The recent school shooting in Florida was on the minds of the Indiana School Board last night.
After starting the meeting with a moment of silence in honor of the victims and survivors of the Parkland shooting, the board discussed two issues related to security. The board approved directing the administration to secure proposals to conduct and complete a thorough safety and security audit of each of the buildings. While the deadline to complete the study is July 1st, the board directed the administration to complete the study as soon as they can.
The second security-related issue concerned including the cost of using armed security guards in all six of the district’s buildings during school hours, which would be an increase in $200,000. That motion failed to pass. Doug Steve, who voted in favor of adding armed guards to the budget, says that he wants to make sure events like what happened in Florida does not happen in Indiana.
During the meeting, board member John Barbor said the $200,000 would be better spent in other ways, including a full-time school psychologist.
In other business,
The Summit Learning Platform will continue to be a part of the educational system in the Indiana School District, at least for the next school year.
Last night, a motion to cease using the Summit Learning Program for all classes at all grade levels for the 2018-19 school year and beyond failed to pass by a 6-3 vote. The Summit platform is a project-based teaching tool that allows students to learn at their own pace. During his report, Superintendent Dale Kirsch talked about the recent survey asking parents of current 5th and 6th graders if they want to have their children take part in Summit Program, and of current sixth grade parents, 34 voted to have their children opt-in and 116 parents opted-out with 71 saying they were not sure. At the current fifth grade level, 31 parents opted in, 111 opted out, and 76 said they were not sure. One of the concerns voiced by those against the Summit program was the quality of materials the students received, according to board member Terry Kerr. He said the main complaints he received were about the quality of items used by summit, and with how much time the students spent in front of a computer monitors.
While Kerr and others who were against Summit said that project-based education has a place in the district, they would like to see a higher-quality program in place to help those who are achieving good grades from the program.
In a related issue, the board approved sending several members of the Junior High Staff to a Summit Learning Conference in Maryland in mid-March.
