North Putnam honors local celebrities

Monday, December 19, 2011
Paris Nolan received a certificate and a slice of cake from the North Putnam School Corporation at its Thursday meeting. Superintendent Mary Sugg Lovejoy honored Nolan for lighting the Circle of Lights. The board also honored Abby Shinovich for being chosen for the National Bonnie Plants Cabbage program.

ROACHDALE -- The North Putnam School Board honored two local celebrities at the beginning of its monthly meeting Thursday night.

Paris Nolan and Abby Shinovich received certificate for their honors and a piece of cake from North Putnam Superintendent Mary Sugg Lovejoy.

Seven-year-old Nolan of Roachdale lit the Circle of Lights at Monument Circle in Indianapolis on Nov. 25, and Shinovich of Bainbridge Elementary was selected by the Indiana Agriculture Commission as the 2011 Hoosier winner in the National Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program for growing an extraordinarily large cabbage.

Abby Shinovich shows North Putnam School Corporation Superintendent Mary Sugg Lovejoy how big her award-winning cabbage was.

Supt. Lovejoy also announced that the school will retain its normal schedule during the 2012-13 school year, but will continue to look into a balanced calendar for the 2013-14 school year.

A balanced calendar has a few different organizations, but it attempts to even out the number of breaks with school days, skipping the three-month long summer vacation.

The school was looking into a nine-week school session followed by two weeks of vacation repeated.

Tom Wiseman, director of operations, also came to the board with several expensive requests. Wiseman asked the board to approve measures to begin searching for bids for the replacement of three school buses and the work needed on Roachdale Elementary School's roof.

"I was asked why we need to do this," Wiseman said. "Our buses go up and down some really rough roads."

Wiseman said he plans to create a fund which will help pay for these projects in the future, a fund that would help pay for future parking lot repairs and other projects. However, these are the corporation's most urgent needs, according to Wiseman.

North Putnam teachers Lori Baker and Jana Brothers addressed the board with the intention of restarting the tradition of a sixth-grade camping trip. After the loss of two key players in the original trip to McCormick's Creek in Spencer, the school has not been able to coordinate another trip.

Baker said she would like to hold the camp and Camp Tecumseh in Brookston. The camp would be fully staffed, but would likely cost more. The two teachers are trying to figure out the finances more specifically and figure out other details.

"We were trying to look at other options," Baker said, saying she had a tough time telling the students in the current grade level why they couldn't go to camp like other grade levels.

The board asked the teachers to collect more information and ideas before fully approving the trip.

Finally board members Charlie Boller and Mark Hoke complimented current board president Debbie Sillery, vice president John Hays and Jacqueline Simpson for their work on the council this year.

Hoke also addressed the public regarding rumors the board has been more self-serving than expected. He said the board's concerns are the same as any other parents: the children.

"The board is seven people. We all have our own opinions and sometimes those opinions don't match," Hoke said. "Nobody needs to worry that the board isn't looking out for the students."

Hoke also encouraged more people to come to board meetings to see how the board's deliberations work.

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  • Not self-serving... Whatever.

    -- Posted by nobody important on Mon, Dec 19, 2011, at 12:18 PM
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