This blog post is intended to keep you up to date on the happenings of the Community School Corporation of Southern Hancock County Board of Education meetings.
Below is a summary of the board’s regular March meeting and a subsequent special session regarding the district’s facilities:
Commencement Date Set
At Monday night’s regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting, the board approved
a commencement date. We hope you’ll join us Friday, May 25th at 7 p.m. in the gym at NPHS to celebrate the Class of 2018.
Field Trips Approved
The board approved field trips for DCMS band & choir to Kings Island on May 30th. Additional details on those field trips will be distributed to parents at a later date.
A trip to cheer camp at Ball State for our NPHS Cheerleaders in July also received board approval.
Donations
Several community donations were approved, including a $50,000 anonymous donation to be contributed to the turf field installation project. The board also approved a $1,950 check from Forum bank to the DCMS athletic department. That donation will be used to upgrade basketball chairs at New Palestine Junior High with new logos.
Neighborhoods Against Substance Abuse presentation
Four NPHS students presented on their contributions to Neighborhoods Against Substance Abuse. Connor Dobbins, Grace Voelz, Jordan Reid, and Lincoln Roth also showed a video that they helped create. The video is intended to help stop underage drinking in Hancock County.
Math Leadership Group
Curriculum Coordinator Brian Dinwiddie spoke about Math Leadership Group, which is a curriculum partnership with Warren Township. Math Leadership Group allows Southern Hancock elementary teachers to examine their math instruction processes to better meet student needs. This group will become math leaders within our district tasked with helping their Southern Hancock peers and colleagues to improve their teaching practices. In 2018-19, this group will become exclusively for CSCSHC staff, which will allow the curriculum to be more tailored to the needs of CSCSHC students.
Special Session on Facilities
Following the regular meeting, the board held a special session to hear a presentation from the Skillman Corporation regarding a facility study on all six of the district’s school buildings and what repairs or additional construction those buildings may need.
This presentation was intended to offer options and recommendations for building maintenance in the years to come. These recommendations, along with a number of additional options, will be considered by district administrators and the board at a future date.
Suggestions were presented for the district to proceed with 15-year maintenance plans for all of the district’s schools. These recommendations included how and when to replace certain items in each of the buildings, varying from roofing and flooring to systems like HVAC and water distribution.
The focal point of the presentation was New Palestine High School. A part of the current high school building was built in 1954. Four additions were made in the 1960s. Nine additions have been built in all. Those original areas of the building now make up the academic wing of the High School.
Skillman Corporation recommended that the board consider a maintenance, repair, and replace plan at the high school to meet the current curriculum and student circulation needs. Due to additional graduation requirements that will soon be implemented by the state of Indiana, space for additional classrooms and other required instruction areas will become an issue at the high school. Additionally, due to the age of the building, the study recommended structural updates and modernizing critical systems.
They stated that there are areas where cosmetic and systemic updates are most appropriate. These areas include the south end containing the natatorium, main gym, and auxiliary gym and the north end containing the auditorium. Skillman Corp. told the board that those areas do not need to be replaced. The facility study recommended to the board that they evaluate how to best use funds in the older portions of the buildings. That may include potentially tearing down portions of the building in between the north and south ends and rebuilding them.
The study concluded that a new high school is not necessary.
The board will examine and further discuss this study at future meetings to create a maintenance plan for all CSCSHC facilities. This study was only a recommendation and no decisions have been made regarding the information presented.
