The Decatur County Community Schools Board of Trustees held their monthly meeting on November 13, 2024.
The meeting began with the approval of the minutes from October 9, 2024, meeting, payment of claims, and payroll.
The board approved the following requests:
-2 requests for staff to go to a conference
-5 field trip requests
-4 resignations
-4 appointments
-2 terminations
-2 student fundraisers
-$2,230 in donations
-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement
During the meeting the board heard from four community members that were upset over a student being asked to read a book titled “Blindness” in her AP English class. Community members took turns speaking on behalf of the student, her father, and her mother. Joshua said that this book should be labeled as “porn.” He went on to say that the book includes graphic and perverse speech that should not be accessible by high school students. Joshua went on to read specific lines that were taken from the book. Crystal was speaking on behalf of the student and read a letter from the student to the board. In the letter it states, “I was robbed of my innocence by reading this book.”, It was also requested by Susie that the school remove all graphic material from the school. Melissa, community member, requested that the teacher be “suspended without pay and spoken to her about her immorality.” She went on to state that the Attorney General has created a program called Eyes on Education that is a way for parents and others to make complaints like this to the Attorney General’s office to investigate. Melissa also stated that the teacher “encourages cursing in the classroom.”
After the public comments ended Todd Mauer, Board President thanked those that spoke and moved onto the next item on the agenda.
Rob Smith, ND Elementary School Principal, presented the Extra Effort Award to Mrs. Rose Canfield because she always has a positive attitude. He said that that she also goes above and beyond inside and outside of the school.
Nick Messer, ND Jr. & Sr. High School Principal, presented the Extra Effort Award to Mrs. Nyoka Nobbe for her dedication in the classroom and the schools newsletter. Mr. Messer also added that she works hard to keep the school’s social media account updated.
Jerome McKibben PhD (McKibben Demographics) gave a presentation on the forecasted demographics. He provided a thorough and informative presentation that provided a lot of information. Looking forward to the next 3-5 years the schools will see an estimated net 90 students per year (loss of 90 students per year) due to several reasons including online school, charter, competitive surrounding school corporations, and private schools. He went on to state that in approximately 8-10 years they will see those numbers level out. Jerome stated that after the recent changes 97% of Indiana students qualify to attend private school at no cost to the family. He also stated that Decatur County has seen a shortage of families with children in the home moving into the county.
Rob Smith provided an update for the North Decatur Elementary School. He stated that they had a 99% attendance rate for parent teacher conferences, Midterms will be going out on Friday, the book fair finished up last week, the school finished up Red Ribbon week and they had a k9 demonstration during that week, and he stated that they have approximately 4 girls basketball games remaining.
Nick Messer provided an update for the North Decatur Jr. & Sr. High School. He stated that the checkpoint 1 testing is completed, they had a successful Halloween parade, the Spirit of Halloween event went great with approximately 230 kids attending, the school held their first blood drive with approximately 30 donors, and the Veteran’s Day Program went well with 50 veterans attending. The school has been deemed a Purple Heat School again.
The meeting was adjourned.
