South Putnam Board addresses routine items

In a short first meeting to the new school year, the South Putnam School Board addressed routine matters on its agenda Wednesday evening.

However, the board approved a change to the schedule for reviewing and adopting South Putnam Schools’ budget for 2020. The board will hold public hearing on the budget on Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 5:30 p.m. in the MS/HS Learning Center. The meeting was only previously set at a later time.

Superintendent Bruce Bernhardt also read a letter from Transportation Director Brad Ogborn that a bus route review had recently taken place. He said these reviews comply with recently passed state statutes, which also include a provision that scheduled drop-offs on state and federal highways must be approved by the board.

Bernhardt further stated that no students at South Putnam needed these stops at this time.

After it approved claims and transfers and the minutes established from two executive sessions, a special meeting and its regular meeting last month, the board also approved the following personnel report:

• Resignations: Debbie Long, MS/HS custodian; Cathy Ryan, MS/HS part-time food service; Amanda Dorsett, MS/HS guidance secretary; and Sandra Johnson, Central Elementary part-time food service; and

• New hire: Sarah Sterling, MS/HS teacher.

In his report, Bernhardt began that South Putnam had gotten off to a “great start” to the year, and that he had heard positive feedback from administrators and staff. He then briefly turned his focus onto how South Putnam could figure student enrollment in 2019-20.

Bernhardt provided that he believed South Putnam Schools would see an increase in enrollment this year, though the exact numbers are still yet to be determined. He said that South Putnam will conduct two counting days in September and February of this year, despite state government going back-and-forth between doing one and two in the past.

Bernhardt explained that South Putnam had lost 60 students last year, which means the corporation had lost approximately $300,000 in funding. This is owing to the state determining this funding through a public school’s ADM, or average daily membership. He further implied that greater enrollment meant more money, but whether the budget will “get back to zero” on this lost funding will only be seen with those two counting days.

Bernhardt added that the school corporation had made it a point to not lay off teachers, but to also combine classwork from teachers who have left South Putnam without replacing them.

Responding to a question about trends with how or why students have left, both Bernhardt and Principal Levi Yowell provided that many factors go into those decisions. Yowell said that home-schooled students figure into this, as some will come into the system at the middle school level only to then go back to homeschooling.

From one trend he said he has seen, Bernhardt said that much of the enrollment issue is divided between South Putnam, Cloverdale and Greencastle, as the same amount of students who leave to go to another corporation may come into South Putnam’s system.

Both agreed local economics play a greater factor as a whole, with more rural areas not having as many students due to job moves to bigger cities and population decline in general. Still, it was emphasized that the issue of enrollment with regard to funding was complex.

Before the meeting adjourned, Board Secretary Wes Hacker stated that the sale of Reelsville Elementary School and surrounding property was “still on track,” and that no changes have been made. The auction is set to begin at 6 p.m. after the budget hearing on Sept. 25.

The next regular meeting of the South Putnam School Board is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. in the South Putnam Middle School/High School Learning Center.