A relatively short Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation board of trustees meeting included a visit from the Tippecanoe Valley High School FFA, the approval of changes for the Tippecanoe Valley Middle School Handbook and  good news pertaining to new lights being used at two schools.

The meeting began with the acknowledgment of the high school’s FFA being awarded the 2-star chapter award, and its sponsor, Lisa Paxton, being recognized as the recipient of an Honorary Hoosier Degree Award. Following the acknowledgment Cody Demske and Austin Nickerson, the club’s president and vice president, gave a presentation on FFA.

Included under new business was approved by the board of a proposal from high school principal Michael Bendicson to add two more classes to the school’s list of dual-credit options in conjunction with Grace College. The new courses proposed were American history and Spanish III. The proposal was approved unanimously.

Middle school principle Scott Backus proposed several changes to the school’s student handbook. He proposed pushing the homeroom time period to the last half-hour of the school day in order to make time for clubs and groups to meet during what he refered to as “Viking Time.” The proposal was approved unanimously.

Backus also proposed a change in the way the school conducts eligibility checks for students competing on any of the school’s sports teams. Previously, the checks had been done on Tuesday, so if  students who had an “F” on their report card on Tuesday, they would have to sit out a week until the check was made the following Tuesday. The new method would have students receive their grades on Thursday afternoons, giving them time to turn in missing work that day, before the administration’s new checking day of Friday. Backus explained that none of the teams have games on Fridays, so if a student was found ineligible it would not cause an unforeseen roster problem for a coach on the day of a game. The proposal was approved unanimously.

The middle school principal’s third proposal was to allow students to start bringing small water bottles with them to school and into the classrooms. One community member in attendance expressed hesitation and said the bottles may distract other students. Backus explained that the students have responded well each time the administration has given them more freedom, saying, “We let them start chewing gum in school and now we aren’t cleaning it off the desks anymore.” The proposal was approved unanimously, and was followed by individual presentations from the district’s four principals on their school’s recent accountability grade (see related).

To close the meeting, Superintendent Brett Boggs shared good news regarding new energy-efficient lights being used at the middle school and in the high school gymnasium. When comparing the lighting notice of September and October 2014 with the same two months the previous year, total energy savings totaled about 35 thousand kilowatt hours. Boggs explained that if this rate continues, the district could be looking at total savings of around $10,000.