Area 30 keys on texting and driving

The Area 30 Career Center Interlocal Board of Directors met Thursday morning for a short meeting to discuss several routine issues as the new school year begins.

As many officials, including the state of Indiana, begin to focus on texting and driving safety, Ivy Tech will be sponsoring a seminar on Distracted Driving Convocation on Thursday, Aug. 30 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. However, high school students will only be attending a portion of that.

Area 30, along with several of the area schools, will be sending several interested participants to this free program from 8:30-10:30 a.m. Students will also receive a tour of Ivy Tech following the presentation.

The day will include two 50-minute lecture presentations, two texting and driving simulators and much more.

"Our objective is to use every method at our disposal to bring home the shocking reality of the dangerous practice of distracted driving," Frank Mitidieri of the Save A Life Tour explained to the board. "It has eclipsed drunk driving as the No. 1 safety concern of the public driving."

The program, which was developed due to distracted driving becoming an increasingly large problem of over the last few years, will include such activities as an ongoing presentation of memorials to victims who lost their lives during a distracted driving incident, banner displays, "ticket-type" review showing violations committed during their Save A Life Distracted Driving simulation experience.

"We are committed to educating as many people as will listen about the dangers of this serious, life-threatening practice through the use of state-of-the-art distracted driving simulation," Mitidieri said. "We are confident that our presentation will create enough of an impact to cause people to think twice about engaging in other activities while driving."

The program will begin with an introductory video of the effects of distracted driving followed by presentations done by those who were actually in a distracted driving incident.

Even though the school year has just begun, the board is already looking toward the 2013-14 school year.

Superintendents from the Area 30 schools will bring a rough copy of their school calendar to next month's board meeting.

The board will focus on incorporating a week of potential snow days following spring break. This change will potentially allow students a longer break depending on the weather.

The Area 30 board also received a technology update from Assistant Director Chad Nunley.

The career center has purchased most of the proposed equipment and Area 30 is now a totally wireless campus.

"We have everything in place," Nunley said. "We're pretty close to one-to-one with our students. Every classroom has enough computers for everyone."

Nunley also noted that the Haiku system has been installed and the staff has begun using it for their lessons.

The board approved the resignations of ABE/GED assistant Kim Berry and auto services technology instructor Jerry Spackman.

Finally, the board also approved the hiring Troy Anderson as the new auto services technology instructor.

The next board meeting date is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 11 at 9 a.m.