The Indiana School Board will discuss the Summit Learning Platform tonight at their meeting.
The meeting agenda will have the controversial learning tool brought up three times. The first time will be part of the Superintendent’s report. The second time will be a motion from Terry Kerr to eliminate the Summit program for the 2018-2019 school year. If that motion passes, a third motion concerning Summit may be academic as it deals with sending teachers to a spring conference about the Summit program.
The Summit Learning Platform has been controversial in the district. It was rolled out this year for students in sixth grade at the Junior High School, and is a tool to help students learn on their own and at their own pace. Many of those who have spoken out about the program at meetings have said that they have a problem with how much time the student spends in front of a computer screen for the lessons instead of having interaction with a teacher. Others complained that this teaching system was not rolled out properly and parents were not properly notified of the change in educational techniques.
The school board will also tackle the issue of school security tonight, as a motion to authorize the administration to include the cost of using armed security at all six district buildings in the upcoming budget. Another security-related motion would instruct the administration to secure proposals to conduct a thorough safety and security audit of all of the district’s buildings. That study must be finished by July 1st, and the findings would be presented at a special executive session on July 1st.
