North Putnam looks at upcoming school year

BAINBRIDGE -- With people scrambling to get ready for the Putnam County Fair this week, the North Putnam School Board held its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday.

At the school board discussed plans for the upcoming school year and projects that need to be finished before the start of school.

North Putnam School Corporation Superintendent Dan Noel told the school board that the Bainbridge Elementary roofing project was on schedule after a small delay. The delay came from the contractor finding wet rot on some of the beams that were to be covered in metal. The metal coverings were preformed and had to be re-formed to fit the areas. The wet rot has been treated and the project should be completed before school begins.

Noel also informed the board that school clean up is under way and some re-paving will take place at the high school and administrative building.

North Putnam also closed its open enrollment on Monday and with that the corporation gained 20 students. There are slots still open so a lottery has been opened and will continue throughout the year.

The re-districting plan that is part of the ACLU lawsuit that was brought to the North Putnam School Corporation last year is going to the state board of approval in August or September.

The plan sent to the state board will be going back to the six district seats and one at-large member. The whole district will have a vote on who will represent each township. The one restricted at-large member may be from any township and will be voted on by the whole district as well. All members will be voted in for four-year terms.

"This has been a long and drawn out process to say the least." Noel said.

The board approved for Jason Chew, assistant principal at North Putnam High School, and Terry Tippin, principal at North Putnam Middle School, to attend Indiana Principal Leadership Institute on July 17-18. This workshop will be one of several that Chew and Tippin will be attending over the year.

The school board also revisited its decision to cut back on hours of non-certified employees due to the Affordable Care Act.

Recently Congress has decided to postpone the act, which has had community schools concerned. The main concern was that any employer that has 50 or more employees that work full-time, is responsible to provide affordable health insurance to any of those employees by a certain date. The date, which was originally Jauary. 2014, has now been pushed to January 2015. Full-time employees are considered those that work more than 29.5 hours a week.

Employers had to adhere to a six-month grace period before a $2,000 fee, per employee not insured, would be given to the employee. The school board decided in May that they would cut hours instead of providing insurance.

With the postponement of the act the school board started to look at recanting that decision and reinstating the non-certified workers hours. If this were done the school board would have to revisit the issue again in the coming months to prepare for the same process of cutting employee hours again.

Board member Jill Summerlot stated she would abstain from any vote made on this issue.

"I can not make an informed decision," Summerlot stated. "I need to hear from my constituents and from these employees."

School Board President John Hayes played devil's advocate during much of the discussion, but showed interest in re-instating employee hours because the act was a "bunch of what-ifs."

Many of the board agreed with Summerlot. The corporation will send out a survey to the district to see what they have to say on the issue.

In other business:

- There were several resignations: Cassie Stacks as instructional assistant at Roachdale Elementary, Brian Blaydes as JV baseball coach and Kelly Yoho as JV volleyball coach at North Putnam High School.

- Several new employees were approved: Christina Hudicin as Vocational Agriculture teacher at North Putnam High and Middle School, Bonnie Osborn as temporary transportation secretay, Lauren Alspaugh as National Honor Society, 10th grade sponsor and SADD leader, Brenda Anderson as FCA leader, David Basan as Senior class sponsor, Kathi Elliott as musical director, Monique Fields as academic coach, Tony Freund as academic coach, Chase Hiland as spell bowl sponsor, Mr. and Mrs. Land as BASS club sponsors, Kristy Lipppencott as academic coach, Annette Maier as academic coach, Kristie McClamroch as student council sponsor, frosh solutions and freshman class sponsor, Ashley Moeller as dance team sponsor, Brittney Nees as academic coach, Rachel Pierce as high and middle school assistant band director, Rebecca Scotland as FCCLA sponser, Kate Skirvin as department head and FFA adviser, Kelly Thomas as head choir director, lead Key club and thespian club, Nicole Treash as BPA leader, Matthew Wargel as band director, Maria Wilson as Spanish club sponsor, Lynette Hodges as cafeteria aide at the high school, Sean Toth as a cafeteria aide at Bainbridge Elementary and Kelly Yoho as a volunteer assistant JV volleyball coach.

-Holly Kiger will transfer to the high school as a special education teacher.

-Greg Barrett will be a teacher on assignment with the administration office and the high school for the 2013-14 school year.

-Board member Oliver Haste gave the board information on energy savings plans and request for qualifications grant. The board decided to move forward on Haste's request that the process be started to look for companies to help with energy savings.

The next North Putnam School Board meeting will be on Aug. 15 at 7 p.m.