By Sally Petty, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — Barr-Reeve will keep its summer drivers education program.
In January, the school board voted to discontinue the drivers ed program in its present form and allowed Superintendent Brian Harmon to look into alternatives for the course. Not only was the program costing the school a lot of money, it was losing students to All Star, a private driving school in Washington.
Enrollment in the drivers ed class was down about 50 percent to 37 students last year. A sign-up sheet showed almost 70 students interested in taking the class this year.
Tuesday, Harmon told the board that members of the community who contacted him wanted to keep the program for its convenience, flexibility and familiar teachers.
He presented Principal Travis Madison’s ideas to make the program work, and the board voted to accept them.
Students will now be able to take the class portion of the program one year, when they are too young to qualify for the driving portion, then take the driving portion the following year. This way, students whose birthdays fall in January, for example, will have more time to drive with their parents.
This restructuring takes the advantage away from All Star, according to Harmon.
The class fee will raise from $200 to $260, which is more in line with what other schools are charging, and drop the credit associated with the class, which would allow other options for funding the instructors. The fee for students outside the Barr-Reeve school district will be the same as for students within the district instead of substantially higher as in the past, but the school will not pick them up.
Although he doesn’t know how these changes will impact finances for the class, Harmon did say the changes would move the class toward self-sufficiency.
The board also voted to continue its summer physical education program without changes.
In other business
FOUR STAR AWARD
Harmon presented letters from Gov. Mitch Daniels and Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed giving Barr-Reeve elementary and high schools Four Star Awards.
Harmon said the elementary and high schools have received the award individually in separate years, but this was the first time they both received them in the same year.
A school must place in the top 25 percent in student attendance rates, mathematics proficiency scores, language arts proficiency scores and the percent of students passing language arts and mathematics to be eligible for a Four Star Award.
“This is really a difficult status to attain,” said Harmon.
CONSOLIDATION
Harmon presented the board with a copy of a resolution from the South Knox School Board to keep the present boundaries of their school corporation. It opposed the proposal in the Local Government Reform Commission Report to consolidate schools with fewer than 2,000 students.
The board asked Harmon to prepare a draft of a similar resolution for Barr-Reeve.
PERSONNEL
The following were approved for the baseball program: Joe Rademacher as varsity coach, Andre Knepp as first assistant, Kraig Knepp as second assistant and Josh Survance as volunteer. For the girls tennis program: Mandy Hannah as varsity coach and Desiree Knepp as assistant. For the golf program: Bryan Hughes as varsity coach and Aaron Ash and Mike DeCoursey as volunteers. For the softball program: Bret Graber as varsity coach and Danielle Bullock as assistant.
The board also accepted with congratulations the retirement of Michael Sluder after more than three decades as teacher and coach.
