School was off to a smooth start last week, according to principals and Supt. Bill Hampton.
“The week’s been really peaceful,” Supt. Hampton said. “It’s a real good start I would say.”
School District 55 cut 11.5 teaching positions in addition to classified this year due to declining enrollment, but early head counts show enrollment will be up a little this year.
“It appears without anything officially that we might be up,” Supt. Hampton said. Kindergarten is definitely up and above a projected 130 at an early count of 150. The district is exploring options to deal with the additional kindergarten students, meaning additional staff time is likely.
The district also has a number of additional special education students who have moved in, he said. Some of them will require one-on-one time, and the district’s substitute list is short.
Still, after all the reductions, “we would gladly deal with the issue of more kids,” Supt. Hampton said.
Along with cuts in teachers, the district has reorganized its transportation this year, staggering start and stop times by minutes for schools to allow buses time between schools and keep students from waiting on buses and shorten their trips.
With all the schools getting out at 2:30 p.m. last year, Supt. Hampton said, it was a mess.
Overall, “kids came back to school and seemed like they were ready to work,” Supt. Hampton said. Mornings are colder and the afternoons not as hot, making it seem later in the fall and more like later in the school year.
Oak Heights had a “fantastic start,” Principal Keith Winslow said. Winslow returns to the school this year after being principal at Crawfordsville for two years. Winslow was a teacher at Oak Heights for 18 years before becoming an administrator.
“Ah, man, it’s wonderful,” Winslow said of returning to Oak Heights. “It’s kind of a short walk instead of a long drive. I’m familiar with the way things have been run around here.”
On the students, “they’re just really enthusiastic and ready to learn, very, very friendly in the hallways, big smiles, a great welcome back,” Winslow said.
Sweet Home Junior High “had a great start,” Vice Principal Steve Emmert said. With 405 students, the school is up significantly from last year. “I think we’ve got good groups of kids. I feel like we’re off to a good start.”
The first two days of junior high, students spent their time with their Pride teachers, kind of like a home room, Emmert said. They went over the year’s benchmark requirements.
Sports started last week at the junior, with some 60 students out for volleyball and 50 for football. Cross country is recruiting students, with a team of about five at this point. All three sports begin competing the week of Sept. 19.
At Hawthorne, fifth graders John Price and Laura Gourley were happy to be back.
“I like it,” John said. “I like my teacher, Mr. Grenz.”
Laura said she was happy to be in Mrs. Jackson’s class.
“We’re doing maps of he continents,” John said. “It’s really fun.”
“We’re doing profiles of our faces, our heads,” Laura said.
“We have about 300 students,” Gloria Mittleman said. That’s about 25 more than Hawthorne had anticipated. Some higher grades are approaching 30 students, but the school is addressing that.”
“The week’s gone really well,” Mittleman said. “We’ve had a very successful first week.”
“It’s been a great start, Holley and Crawfordsville Principal Mike Aman said. He had been principal at Holley and Pleasant Valley Kindergarten but was assigned to Crawfordsville and Holley this year.
“At Holley, things are going smoothly,” Aman said. The school has a large intermediate class and 112 students total. The school also houses the district’s “opportunity room,” which provides a classroom for elementary students with behavioral problems, for the second year.
Crawfordsville has 67 students in three classes.
“Both schools, it’s been a great start and things are going smoothly,” Aman said. Moving to Crawfordsville “has been a nice change. I really enjoyed PV, but between the two, Crawfordsville and Holley, it’s the same program.”
They have a lot in common, Aman said. Both are small, community schools with a warm, caring environment.
“Both schools have new, and working as of this year, greenhouses.”
Those greenhouses started as service learning projects and have been a couple of years in bringing about. Holley hopes to have Christmas time starts in for spring plants.
“The PTC at Holley has put a lot time into the garden and greenhouse, and this year plans to put it to use.”
Crawfordsville finished construction last year, Aman said, and he expects similar activity there.
Referring to the accident involving Foster first-grade student Rebecca Veltum, Supt. Hampton said, “that’s tragic. Everyone’s impacted by that.”