Triton School Board holds May meeting
BOURBON — On Monday, May 13 the Triton School Board held its meeting for the month of May.
The meeting began with the board approving the claims from april. The vouchers were $502,420.41. Two payrolls for $486,639.70. This was for a total of $989,060.11. These claims were approved.
a public meeting was then opened for additional appropriations. No public comments were made so the meeting moved on to bond procedures. The school board then approved the final bond resolution.
Superintendent Jeremy Riffle then turned the meeting over to approval of resignations of schools staff members. These were amber Kreft from the Elementary cafeteria, Casey Yarbrough from the pre-k instructional assistant, abby Dreibelbis from the elementary instructional assistant position, Brandon Young from the junior high baseball head coach position, Paul Williams as the junior high basketball assistant coach position, adam Heckaman as the junior high robotics coach position, Tori Kistler from the junior high cheer coach position and junior-senior high instructional assistant position and Linzi Ousley from the part time corporation nurse position.
Several hirings were then approved, these were Matt arverson as the junior high baseball head coach, Riley Linville as the junior high baseball assistant coach, Bethany Riffle as an elementary part time cook, Kathy anglemyer as an elementary cafeteria aide, David Cook as the junior-senior high English/language arts teacher, Lilee Stetzle as a substitute teacher, Brayden Cunningham as a junior high assistant football coach, Connor Pitney and Blake Hoffer as volunteer assistant wrestling coaches, Jessica Yoder as the junior high head cheer coach and varsity assistant cheer coach, Sydney Scarberry as an assistant elementary cheer coach, Jason arverson as the head girls varsity wrestling coach and Wendy Ickes and Ryan Frick as volunteer junior high softball coaches.
Several people were also approved to run the junior high and elementary summer basketball. These were ashli Faulkner as summer league head coach and volunteer coaches being Jeremy Bules, amanda Bailey, Jaela Meister, Sam Stutzman, Erin Feldman and Courtney King.
a medical leave was also approved for a staff member that will be gone for a bit of time. Riffle shared that the staff member is looking forward to returning.
The board also approved the contract for the Northern Indiana Education Service Center shared dietitian consortium service contract. This is something that the school has had for several years. They help the cafeteria staff put together menus.
Corporation Policy 8210 of volume 26 #1 March 2024 school calendar waiver was then brought up. This allows the school to be counted on minutes instead of days. This gives the school more flexibility for professional development, snow days or other cancellations. The board approved to change the school policy to minutes instead of days.
The school received a quote from S&K construction for new doors at door 4 of the high school. Riffle said that these doors are beat up. This will be paid out of the 2023 bond. The board approved this quote and S&K will do work to replace the doors.
Riffle then gave his report. He shared that new curtains were put into the auditorium, he said that they look very nice. Future improvements that may come this summer include new pulleys for the curtains, painting on the back wall of the performing arts center and a new railing for the performing arts center.
Ryan Sloan of Sweetwater has recently visited the school to identify improvements that could be made to the sound system. This will be completed by early June and will be paid out of the 2023 bond.
Riffle then brought up multiple laws that will impact the school corporation. One of these is the new literacy expectations that are placed on those with an elementary teaching license. He said that the state has done a poor job at getting this out, the school was able to meet with legislators to express concerns.
He said that the content that is being changed is good, but the timeline is not good for people to keep their license. He believes that these will be rolled back.
The other bill that will affect Triton is about cell phones in the classroom. Riffle said that the administrative team would look at the pros and cons of having cell phones in the classroom. He believes that a more restrictive policy will be implemented in the school, but it will look similar to the current rules.
He added that the rumor of banning cell phones in the school is just that, a rumor. The school will keep students and parents updated as decisions are made.
Riffle also talked about how students are being recognized at the end of the year. Recently CTE internship scholars were recognized. Two Fridays
ago, the school had an academic awards banquet which recognized 34 students who had received over $77,000 in scholarship money. This year Triton has 30 students who are graduating with at least 15 dual credit hours. There are an additional 13 students who will graduate with three dual credits. He thanked the Triton Student Life Foundation for their support of the banquet.
On July 27 the town of Bourbon will utilize the school’s parking lot to host a Touch a Truck event. This is being put on by Maci Helton and other members of the town.
Tom Roy, the author of the book “Flock” visited the Triton Football Leadership Council for a time of reflection and discussion about his book. This book was used by the Leadership Council to strengthen their leadership skills.
Congratulations were also given to the Lady Trojan tennis team which went undefeated in their conference. Danica Kuntz, Jenna Blues, Cheyenne Hawley, Kate Howell, Nadia Stetler, Allie Westafer and Sierra Hawley all made first team all-conference.
The school’s track team came second in conference. First place all conference champions were Javan May, Cole Shively, Caden Large, Cameron Callahan, and Antonio Johnson. Riffle did not have a list of the girls’ team winners.
The school continues to get Ilearn scores back. Riffle says that really good growth is seen in some areas, but intervention is needed in others. 75% of Tritons students end the year reading at or above their grade level.
Christine Cook, the Principal of the
Elementary, then gave her report. She said that two weeks ago the school celebrated their staff for teacher appreciation week. She gave a shout out to each member of her staff.
Shinning Stars, an after school choir for kids in grades 4-6, had their first performance. Cook said that this is the groups second year, they saw numbers rise and she said they did well.
Recently elementary school had seniors come over in their cap and gown. She said this is good for seniors but also for the kids as they get to see what can be a future goal for them.
AG day was held during the school day of Monday, May 13. Fifth grade students had their first day of Camp Amigo at Potawatomi Park. This wrapped up on Tuesday of last week.
Data analysis is coming up to see what can improve and to celebrate what has gone well.
On Friday the school had push carts. This is an event for sixth graders who read a book about a war between vendors. Once they read the book students set up their own shops for other students to shop at.
Nate Mckeand, the principal of the Jr. Sr. High School then shared his report. Also talked about the CTE banquet and added that the Kosciusko Youth Leadership graduation was also recently held, six students were a part of this.
The high school will also have data meetings this week. The high school awards will take place on Wednesday. The school plans to host it’s Trojan Wars on Friday depending on the weather. A cook out will also take place.
A variety show is being put on by the theater department on Saturday at 7.
Triton’s graduation will be at 2 p.m. on June 2. Students need to be there by 1:30.