The John Glenn School Board will meet tonight. It will be the last meeting before the start of the school year for students.
The school board members will discuss the creation of a new Director of Guidance position and appoint a member to the Walkerton-Lincoln Township Public Library Board. Superintendent Richard Reese will update the school board on items as the staff prepares for the start of the new school year.
The John Glenn School Board accepted the recommendation of Chris Manering for the position of high school assistant principal.
The position was previously held by Chris Winchell. The board accepted his resignation Tuesday night.
Manering has been with the John Glenn School Corporation for three years. He is also the athletic director.
The football field at the John Glenn High School will be getting a new irrigation system.
Superintendent Richard Reese brought information to the John Glenn School Board from Maintenance Supervisor Brad Schmeltz. Reese said the current system is outdated and needs replaced.
The recent sale of property donated to the John Glenn Education Foundation and the sale of items within the estate equal a great start to assisting teachers and students with grants within the John Glenn School Corporation.
The Hiler family donated property at 123 Shamrock Street to the school corporation and the corporation followed procedures to donate it to the John Glenn Education Foundation with the understanding that proceeds of the sale of the home would benefit the foundation.
The John Glenn School Board will meet tonight where the board will discuss an additional appropriation.
The board will also approve the purchase of the football field irrigation system in the amount of $17,980. Superintendent Richard Reese will update the board on corporation news and other information.
The John Glenn School Board will meet at 7 p.m. in the meeting room in the administration building.
The John Glenn School Board discussed pay for a substitute Spanish teacher for the remainder of the school year.
Superintendent Richard Reese said a high school Spanish teacher is going on maternity leave soon and the position needs to be filled with a substitute teacher in her absence. Reese noted that Spanish is a “hard to fill” area at the school corporation and it’s as difficult to fill the void with a licensed teacher.
The John Glenn School Board approved an action to place Superintendent Richard Reese as the school’s representative on the St. Joseph/Elkhart County Head Start Consortium Board of Directors.
Superintendent Reese explained that the John Glenn School Corporation is part of the head start consortium that encompasses about 10 school corporations. Head start classes are available at the local school corporation for students ages three and four. There are certain restrictions.
The newly formed John Glenn Education Foundation is available for corporation teachers to apply for grants to enrich classes.
The foundation was formed in Nov. 2016 under the direction of Superintendent Richard Reese. Teachers can apply for foundation grants for their out-of-the-box ideas to enhance the learning experience for students. Grants will also be awarded for enhanced training, teaching techniques or new styles of learning.
The John Glenn School Board members held a lengthy discussion this week concerning an idea of expanding the weight training program for students.
The class would be offered as an elective in addition to the current facility availability before and after school.
The John Glenn School Board voted Tuesday night to approve an additional teaching position at Urey Middle School. The position will be active at the beginning of next school year.
Superintendent Richard Reese explained to the board members that one new teacher will be hired to help teach English/Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies to create an additional section of classes in the seventh grade. The estimated number of students entering the seventh grade next year is about 180 which is approximately 30 students more than this year. It is the thought that the additional position would alleviate the potential of class overcrowding.
The John Glenn School Board approved the hire of part-time school resource officers. Superintendent Richard Reese said the corporation was the recipient of a school safety grant that helped in this endeavor.
“They only work a couple of hours a day and four officers rotate between the officers in Walkerton and North Liberty,” said Reese. “The state offered the grant which is a matching grant. I think we got $25,000, so we were able to buy security equipment as well as add the school resource officers.”
Students at the John Glenn School Corporation will be making up days missed due to snow and unsafe road conditions.
Superintendent Richard Reese told Max 98.3 FM News that one day was made up on Jan. 19 and three more days built into the calendar will be used as make up days. Those days are Feb. 13, April 3 and April 6. If inclement weather causes any more school closures, any days missed will be added to the end of the school year.
As previously announced, the school board built five days into the 2015-2016 school calendar to be used as snow days.
The John Glenn School Board heard a presentation from teacher and AP Dual Credit Coordinator Dan Drotar about the number of those classes available at the corporation.
Superintendent Richard Reese said there are a few classes that students can take as dual credit classes.
“We have 18 classes that we offer that students can get dual credits for – both college and high school credits,” said Reese. “Some of those are offered for three credits and others for four credits and five credits. Those credits are offered through Purdue University, Purdue-North Central, and Ivy Tech.”
There are nine AP classes available for students.
“We have nine AP classes that we offer. They are Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Government, Literature, regular English and Composition, Physics, and World History. The majority of those are taken at the junior and senior level and we do have one offered at the sophomore level.”
Having these classes available for students will help them better prepare for college and give them a head start at the college level.
The John Glenn School Board voted 5-1 to approve a calendar for the 2015-2016 school year.
Superintendent Richard Reese said it’s not much different than this year’s calendar. Reese said the board did not choose to go with a balanced calendar at this time.
“We took some surveys of our staff and parents and there were a variety of viewpoints. Our school board made a decision for this year to kind of see what’s going on and test the waters. We are just going to go with a similar calendar to this year’s calendar,” said Reese.
