At least 80 percent of the new iPads were set to distributed to students prior to the first day of school on Aug. 15, Tracey Shafer, superintendent of Huntington County Community Schools, told school board members at their Aug. 13 meeting.

"This is a great start to the school year," he said.

Shafer also presented an in-depth report of the corporation's ISTEP testing. He said the corporation has an 83 percent passing rate in English/language arts, with a 1.13 percent growth rate. In addition, 76.1 percent of the HCCSC students passed both the math and the English/language arts portion of the test.

"Personally, I am thrilled with the scores," School Board President Kevin Patrick said. "Yes, we can always get better, but I am happy with where we are."

The board accepted donations from Ecolab to various classrooms.

"For a number of years, Ecolab has supported individual classrooms in excess of $20,000 per year," Shafer explained.

"This just goes to show what a wonderful, giving community we live in," Patrick added.

Board members discussed a preliminary review of the 2013 budget, and Jon Bennett, assistant superintendent for business and classified staff, reported a balance of $1.8 million in the general fund, and says the Capital Projects Fund is "done taking big hits" for the rest of the year.

"We anticipate the 2013 budget rates will be similar to 2012," Bennett said.

The board also approved:

• The purchase of new textbooks for the high school's emergency medical technician (EMT) and certified nurse's aide (CNA) dual credit courses.

• Updates to the classified handbook.

• Updates to the bylaws and policies for employees and students.

• A new teacher and administrator evaluation model.

The next regularly scheduled school board meeting will be on Monday, Aug. 27, at 7 p.m. at the Horace Mann Education Center.