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Middle school adds weather station
Displayed against the familiar background of the double domes of McAnally Center overlooking Robert L. Harbison Stadium are the latest conditions in local weather.
At one’s fingertips is all the information (and probably more) needed to determine current conditions, recent weather and even upcoming forecasts.
And much of the information originates from a small weather station that sits atop Greencastle Middle School.
Superintendent Jeff Hubble announced during the Monday meeting of the Greencastle School Board that the station is installed and active.
Greencastle Community Schools obtained the station through the WeatherSTEM, a platform designed to enhance the STEM curriculum (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) with live data collected by weather instruments, cloud cameras, agricultural probes, and other sensors.
Teachers and students at Greencastle Middle School and Greencastle High School will have access to the information through live monitors in each school’s cafeteria.
Beyond this, however, the students, teachers and even the public have live 24/7 access to the data at http://putnam-in.weatherstem.com/greencastle.
From this site, not only are current weather conditions available, but archived conditions, radar and satellite, upcoming forecast courtesy of weatherunderground.com.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the station is the cloud camera, which updates every minute, with the latest photo serving as a backdrop to current weather conditions.
Using these panoramic photos, the site also provides a “Sky Video” feature, which makes a time-lapse video from sunrise to sunset for each day.
Besides the WeatherSTEM site, the station also sends out live updates on Facebook and Twitter by searching Greencastle WeatherSTEM.
Additionally, weather alerts are available from the site and an app is available from both the App Store for Apple products and on Google Pay for Android devices.
In other business:
• Tzouanakis Intermediate School accepted a $5,000 donation from Co-Alliance via Nutra Blend to start a backpack food program for needy families.
The program sends home backpacks of food with those students who may not be getting enough food on days they are not at school. Similar programs are already in place at Deer Meadow Primary and Ridpath Primary.
• Deer Meadow and Ridpath accepted donations of supplies from Black Lumber, Headley Hardware and Lincoln Park Stone.
The supplies will be used for projects at each school set to promote kindness and diversity. The Greencastle High School Diversity Club will be completing the projects during second semester.
• Tzouanakis accepted a $1,000 donation from Walmart for fifth-grade programs.
• The board also approved a number of personnel items.
Hirings: Mariah Fikes and Donetta Friend as GMS second-shift custodians, Carla Plessinger as personnel and benefits coordinator at central office, Brandi Baxter as GMS instructional assistant.
Resignations: Mariah Fikes as GMS second-shift custodian, Paula O’Brien as GMS instructional assistant, Marty Scott as Deer Meadow noon aide, Ron Dugan as bus driver.
Substitutes: Olivia Arnold, Emma Thomas and Katherine Farris hired as substitute teachers, Angela Garl hired as substitute bus driver.
Extracurricular activities: Stacie Stoffregen resigned as sixth-grade Online Science Bowl coach; Nicole Burkhalter resignation as GHS Spell Bowl coach; Samantha Call approved as GHS winter events supervisor; Callan Taylor, Bruce Cook and Kevin Kendall approved as GHS volunteer girls’ basketball coaches; Phoebe Prado approved as seventh-grade volunteer boys’ basketball coach; Daniel Summerlot approved as sixth-grade Online Science Bowl coach; Samantha Richardson approved as GHS volunteer assistant cheer