The Culver Community Schools Corporation is busy preparing for the upcoming school year. Interim Superintendent Chuck Kitchell told the school board Monday that one of the changes in 2016-2017 is the official consolidation of the middle and high schools into one facility. “We did receive approval from the Department of Education on our Middle School/High School new configuration and name, so as of the start of the 2016-17 school year, we are officially Culver Community Middle/High School, so they did get us approval for that,” he said. “We are back together under one code, one number, so any official documents and reports and those things are all going to go back together underneath one building.”
While Kitchell reiterated that the consolidation would mean few noticeable changes for students, principal Brett Berndt said the student handbook was updated to combine some of the rules, including the tardy policy, “Most of the time, it was two separate, different rules, a little bit more lenient in the Middle School than the High School. We’re actually making it the same, so grades seven through 12 will have the same rules with that.”
Meanwhile, the new elementary school handbook narrowed a loophole that allowed students who were late for school on multiple days to still get a perfect attendance award. Now, they’re limited to three tardies to be eligible to get perfect attendance for a particular month. Additionally, recess will be moved to after lunch, due to staffing issues.
Students will also be using some new math textbooks when they return to school. The school board accepted recommendations to use books published by Pearson at the high school level, while the rest of the students will use Houghton Mifflin books. Students in kindergarten through fifth grade will use books from the GO Math series, while those in sixth through eighth grades will use Big Ideas Math.
Book rental fees will stay the same as last year for middle and high school students at $135. Fees vary for students at the elementary level, with prices going down for first- and second-graders, while others will see an increase of five-to-seven dollars.
Lunch prices will increase by 10-cents to $2.55 for elementary students and $2.65 for those in middle and high school, in response to USDA calculations. Breakfast prices remain unchanged. Culver Schools has also set a corporation-wide policy for prepaid meal accounts, to bring the corporation in line with regulations set by the State Board of Accounts in 2012.
The Culver School Board approved each of the 2016-2017 policies, unanimously.
