Final Week

End of the School Year Be Like:    https://www.facebook.com/jody.french.90/videos/1200443516633907

Legislative Update - This week, the IASP sent out their final legislative update.  As you may be aware, the legislature was very kind to education.  Here are a few things that may be of interest to you:  

    * HB 1001 - State Budget  (All schools received more money.)  

            Education Saving Accounts - First ESA in Indiana.  These will only be applicable to Special Education students and they cannot be in a public school.  This would be used for services for a special education student, including tuition.  

           Choice Scholarships were expanded.   Family of 4 that earn $140,000 or less can apply for  90% of tuition support for private and charter schools.  It used to be a tiered system and now it is just a flat 90% of tuition rate. 

           CTE Funding- CTE funding stayed the same for Level 1 and 2 courses. This was a win!

           Early Graduates - We will NOT get funding for the second semester for Early Graduates.  We do not have many early graduates at Perry Central. 

           Virtual Students - Students who choose to learn virtually through our APEX program will only be funded at 85%  next year.  This is what the rate was prior to COVID.  During COVID, they raised it to 100% funding, but now they are moving it back to the original amount.

            Special Education Grants - Increased by 5% the first year and 10% the second year of the budget.  Good news for more funding on this front. 

            Increase for Public Education - Public Education did get a significant increase.    

 HEA 1040 Sudden Cardiac Arrest for students - basically an informational law that says we must share specific information on physical forms to all families.  

HEA 1266  School Efficiency - Request for Information bill that will explore opportunities to improve efficiency among schools.  Transportation is how this started, wanting schools to share transportation and create transportation hubs that would "save schools/tax payers" money.  There are no mandates at this time, just studying how schools can work together to save.  (We will see where this takes us.)

HEA 1313 - Mandates that Indiana Management Performance Hub gathers information about students who have graduated with disabilities and see if they are connecting to services available to them once they graduate.  

HEA 1384 - Civics Education Commission and charges them to create a civics standards that will be covered in one semester somewhere between grades 6-8.  The 23-24 6th grade class in that begins in  will have to have this course before they exit middle school - but right now they are creating the standards.

HEA 1514 - Accountability Legislation that will develop the skeleton that will develop the new accountability system.  There is no timeline on when it will go into place.  It does not remove the school letter grades and allows schools to include custom indicators and longitudinal data (test score data) on a dashboard.  2020-2021 - we will NOT receive a letter grade.   Waiver of GQE participation - seniors that couldn't take the GQE exam this year because of a COVID situation the requirement that they must take it can be waived. 

SEA 196 - Credits for CORE 40 - will allow schools to substitute elective courses with experiences that incorporate content and knowledge in STEM classes.  

        Important Information: 

Commodore Pride-  This week is our annual Commodore Pride Day and I think the weather is going to be beautiful (a little hot) but sunny!  Please see schedules below: 

        High School (9-12):  Will begin at lunch.  9th & 10th grade will report to the pavilion during normal time. - grades 11 and 12 should report to their WIN.  Once we have had time for the 9th and 10th to go through the line, we will call for 11th and 12th grade.  Phil and friends will be grilling hotdogs for the students and everyone will eat out at the pavilion.  After that, activities will begin.  Thanks to Vanessa Johnson for taking the lead for the high school.  Please see her for details.   (By the way, do we know what the teacher dress-up theme is?)

        Junior High (7 & 8):   Junior high students will start with community service, have pizza on the north side of campus with a kick ball tourney, then move to Commodore Pride Activities.  They will end at 1:30 where they will report to assigned locations for movies.  Please see the link HERE for location details.  Teachers will be free to participate with the high school students around 1:30.  

9th grade Debate:  Sean Schaefer and Alyssa Howe's students have been working hard to prepare for a debate - English 9 vs. Honors English 9.  This will take place in the high school gym during periods 5-7 on Tuesday, May 18th (if you have freshmen, they will not be in your class that afternoon.)  9th grade students will eat pizza around 12:00 to gear up for the event.  Thanks to Wendi Rich, Tara Bishop, Jane Goffinet, and Toni LaGrange for judging and Sean and Alyssa for pulling together such an authentic learning event! 

Senior class Trip:  Seniors will be going on their senior class trip this Friday, May 21st.  I-t is a -few days early due to Holiday World's COVID schedule.  Seniors will be expected to be in class next Monday AND Tuesday to make up the day.  Graduation Practice will be on Wednesday, May 26th.   

Final Days/Final Exams:  Even though we are down to the final days of school, there are still 8 days of academic work left.  The time we spend in the classroom focused on learning is important.  For final exams, we are not going to have a special schedule.  We ask that students have something important to do the last day of school.  If you feel like you have a 2-day final, please start on Tuesday during your class period.  If you do not have a 2-day final, please give it on Wednesday.  If we want students to stay focused until the end, we must provide them the opportunity to do so.   

    Grades:  I know this year has been harder to keep up with grades, but ensuring grade books are up-to-date these is very important as parents and students are looking and it is important feedback for learning.  Please continue to be diligent.  Final grades are due May 28th.  It is important that grades are wrapped up in a timely manner at the end because we have many state reports and colleges that are waiting for them.

Final Evaluations:  Please be sure to get into SFS and update your personal goals - letting us know how you ended up.  This is a percentage of your final evaluation, so important for our process.  Also, if you want to make any changes to Domain 1 and 3, you are allowed to do that during this time.  

Congratulations To:

Jill Little's CNA Class for earning a 100% Pass Rate for their CNA Certificate. 

Andrea's Clark and the Perry Central Band for earning the state Music Award.  This is a very prestigious award that only is awarded to a small set of schools across the state.