Greater Jasper School Board Meeting: Longer school year next year, Hacker resigns, and Commencement in new gym
The Greater Jasper School Board met for their monthly meeting Monday afternoon and heard School Superintendent Dr. Tracey Lorey officially announce the resignation of Assistant Superintendent Bob Hacker.
The board voted to accept his resignation in a motion with other resignations at the same time. After the vote and other school announcements, the board expressed its best wishes to Hacker as he accepts his new position as Superintendent of White River Valley Schools in Greene County.
Hacker was visibly moved as he listened to the accolades given by the board in stating how he would be missed and that Jasper’s loss is White River’s gain.[hr]
Also in the meeting, Dr. Lorey thanked Scott Stenftenagel of the Stenftenagel Group for his persistence and hard work in making sure that the new high school gym is ready for commencement exercises on Friday night.
Stenftenagel told how the contractors worked extra hard to make sure that the gym was ready for commencement, even though a “punch-list” of items still remains to be completed.
He stated that it was amazing that the gym construction was started one year ago last week and is now ready for its first major event. The actual final completion date is scheduled for July 1st.
[quote]Very, very excited for our…students…to be able to graduate on our home court.” Dr. Tracy Lorey[/quote]
Dr. Lorey was equally thankful for the work that went into getting the gym ready for Friday night’s graduation ceremony saying, “I can’t tell you how grateful we are to all of those contractors and individuals who have poured their blood, sweat and tears into trying to make this happen for our students…very, very excited for our…students…to be able to graduate on our home court.”[hr]
Also in the meeting, Dr. Lorey announced that Ireland Elementary and Jasper High School were both announced as 4 Star schools in the school system. She said that their combined English Language Arts and Math scores put them in the top 25th percentile of all schools within that category.
Lorey said that it also means that the two schools had at least 95 percent or higher student participation in the testing and that the awarding of the 4 star school rating is “quite an honor.”
Board President Nancy Habig asked Lorey if the school was able to work through the ISTEP testing issues and Lorey reported that the school did get through it and that some preliminary test results will be available by May 25th.
Lorey also announced that this year, almost $1 million in scholarship awards were given to Greater Jasper School students who are continuing their education at colleges and universities after graduation.[hr]
Dr. Lorey told the board that the 2014 budget time line was ready for approval. This year the budget would be ready for presentation at the July board meeting, the public hearing for the budget would be during the August meeting and would be adopted in the September meeting.
Lorey also announced that the first day of School for Staff and Teachers for this fall would be Wednesday, August 7th with the first day for students on Thursday August 8th.[hr]
She acknowledged that the start is a week earlier than last year, but there are still 188 days in the school calendar, but adjustments had to be made for “different configurations for breaks – times, for example at Thanksgiving there is a three day break instead of two.” And the total number of days is spread out and the school year will end before Memorial Day in 2014.
