Early College High School

 The State of Indiana released their Early College Report last week.  The report (linked below) showed the success that students across the state are having and the money that is saved from Early College programs.  Here are a few highlights: 

* Growing number of students earning the Indiana College Core (formally known as the Core 30 and is their first year of college)   

    - At PC, we have consistently graduated 30% of students with the ICC. 60% of students earn 15 or more dual credits by the time they graduate.  We offer more than 40 dual credit class opportunities.

* Students who earn the Indiana College Core are more likely to enroll in college and complete on-time.

    - Indiana Commission for Higher Education Report shows that in 2017 56% of our students attended college.  Class of 2016:  51% of the students who enrolled met the Early College Benchmarks:  85% didn't need remediation, 59% completed all coursework attempted, 83% persisted to the 2nd year of college.  

* Indiana College Core has a significant cost savings. (In Indiana, the average cost of tuition and fees only is over $8,000 yearly - this does not count living expenses.)

* The Indiana College Core is only offered in 131 of 600 schools in Indiana (Only 26% of school districts).  

    Thank you to all of our teachers who make the Early College Program possible at PC by ensuring credentialing requirements of 18 credit hours of MA level coursework is met.  Our community is truly grateful for you!    

*Perry Central is currently going through the re-application process to continue our Early College Endorsement through CELL.  The application is due Feb. 1st and CELL will be at Perry Central to interview our teachers and students on April 30th.  This is a true team effort as we continue to provide high quality programming and supports for our students.  It takes all of us to make a successful Early College Program!  Great job!

Link to State Early College Report

Culture Code (Book by Daniel Coyle) Thought of the Week:  The sense of belonging in each of us needs to be continually refreshed and reinforced.  Small signals of acceptance, such as catching a student being good or asking them how their day is,  can go a long way in establishing relationships. Conveying the fact that you are interested in others helps the brain signal safety and when we make people feel safe we can get through anything together!

Important Information: 

ISTEP Testing Schedule:  ISTEP Testing for juniors will begin on Monday, February 8th.  Please take a look at the attached schedule to see if you have any questions/concerns about times and locations of testing.  All juniors will be testing during this time.  English teachers, I will ask you to please share testing locations and dates with students specifically.  Please do not post this list as it has special education information attached.  Please talk to students as you see them in class.  Than you for your help!   TEST SCHEDULE

State Reporting - Some of you may start seeing some additional grade books in your Skyward accounts.  State reporting is changing and we have to make some small changes to how we report information.  Starting next year data will be sent weekly asynchronously, meaning we will not be able to fix mistakes in Skyward as needed to ensure the information is correct  - but we will have to have it entered correctly from the beginning.  This is a huge shift in how this has been managed before.  Even though eventually it will be great - there may be some bugs in the meantime.  Thanks to Kristi Etienne for having the patients to work through all of this!  If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask!

Reminders from Last Week:

*  Classroom Sizes:  We realize that classroom sizes are growing.  At the beginning of the year we had 25 new students and this semester along we have enrolled 10!  This is good news, but makes for crowded classrooms.  Some of our virtual students have decided to return as well.   We realize there are times you cannot socially distance and that is okay.  Just do your best to put space between your students and have them wear their masks.    

      Returning/Virtual Students:  We are trying to use this document to track students who are virtual.  We are doing the best we can to keep up with student changes - but sometimes they do not tell us!   Hopefully this will help you.  

* COVID Reminders:  Seating Charts and attendance are still very important.  If you need more cleaner for your tables, please let the high school office know. 

* Lunch Changes:  We are going to make some changes to the lunch schedule.  Please go over this with your students on Monday.  Attached is the new chart - changes have been highlighted.  We are going to reduce the Grab and Go locations to allow us flexibility for coverage as there is a little extra room in the cafeteria.  You will note that all 11th and 12th grade students will eat in the cafeteria - we believe their numbers are low enough to allow for this.   LUNCH CHART

* Missing Assignments:  We are asking that teachers please revert back to the LL/8th period protocol to report in-person students who are missing assignments.   Please only use the ONLINE form for students who still remain 100% on-line.  

* PBIS Lessons:  Phil sent out a quick PBIS refresher for 2nd period on Monday, February 1st.  Please go over the lesson during 2nd period with your students.  

* Engagement/Relationships:  Our students are going to be excited to come back to school.  This is a great job to work hard to create engaging, exciting lessons that will allow students to continue to excitement for school.  Brain Smart Starts will also be important to help students get ready for learning.  

Be the Light

 

Thanks to all of you for being brave enough to be the light to so many in our community.  You make a difference each day.  Keep smiling, telling students you believe in them and loving them for who they are. 

                  A little FUN:

Bernie is waiting patiently for Mr. Zellers! 

He also thought the coaching staff did a great job in their win Saturday night!  Congratulations to our senior athletes and their coaches.  Girls Basketball Sectional begins the first week of February!  

Important Information:

Wednesday Meetings:   

  * 10:00 a.m. ISTEP Certification High School Library (for individuals who have yet go through the certification process and need help.  Jamie Guillaume will be there to help you through it!) 

  * If you haven't updated your Scope and Sequence for 3rd Quarter, please do so.  Looking at student data and power standards will be important.  Remember it isn't about getting through a lot of standards an inch deep, but what do we truly need the students to master before they move to the next grade level.  Review and remediation may need to be a part of your plan.  The PLC power is the opportunity for all of you to work together and have rich conversations that will lead to student learning.

Visitors - On Monday, we will have a few visitors from Madison High School visit Commodore Manufacturing.  They will be in the library around 10:30 and stay for about an hour.  Thanks to Josh Craney and his students for always being a great host.  We are proud of the program they have developed for our students and community. 

Regular School - We are anticipating the possibility of returning to school in-person in February.  A final decision will be made early next week.  This means we will be returning to spreading out lunches, etc.  We may be making some small changes to our protocols and this will be shared with you by the end of the week.  Please let us know if you have students that we need to get to school on Wednesday to help or you are welcome to invite students on your own.  It is a great day for students to receive extra help. 

Testing:  Reminder the ISTEP Tests for 11th graders is coming up!  If we are able to remain in-person for school we will be testing February 9th (2nd & 3rd), 10th (2nd, 3rd, & 4th) and February 16th (1st - 3rd) and February 17th (1st - 4th periods)   More details to follow soon.  

Kudos - Congratulations to Shea Berkhouse for earning a top spot in Indiana.  She was chosen as one of the top 5 to represent Indiana for the Presidential Scholarship for CTE students.  Shea will be earning the Academic Honors, Technical Honors and Indiana College Core (formally known as the Ivy Tech CORE 30).  Her Career Pathway is Business Administration where she is interning at the Perry County Chamber and EDC, has participated in the state's entrepreneurship contest called Innovate WithIN, been an active member of the BPA and she has applied her knowledge by helping on the business side of Commodore Manufacturing.  Congratulations!  

                                            

                           

Positive Comments for the WIN!

"The greatest form of motivation is exhortation.  Everyone wants to be encouraged.  Everyone wants a support group.  Find the things they do well and have a pep rally."  Bill McCartney - Former Head Coach of Buffaloes

All of us are leaders; leaders in our homes, in the classroom, on the athletic field/court, and in the community.  As a leader, research tells us it is important to bring positive energy to the group.  Randy Jackson in his book, "Culture Defeats Strategy" reminds us of the power of being positive and encourages at least a 5:1 ratio.  Research found that children in classrooms thrived when the ration of feedback was five positive parts to one constructive review.  The highest performing business teams/classrooms actually had a ratio that was 6:1.  On the flipside, students and teams fall into despair when the ratio was 2:1 (2 negatives to 1 positive).

Positive remarks equal big wins!  When we catch our students being good and reward them with a positive remark we change trajectory and increase success both on and off of the field.    

Happy Martin Luther King Day!  

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”      -Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Important Information: 

COVID Reminders: - We will have several students returning to the classroom this week.  Please remember to update your seating charts and keep the students spread out as much as possible.  We will continue the hybrid the next two weeks.  Let us know how we can support you!   HERE is the document that outlines who is returning.  

PLC Meetings:   We would like to have 45 minute PLC Meetings this Wednesday for core-content teachers.  Below are the assigned times.  If you would like to request a change in time due to working with students on-line, please let me know.  We will be discussing spring testing. Thank you!

             English - 9:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.  High School Library

             Science & Social Studies - 10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. - High School Library

             Math -  1:15 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.  - High School Library

Pandemic Findings:   Kim Waninger from the Special Education Co-Op Shared graphic from Lives in the Balance Survey. The results are interesting and just a reminder of the grace and kindness all of our students need.  Lives in the Balance is a Dr. Ross Greene Organization.  Dr. Ross Green wrote the book, "Lost at School" that we have read as a faculty/staff.  Survey results are from a national survey. 

 The Lives in the Balance online survey of parenting during the pandemic included 1022 parents of kids between the ages of 3-17 years, and was conducted in November, 2020. In terms of race/ethnicity, 68% of the parents identified as White, 13% as Black, and 13% as Hispanic. The vast majority of respondents were mothers. Our findings are detailed here.

Pandemic Findings | Lives in the Balance

State Testing:  Juniors will be taking the ISTEP test starting the 2nd week of February.  This test is important for students as it will help them complete their graduation pathway.  This is the last year for the ISTEP tests as next year, our current Sophomores will take the SAT as their state exam.  Testing always brings anxiety - but it shouldn't.  We have been preparing our students for this moment - now we need to get them mentally prepared to succeed.  

      Even in the pandemic, the state will require testing, but hopes the federal government provides flexibility about how tests are used (which is good!)  HERE is an article from Chalk Beat that outlines this information.  

For the Save - In Jill Taylor's 8th grade class, she hosted her on-line students live in a google meet with her class.  A student reached out to her in a panic voice asking her what to do because her air fryer was smoking! She was overly concerned because her parents were not home and she wasn't sure what to do.  Jill calmly told her to look for flames, unplug the machine and open the windows.  The student was very relieved to have this help!   After the student calmed down, they both determined the eggs were done.  

Legislative Session

 As a member of the Indiana Association of School Principal's Legislative Cadre, I get updates about the 2021 General Assembly and what is happening in reference to educational matters.  I thought I would share some of the bills the IASP is following this session.  

As we all are aware, 2021 is an odd year, so it is a budget session.  Bills are numbered in order of priority, so in both the House and Senate, the budget bill is number one (HB 1001, SB 1).  This will obviously be an area we are all watching.  The budget bill has not been proposed yet as they have until the end of this week to submit any bills for this year's session.  

Currently, there is a bill in both houses in regards to Tuition Support.  Last spring when the pandemic hit, the Governor was able to get passed that virtual students would receive full funding (prior to the pandemic, full virtual students - 100% Apex students for us - would only receive 85% of student funding).  The emergency bill passed in the spring only affected last spring and this fall's tuition count.  HB 1003 and SB 2 are two bills that have been presented that would continue to allow for virtual students to receive 100% of the funding for this spring's semester.    This is a good bill for all schools as it would allow our funding sources not to change.    These bills only affect this spring semester.  It is predicted there will be a provision in the Budget Bill to offer some long-term changes to the definition of a virtual student.  

Other Proposed Education Focused Bills: 

House 

HB 1027 and 1124 - both want to provide hand-gun training to teachers

HB 1093 - Choice Scholarship Bill that proposes expansion of vouchers

HB 1189 - Would allow for schools to receive full funding for students who graduate early (This would be beneficial to us!)

Senate

SB 52 - Cursive Writing - would bring cursive writing back to the elementary

SB 54 - FAFSA - Would require that all students fill out the FAFSA as a graduation requirement.  (This bill has good intentions but is a concern because currently it is hard to get information from parents.  It is a focus of the Governor's Workforce Cabinet.  I think the benefits to our students outweigh the stress to get it accomplished.)

SB 56, SB 85 - Both focus on Collective Bargaining

SB 64 - Anther School Safety Bill - focused on teacher training for hand-guns

SB 75 - Separation of Powers - not really an education bill, but this focuses on limiting the Governor's Executive Power  (Some legislators were not happy with how the Governor handled the pandemic and want to limit the power of this body.)

SB 97 - Indiana Popcorn Bill - would designate Indiana Popcorn as the official snack of Indiana!  (Fun
Agriculture Fact: Indiana is the leading state in the production of popcorn - Orville Redenbacher graduated from Purdue University!)

It is important that we are all involved in the process of creating legislative bills as they affect our lives.  I will occasionally give you updates as I receive them. 

Important Information: 

Hybrid Schedule:  Our Admin Team, in conjunction with the Perry County Health Department, will be making a decision early in the week about what kind of school schedule we will have after January 15th.   We will make sure to keep you in the loop as this decision is made.   It will be a difficult one.  

Teaching Observations:  Just a reminder you are welcome to send your evaluator one of your classroom videos for us to use for your observations.  I received several before Winter Break.  I really enjoyed watching the videos and teachers learned a lot about themselves as they reflected on their own work.  I appreciate how everyone in our building works hard to improve their craft.  Phil and I will be getting into classroom starting this next week.  If you have a lesson in the next months you would like us to observe please reach out and invite us!  

Reminder, we are focusing on Domains 2.1, 2.2 and 2.5 as an effort to lesson the stress of evaluations.  Our lens is always continual improvement and growth!  

Mental Health Update:  This week, Tara met with the CEO of the Perry County Hospital to share some of the alarming numbers around mental health and the lack of providers we have in our community.  As I listened to her share the following statics about Perry County, it reminded me of the heavy needs of our students.   Here are some statistics she shared: 

     * 20% of Perry County children face food insecurities

    * 48% of children live in abusive homes

   * In the last year, there were 209 CHINS (Children in Needs of Services - because they live in abused or negligent homes) cases in Perry County/ in the previous 9 years there were only 68 cases

   * 25% of our students reported they have had a parent in jail

  * 10% of students in the 12th grade made a plan to commit suicide (last year's data)

*Data sources:  Indiana Youth Institute Kids County Data; and IU student surveys)

 Thank you to Tara for leading the county's Sources of Strength Organization that advocates for mental health resources and thanks to Perry County Memorial Hospital for coming to the table.  Also, a HUGE thanks to all of you for providing a loving, caring, safe and encouraging place for our children to learn and develop.  Our job as educators is not easy - but nothing that truly makes a difference is ever easy.

Have a great week!  

Resilience

2020 seemed to be a time of many firsts; making for interesting memories for all of us.  The word RESILIENCE comes to mind when I think about last year.  Resilience is defined by Webster's Dictionary as the ability to recover or adjust easily to misfortune and change.  Learning to teach remotely with no warning, balance in-person and remote students, teach from a cart, incorporate digital tools for learning, build relationships virtually, etc.. . . all of these are examples of resiliency.  I am proud to work with such a strong faculty and staff that exhibit these traits daily and model for our students how to be resilient even during trying times.   

Simon Sinek says, "The goal is not to be perfect by the end.  The goal is to be better today."    My hope for 2021 is not to have a perfect year, but to strive to take one step forward each day.  With the resilience we learned in 2020, I know the best is yet to come.  

Important Information: 

PLC Meeting:   We will have PLC team meetings this Wednesday.  To help ensure small groups so we can spread out and a focused agenda we will use the following schedule: 

           Island Team:  8:30 a.m. 

          English & Social Studies Teams:   9:30 a.m.

          Math & Science Teams: 10:30 a.m. 

         Special Education Team: 12:30 a.m.  

All meetings will be held in the high school library.  Please bring your computers.

Missing Work:  If you have students that are missing work at the end of the semester, please fill out this link by the end of the day Monday.  Our goal would be to get students in on Wednesday that may still have assignments out from last semester.  If you have students that you will not get work from them in time for grades to finalize, you can let Phil or I know and we can put an Incomplete in the gradebook for you.  The Incomplete has to be added on our end.   

Link: https://forms.gle/pyyyBTVPfoxBVShP7

Grades:  Grades are due on January 6th at 11:59 p.m. and report cards will come out on January 8th.  

Struggling Students: We know some of you may have students you are concerned about moving on to the 2nd semester of the school year.  Please let Jody or Dana know about these students so we can see if a schedule change needs to be made.  Due to the hybrid schedule, it make take the whole week to take care of schedule changes.  Hopefully there will not be many!  

Reporting Topics:  Please remember to check your reporting topic percentages for the 3rd quarter. Let Phil or Jody know of any changes that need to be made.   

COVID Reminders:  As we return back to school, please remember to spread students out as much as possible in your classrooms.  Students facing the same direction 6 feet apart is ideal.  Please keep reminding students to wear masks. It is also important to spread out as faculty and staff as well!  All of you are essential to keeping school in session!