Area 30 board bans all piercings

Changes were the recurring theme at Area 30's board meeting on Thursday.

The main business of the meeting was the approval of the proposed handbooks. The student handbooks had a major change in dress code, all piercings are to now be removed.

"A piercing is a piercing, no matter what is through it," Assistant Director Lora Wood said.

Meanwhile, the maximum number of excused absences is now set at 10, with only five allowed with a doctor's note. Wood said the change is taking effect because students were missing a whole day of school and then coming in and getting the absence excused because they were at the doctor getting their eyeglasses adjusted or other similar situations.

There was also a cheating policy added to the handbook as well as a definition of harassment.

All three proposed handbooks, Student, Certified Staff and Classified Staff, were approved by all present at themeeting.

Meanwhile, Putnam County Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter shared some new information with the administrators.

First of all, no weapons are allowed on a school bus or in the school. If not obeyed this offense is a Class C misdemeanor. Secondly, students can also not create fictitious web sites, such as a myspace page, with fictitious information about educators and such. If they do so, they can be held responsible in court under internet deception.

Parents can also be charged with educational neglect in truancy cases.

In other news, the board:

-- Was presented with the retirement of Maintenance/Custodian Dwight Hendershot.

"He has probably been the hardest working person we have had on staff," Executive Director Michael Walton said.

The board moved to accept his letter of retirement and commend him for his years of service.

-- Passed the elimination of the Student Services position which had been filled by Linda Merkel. Walton said he wanted to publicly thank Merkel and stated that elimination of the job is purely economics.

-- Approved financial reports for August.

-- Heard information from Walton on the director's meeting he attended at Ben Davis last week. He also informed the board that registration at the home schools for Area 30 classes had been very successful.

The next board meeting is scheduled for Sept. 12 at 10 a.m. for an executive session followed by the 10:30 a.m. regular meeting.