Hayes, Steffy take on new roles

he administrative staff at two South Putnam schools will have a new look at the beginning of next school year. Superintendent Bruce Bernhardt announced the change during the South Putnam school board meeting Monday evening.

Brad Hayes has been acting as principal of both schools for the past few years. To help ease Hayes' dual role, the board hired former South Putnam High School physical education teacher Debbie Steffy as assistant principal of Central last year.

The board has chosen to appoint Steffy as principal of Central with Hayes acting as full-time principal of Fillmore. Hayes' contract will include an extra 10 days -- making his contract 213 days instead of the normal 203 days -- for additional administrative responsibilities.

Hayes will be in charge of Title I and a few other duties passed from the superintendent's office.

In other business, the 2009-2010 school calendar was amended to reflect full student days instead of half days for parent/teacher conferences and teacher in-service days.

The Department of Education has stated schools can no longer count the four half student days as full days.

Bernhardt said positive ways would be found to accommodate the stipulations set by DOE in holding the conferences and having teacher in-service days.

He also announced the school corporation has installed a new Honeywell instant alert system. In the event of an emergency, school officials can send an instant alert to student's parents by telephone, cell phone, e-mail, pager or PDA in any combination.

In addition, the system can be used to notify parents of school cancellations due to inclement weather. Bernhardt encouraged parents to create a profile in order to receive the instant alerts. Profiles can be created through the school's Web site at www.sputnam.k12.in.us

For help or questions about the alert system, contact the school's administrative office at 653-3119.

A group of students was recognized during the school board meeting. Hayes presented Bernhardt with a certificate on behalf of Central's math team for its success. The team placed 7th out of 150 in the state.

"This makes us very proud," Bernhardt said on behalf of the board.

The last student day was announced. It will be May 28, with senior awards May 29 and graduation at 1:30 p.m. May 30.