to NMS Robotics Club from Saf-T-Lite/General Manufacturing Inc., $990.63 to 2023 Overdue Lunch Balances from Clean Fuels National, and an anonymous $1,000 donation to the NHS FFA program. An additional $625 was accepted from Thrive Mortgage and First Bank of Berne to co-sponsor 25 students participating in a 10-week budget challenge in NHS personal finance.
sydney@news-banner.com
