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School board members get challenged, honor volunteer at meet

George Richison (center) is honored with a plaque for his years of service as a volunteer at Lancaster Elementary School Wednesday, May 27, during the Huntington County Community School Corporation’s Board of School Trustees meeting. Congratulating him are Board President Scott Hoffman (left) and Lancaster Principal Russ Degitz (right).
George Richison (center) is honored with a plaque for his years of service as a volunteer at Lancaster Elementary School Wednesday, May 27, during the Huntington County Community School Corporation’s Board of School Trustees meeting. Congratulating him are Board President Scott Hoffman (left) and Lancaster Principal Russ Degitz (right). Photo provided.

Members of the Huntington County Community School Corporation Board of School Trustees were challenged by a second-grader during their meeting Wednesday, May 27 – and they lost.

The gauntlet was thrown down in the form of a “brushbot” race, part of Lancaster Elementary School’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Enrichment Group. Second-grade student Emily Schemansky explained how the brushbots — looking very suspiciously like the heads of battery-operated toothbrushes — work.

“The bristles on the brushbot act like little legs, they go around on the table or whatever your surface is,” she said. “So it’s kind of like a car — that’s the motor. That’s the vibrator and this is the battery. When these two (contacts) touch, it just vibrates. That makes it move.”

Once students at Lancaster created their brushbots, they held races to see who could go the fastest. Schemansky found a competitor, school board member Gary McClellan, who tried in vain to get his brushbot to go in the right direction.

“You’re going down!” McClellan said, in jest. However it soon appeared he had met his match, as the second-grader’s brushbot zipped down the cardboard track to victory.

Lancaster Principal Russ Degitz used the presentation to demonstrate the school’s “Students First” motto and its goal of “Educating the Whole Child.”

“It’s easy in this day and age to really get caught up in test scores and trying to achieve the next great thing that the state puts out to us, but the bottom line is, what are you doing for kids and how is that helping them to prepare for the future?” Degitz asked.

“We’ve looked at educating our students at Lancaster in a well-rounded approach, and we talk about the whole child a lot. That just doesn’t mean academic success; it means success and development in the areas of their emotional well-being, their physical development, their social development and, obviously, their academics.”

As part of that plan, students are introduced to College Go Week, community experiences, service projects such as Camp H.E.R.O., Student Council, Big Buddies, athletics, leadership club and STEM Enrichment Groups.

Degitz also had another surprise when he presented long-time school volunteer George Richison with a plaque for his service to Lancaster Elementary School.

“This person is not technically or officially part of our staff, but maybe puts in more hours than anybody on the staff. This gentleman preceded everybody in our building currently by quite a while, but we’re not sure exactly how many years, because he doesn’t like credit for things — maybe 18 years?” Degitz said.

“This gentleman arrives at 6 o’clock every morning and usually leaves around dismissal … and that includes the summer.”

Degitz said Richison was named Youth Services Bureau Volunteer of the Year two years ago, adding that Richison puts his students first.

“This gentleman does everything from maintenance and helping replace light bulbs to doing some assistance with our custodial staff, to spending the vast majority of his morning with our first grade classrooms, checking each individual student’s homework assignments, question by question.” Degitz said.

“And when they miss it, he sits down with them individually and goes over it with them, so if they’re missing some connection at home, they don’t miss out on that level … he really does it all.”

Interim School Superintendent Ken Kline added his appreciation for Richison’s efforts, saying he is part of a staff that makes Lancaster a great school.

In other business:

• Board members heard from HCCSC Director of Special Programs Trace Hinesley about the Indiana College Success Coalition, which has been in existence for three years to increase the percentage of citizens who hold a college credential, with the goal of attracting business.

“Huntington was able to start the actual initiation project this past January,” Hinesley said. “Our counselors at the elementary level are embracing this work under the initiative of Learn More Indiana and they are introducing our students to colleges in a very fun and friendly way … What this work is really trying to do is to literally look at cradle to college, to really support that understanding of college is accessible to everyone and we need to plan and prepare to pay for some of these expenses.”

Hinesley said a grant, providing seed money of $6,000, will be used to educate students and families about their college options, including apprenticeships, career colleges and military training.

• The board voted 6-0 (with board member Holly Thompson absent) to reduce the number of preschool classrooms at Horace Mann Education Center from three to two, which would eliminate one preschool teacher and one paraprofessional.

Another change proposed by Director of Special Services Chris Campbell would be to move the preschool to a school to allow students to interact with other children as well as kindergarten teachers.

Currently, there are 117 students enrolled in the preschool program, with 50 considered special education students.

Tuition for the preschool program would remain the same, Campbell said.

• The cosmetology school agreement between HCCSC and Creation Beauty School was approved 6-0. Kline said owner Donna Gressley agreed to receive $2,950 per year per student.

“It’s a brand-new facility; I toured that,” said Kline. “It’s immaculate. It has the latest technology. Some of our present students who looked at that are excited about it, and their parents are excited about it.”

Students who drop out of the program early may have to pay some of those fees back, Kline added.

• The board also approved a new advanced placement U.S. history textbook on its second reading. The textbook brings the text into alignment with the AP U.S. History test.

• Textbook rental fees were also approved. Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Charles Grable explained the changes at the elementary level are a reduction in fees. Fees will be reduced $4.58 in first grade; $4.58 in second grade; $5.28 in third grade; $6.30 in fourth grade; and $6.92 in fifth grade.

Middle and high school fees will also be reduced by $3.60 at each grade level.

The board voted 5-1 to adopt the fees. Board member Brian Warpup gave the lone nay vote, saying he didn’t like saddling parents with high fees for iPads.

“I think we’re putting a burden on parents who have two, three or four kids, who have a textbook rental of $1,000,” Warpup said. “I just think it should be left up to the parents.”

Grable said students who have free and reduced lunches do not have to pay for book and iPad rentals.