Southridge needs a vice-principal, baseball coach and volleyball coach
The Southwest Dubois School Corporation has been in a state of flux since appointing former Southridge principal Mike Eineman as the corporation’s superintendent. Eineman replaced Terry Enlow who retired April.
Eineman’s selection as superintendent left Southridge High School without a principal. Vice principal Kelly Murphy has served as interim principal since Eineman’s appointment as superintendent. Thursday night, the Southwest School board made it official by unanimously approving Murphy as the new principal of the high school.
Murphy said about the appointment, “I’m pretty excited about an opportunity to do this and work with the great staff that we have at Southridge.”
Murphy said he would miss being on the sideline as a coach, but expressed strong support for their choice in new head football coach, Scott Buening. “I know he’s going to do an awesome job.”
Buening will also be assuming the role of Dean of Students. Those responsibilities include handling student discipline and attendance issues.
The board also learned Thursday night that Chad Schenck, Assistant to the Superintendent, has submitted his resignation to take a position with the West Clark Community School District as Director of Transportation with responsibility for a fleet of 60 buses.
Schenck says his position will begin July 1 in Sellersburg. No word from Eineman on who will replace Schenck.
Southridge Baseball Coach Brad Wibbeler and Southridge Middle School Girls Volleyball Coach Dee Nunamaker also resigned from their positions as coaches.
After the dust had settled on personnel moves, the board tackled the topic of school-issued computers for the up-coming school year.
Huntingburg Elementary Principal John Seger told the board that he wants a long-term plan that keeps devices in the classroom, citing excessive wear on existing laptop computers. Seger also wants to move the school system to Apple iPads, but offered no strategy to present to the board of how to roll them out to the second grade with just six weeks until the new school year begins.
Board member Chris Neu told Seger, he should have notified the board sooner about the need for the new technology tools to use in the classrooms.
The issue comes into play because iPads could replace some text books which affects textbook rental fees.
Neu made a motion to table the discussion on the new iPads so he can review the options before the July meeting. That motion passed the board.
The board passed the textbook rental fees for all grades except the second grade until next month pending a decision on the iPads. If passed next month the board would institute a new $100.00 fee for new iPads in the second grade.
The board also discussed the Student Handbook for the 2013 – 2014 school year. Board President Kevin Wertman voiced concerns about a perceived discrepancy between the Handbook and Student Athlete guidelines regarding discipline over violations of policy.
Wertman said that he has long opposed the fairness discrepancy between the two, but nothing has ever been done about it. He was told that the Student Athletic guidelines could be reviewed independently of the Student Handbook to make sure that both are consistent and in agreement. The board passed a motion to accept the Student Handbook.
Finally, Schenck made the recommendation to the board that they consider the purchase of two new buses; a 2013 model 28-passenger and a 2014 model 78-passenger to add to their fleet. Schenck stated the purchases were necessary, “looking at the school bus needs for the district I think it’s now to our benefit to take a long, hard look at those two buses.”
Schenck reports that there is over $450,000.00 in the bus replacement fund and the two new buses would cost in the neighborhood of $150,000.00.
He said that the fund would still be very healthy even with the purchase. With a November tax draw into the fund, it would stand at about $600,000.00 without the purchase. The board took no action on the recommendation by Schenck.
