North Putnam principals continue technology push

BAINBRIDGE -- With hopes of bringing their schools up to par with surrounding districts, principals from across Cougar Land updated the North Putnam school board Thursday of their ongoing efforts on the technology front -- efforts that have been supported by the board since the beginning but have only taken root in recent months.

The 1:1 Initiative, also known simply as “1:1,” is a nationwide program dedicated to the idea of “one laptop per child” at every school around the country, symbolically acknowledging the need to realistically prepare children and young adults for the technology-filled world of tomorrow.

With this in mind, and with the help of local technology company Five Star Integrated Services, North Putnam Middle School Principal Scott Miller kicked off a collective presentation Thursday that included summertime training for teachers, professional development, estimated costs of such a large purchase and financing options for installing more-capable wireless access points in each of the buildings (facilitated by Five Star representative Steve Ricketts).

“Part of what we’ve developed is our vision for learning at North Putnam,” Miller said, noting that their vision can be summed up with the acronym ICON. “We want our kids to be ‘innovative,’ we want them to be ‘collaborative’ and we want them to ‘own’ their own learning.

“One of the next steps as we move forward is that we’ve developed a professional development schedule for this summer, during which time our teachers will be getting their (ThinkPads).”

Miller went on to explain that teachers will be required to attend summer training sessions in order to receive their devices which, in theory, will be distributed to students regardless if a teacher has received training.

However, Miller and others are not worried about teachers’ attendance numbers as a vast majority of them has already signed up for training, signifying a unified outlook of the future.

“From May 31 to June 8, we have, through Five Star, four sections of training set up for the teachers to choose from,” he said, noting that each session will have an approximate four-hour run time. “Three of them are basic training with (ThinkPads), and then we have an advanced training section for teachers and staff who feel like they have a pretty good handle of things and they want to be able to do more.”

As reported after the corporation’s April session, the Lenovo 11e ThinkPad was approved to make its way into the hands of all North Putnam students by 2018, integrating the devices one school at a time beginning with the 2017-18 school year, prompting summertime training.

But what wasn’t known at the time was the number of ThinkPads or the estimated costs involved.

“The (cost) is not set because in June (Ricketts) is going to come back with lease options so we can look at the choices,” Superintendent Dan Noel explained. “But I want to have a rough ‘guesstimate’ of what the cost will be at the present time.”

Ricketts, who also updated the board on the E-Rate financing options available for access point and increased bandwidth installation, responded with some approximate figures.

“I reached out to (Bainbridge Elementary Principal Rodney Simpson) and (Roachdale Elementary Principal Beth Waterman) on some enrollment numbers recently and did some math for (the cost) we are thinking we will be getting our devices for,” he said. “Roughly, for Bainbridge and Roachdale, it will be about $228,000 for about 600 devices -- that includes the device, the bag and the management console ... while building in a few in excess or surplus because we want to have a few on the shelf. The interest rates I’m seeing right now are at about two percent.”

Any expenditures totaling more than $250,000 will have to be regulated through Indiana’s State Board of Accounts.

But if figures total under that mark, schools have the freedom to solicit quotes from local banks or companies looking to take part in the initiative, with which Ricketts is already familiar.

Lastly, he updated the board on the wireless project at the high school, which will be last in line during the nearly two-year implementation process due to connectivity issues and a lack of access points.

“I’ve already started getting equipment in and as soon as school is out we’re going to get in there and start the cabling for the access points,” he said, moving on to an E-Rate update. “We have all of the purchase orders already cut and everything is in line as far as E-Rate goes. We’ll be ready to go by the start of school with complete wireless coverage at the high school.”

Simply put, E-Rate financing is an extension of the Schools and Libraries Program -- part of the Universal Service Fund administered by Universal Service Administrative Co. -- under the direction of the Federal Communications Commission.

Further updates can be expected in the coming months.

In other business:

• Of the ongoing issues surrounding an unsatisfied NPSC and its now-former partnership with Johnson-Melloh Solutions, board attorney Dan Taylor said: “What I think we’re trying to work toward is getting to a place where we can resolve the issue with Johnson-Melloh ... I think our hope would be to work it out in some way.”

“I think we’re farther along than we were a month ago but there are still some areas where we just disagree with them,” Taylor said. “I think the issue is eventually going to have to come to (the board) for some resolution.

“But just to give you a little bit of a road map, if we get to a point where we don’t have some resolution that the administrators can support, then we would probably ask to go into executive session to talk strategy about potential litigations to resolve it,” he continued. “(We’d) like to avoid that if (we) can but that’s where I think it is going -- either things will get fixed and work right and (Taylor, Chadd, Minnette, Scheider & Clutter P.C.) will have a financial proposal for (the board) to consider, or we won’t and we’ll have to go to executive session. That’s where I see it going. I actually think we’ll know something before the (June) meeting.”

After lengthy discussion, the board voted 7-0 to table approval of a second payment to Johnson-Melloh totaling $16,346.30 for “unsatisfactory” heating and cooling repairs.

• Athletic Director Roger Busch received approval to use BSN Sports for athletic uniforms and certain equipment.

• Summer School dates and locations were announced. Each school -- Bainbridge and Roachdale elementaries, NPMS and NPHS -- will conduct its own summer school programs for its students. Dates for the elementaries run May 30-June 8; the middle school runs May 30-June 9; and the high school May 30-June 27.

• Past-due book rental fees and lunch account fees were discussed and ongoing totals dating back to 2013 and 2015, respectively, were shown. Past-due book rental fees: NPHS, $5,486.74; NPMS, $4,363.56; Bainbridge Elementary, $1,736.68; and Roachdale Elementary, $1,719.49. Past-due lunch account fees: NPMS, $7,443.71; Roachdale Elementary, $5,617.23; NPHS, $4,723.64; and Bainbridge Elementary, $1,958.33.

The school board is currently attempting to recoup the money through ways to be developed in coming months.

• The North Putnam School Corporation, it was announced, was recently ranked 55th in the state of Indiana on a Best High Schools list conducted by U.S. News.

• Superintendent Noel approved field trips and fundraisers: FCA middle-school students to visit Turkey Run State Park May 26; NPHS/NPMS band and choir to visit Holiday World May 25; NPHS boys’ basketball to host Spring Trivia Night; NPHS girls’ basketball to host elementary summer basketball camp June 5-8; and NPHS/NPMS boys’ basketball team summer league in June.

• The board approved the hire, transfer, resignation and retirement of several employees Wednesday via 4-3 vote. They were: Vicki Sanders, retirement as teacher from Bainbridge; Kyle Black resignation as teacher from NPHS; Tiffany Clark, resignation as teacher from Bainbridge; Holly Cooper, resignation as art teacher at NPMS and girls’ soccer coach at NPHS; Louie Richards, resignation as custodian at Roachdale; Rebecca Savoldi, resignation as bus driver; Jason Walker, resignation as bus driver; Debra Everman, retirement as instructional assistant at Bainbridge; Tiffany Trissel, termination as bus driver; Tammy Donaldson, termination as custodian; Jessica Tarr, Kristie Rambis, Lana Powell and Char Coffman hired as certified summer-school teachers; Eric VanHaaften, Janna Oxford, Kate Skirvin and Matt Wargel, hired as certified staff for NPHS summer school; Rachel Pierce, David Perkins, Mark Kays, Kristin Mindiola and Albert Lilly, hired as non-certified staff for summer band at NPHS.

Athletics positions hired or approved: Dan Fouts, Randy Summers, Travis Franklin, Laren Sanford and Cameron Brothers, paid/volunteer assistant coaches for high school football; Bryce McCoy, middle school head football coach; John Baker, J.C. Mandeville and Denny Bayne, middle school football assistant coaches; Jessica Neild, assistant volleyball coach at NPHS; Brandy Dickson, eighth-grade head volleyball coach; Jenny Heron, eighth-grade assistant volleyball coach; Jessica Tarr, seventh-grade head volleyball coach; Scott Spencer and Alison Dobbs, assistant girls’ soccer coaches at NPHS; Linda Patrick, girls’ head golf coach at NPHS; Susan Trent and Alyssa Chew, head coach and assistant coach (respectively) for middle school cross country; Shawn Alspaugh, assistant coach for boys’ basketball at NPHS; Earl Hall, eighth-grade boys’ basketball head coach; Jarrod Duff and Brad Szczerbik, head coach and assistant coach (respectively) for girls’ basketball at NPHS; Bucky Kramer and Cyle Hill, head coach and assistant coach (respectively) for wrestling at NPHS; Bryce McCoy and Michael Murphy, head coach and assistant coach (respectively) for wrestling at NPMS; Molly King and Lindsey Etcheson, head coach and assistant coach (respectively) for middle school cheerleading; and Ian Lawson and Chris Tallman, part-time summer help.