Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
School officials reported a smooth start to the school year last week, although the total enrollment number is not yet reliable.
Overall, enrollment appears to be down from last year, although software problems at Sweet Home High School cast doubt on the enrollment figure there. Principal Pat Stineff estimated the enrollment at 814 on Friday, up from around 800 last year; but the school’s attendance software provided a figure of 744 on Monday.
That number remains soft, Supt. Larry Horton said, until the district is sure its software problems are resolved; but that is the number the district is reporting for the start of the school year.
Enrollments are up at Oak Heights, 329 students, up from 309; Crawfordsville, at 96 students, up from 88; and Sweet Home Junior High, 362 students, up from 358.
Holley is down to 95 from 102. Hawthorne is down to 296 from 327, and Foster is down to 274 from 291. Sweet Home Charter School is down to 113 from 121.
Overall, not counting the high school figure, School District 55 enrollment is down to 1,565 from 1,596, based on Friday’s enrollment report.
Crawfordsville, a third- and fourth-grade blend, and Oak Heights, two fifth- and sixth-grade blends, have the largest classes in the district, each with 30 students.
“Things got off to a fairly smooth start,” Horton said. “There’s always a few issues, but nothing we can’t resolve, nothing out of the ordinary.”
Some large classrooms led to denials of intra-district transfers, Horton said. Approval of those transfers depends on the School Board’s recommended class size numbers.
When the classes are too large, the district denies transfers to the school.
With the start of the school year, the district and teachers are picking up bargaining where they left off in June.
The two sides are negotiating a new contract retroactive to July 1.
They were scheduled to meet again on Sept. 9 with about half of the articles in the contract under tentative agreement, Horton said.
“It’s great,” Foster Principal Glenna Desouza said. “It’s been a great start.”
Her school is a little bit down in numbers, but it’s got a number of new students, and “we keep getting new students almost every day.”
The school, like Oak Heights, is doing something new this year, she said. The first through third grades are assembling on Wednesdays, and the fourth through sixth grades are assembling on Wednesdays. In those assemblies, they’ll work on social skills and fun activities.
During that time, teachers will have the opportunity to spend time together collaborating with each other, Oak Heights Principal Keith Winslow said. In his case, the students will break up into those groups on Tuesdays and Thursdays to work on character building exercises for 20 minutes and then spend 20 minutes with the music teacher.
Each school is handling it a little differently, he said.
The year started “really well, just a really smooth start,” Winslow said. “If my memory serves me, this has been one of the easiest starts we’ve ever had.”
Oak Heights has a new playground structure, and parents spent Saturday working on trimming, cleanup and graveling around the school, he said.
“Things are going fine,” Sweet Home High School Principal Pat Stineff said, and she thinks the her enrollment is higher than the Monday count. The bustle was consistent with a larger school than the software indicated.
During a busy first week, students had their first two dances on Wednesday and Friday.
At assemblies, staff emphasized the importance in getting involved in the school in some way, she said. They talked about “how much more they’ll get out of high school it they attend activities.”
“It was an absolutely fantastic week,” Hawthorne Principal Ryan Beck said. “I got into every classroom and met all the kids. It was as smooth a first wek as I imagined. I got to help out in a few classrooms.
“I was absolutely destroyed at wall ball and tether ball on the playground.”
His school is doing a program similar to Oak Heights and Foster, but it’s happening on a class-by-class basis using counselors.
“It was really good, a very smooth start,” Crawfordsville Principal Elena Barton said. Construction on Highway 228 slowed buses down the first day, and Friday, and breakfast was late.