Legislative Update:
It is that time of the year again, when the state of Indiana is hot and heavy in the legislative process. This is a budget year, and the last budget that our current Govenor will be a part of, so as he works to move his priorities through, things can get interesting.
I am on the legislative committee for the Indiana Association of School Principals and we get updates once a week. I thought I would share a few bills they are following closely. The IASP always reminds us that the legislative process is a marathon, not a sprint. A lot can happen in the next four months! It is improtant not to get excited, but get involved.
HB 1001 - Budget Bill (Will determine 2 year budget. Not a lot of information there yet.)
HB 1002 - Education & Workforce Matters (Priority Bill for House) - would require the following: * New High School Graduation Requirements - promotes more flexibility and the opportunity for students to participate in workbased learning, apprenticeships, and internships. * Creates Career Scholarship Accounts - this money would NOT come from tuition support and would be there to allow students participating in approved programs to use it for transportation, apprenticeship opportunities with companies, etc. (Not a lot of direction with this - but they are trying to help students without resources have the same opportunities as others do) * Requires a Career Fair to happen during the school day * Requires all 11th and 12th grade students to meet with a career intermediary (someone to share with them career opportunities) for 30 minutes each year
SB 35 - Financial Literacy - would require all high school students take some type of finaincial literacy course (SB 68 even mentions this replacing Algebra II class on the CORE 40)
SB 305 - Education Saving Accounts - this is the most concerning bill. Two years ago, they created the Special Education Savings Account. Special Education students that withdrew from school could use tax payer money (our ADM) to purchase special education services and materials. Currently 143 families are doing this across the state. SB 305 would open this up for all students to use. They are saying that the money used for this is a seperate line item than school budget (so they are saying it won't hurt schools) - but we all know if students are not enrolling in our public schools, it is money that our schools will not get. The fiscal part of this bill is unclear as well. It is expected to have a lot of changes in the committee.
There are also 6 bills around Social Justice Issues, a bill in each house that would eliminate textbook fees for families, a bill that would require students to complete the FAFSA to graduate, and Senate Bill 1 addresses Mental Health issues across the state of Indiana.
I will share more information as I get it!
Important Information:
Panorama Surveys - Thanks to our English teachers for being willing to provide students time to take the Panorama survey data. We utilize this data to determine small group counseling sessions to help students gain skills and make sure we are not missing students that need help. It is a very important part of our MTSS system. We will continue to encourage our students to take it seriously!
Faculty Meeting - Tuesday, January 24th 7:25 a.m. Breakfast items will be available!
Changemaker Challenge: This Tuesday, Dylan Lynch and Adam Goffinet are competing in U of E's Changemaker Challenge. They will have a practice round Monday night late and then Tuesday compete. The team that wins, earns full-tuition scholarships to U of E. They are taking the STEM Van idea and presenting it that day.
Thermwood Visit: Dylan Lynch, Max Briggeman, Nolan Weyer and Carson Guillaume (with the help of Michael Jarboe) will be traveling to Thermwood on Wednesday to present Workplace Challenge samples to Thermwood's Leadership team. Their hope is to create challeges for us to use here at PC. They see the value in students doing this type of work. Thanks to this team for helping us show off the great work happening at PC!
Out of Building: Tuesday - Friday, a small team consisting of Jane Goffinet, Payton Malone, Brennan Malone, Seth Gehlhausen and Jody will be traveling to San Diego to visit High Tech High, a charter school built on the idea of Project Based Learning. This trip is funded out of our STEM Grant, along with RECN and a couple of other funds. We hope to bring back more PBL ideas and find ways to integrate this research based approach into our curriculum. We will share what we learn!
Congratulations - Congrats to the band for earning 2nd place in the AA Pep Band Contest! They did an outstanding job this weekend in Orleans.
Workplace Challenges - We have some movement with our Workplace Challenges. Below are projects on the move:
* Alyssa Howe/Honors English 12: Working with Nursing Homes and reading Tuesday's with Morrie.
* Vanessa Johnson/Chemistry: Working with Chemist at Waupaca - we are meeting next week to determine challenge
* Nancy Poehlein/Digital Art: Working with Boston Interntational on Napkin Design Challenge
* Carrie Guillaume/Precision Ag: Working with GroPod and developing a manual for other schools to learn how to design and create a grow tower. The manual will include business plan models. Students will also use their time in English to help create this.
* Payton Malone/Biology: Hope to work with GroPod on scientific design and developing research that can be utilized in GroPod's Open Source Resource.
* Dana Harris/Tyler Spressor (Oklahoma Researcher): Bee Polen - How to label and test honey in a lab setting
There are other project ideas we are working on with other teachers! So exciting! More information to come!!
Core Principles: Our CTE Advisory Board met last week and determined that the following will be our Core Principles for Perry Central (meaning the Employability Skills that we will eventually use to provide students feedback on): Communication, Reliability, Perservence, Problem Solver, Team Oriented. Our next job is to create the rubric!
Have a GREAT week!
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