Members of the Akron Elementary School Student Council. (Photo by Jarrett Van Meter)
Monday night’s three-hour long Tippecanoe Valley School Board meeting saw the presentation of the plans for the Akron Elementary School renovation project. It was explained that any state project with an expected total cost above $2 million is required to be presented in a public meeting. The amount of people in attendance was a bit deceiving, however, for it turned out the majority of the people present were there to see a large number of Akron students be recognized as one of the many clubs that were publicly applauded for their recent success.
Among the organizations recognized were the Akron Student Council, Akron Spell Bowl, Akron Math Team, winners of the Akron spelling bee, Circle the State with Song, Kindness Club and the Reading Club. Many of the students were part of several of the recognized clubs and ran to their seat in order to swap t-shirts to put on the one for the group that was most recently announced. After all the student organizations had been announced, the kids and their families were dismissed and the board meeting was moved from the gymnasium into the library.
The board approved a request by Tippecanoe Valley high School Principal Dr. Michael Bendicsen to plant several new trees around the high school. The plan is to plant all species that are native to Indiana, including tulip poplar, oak, maple, sycamore, and white pine.
The board also approved the implementation of a new program called the Kindergarten Countdown Camp. The program will be sponsored by the United Way of Kosciusko County and will allow children that have no pre-school experience, yet that are preparing to enter kindergarten, the opportunity to come in for a few weeks during the summer and learn some of the skills that they might have missed during pre-kindergarten. The children who participate will have their progress monitored for the three years following their departure from the camp in order to gage their progression. “I would like to thank United Way on behalf of Tippecanoe Valley. This is a really great opportunity,” stated Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation Superintendent Brett Boggs.
The next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, May 11, at Mentone Elementary School.
