Officeholders check out the new furniture

Wanda English Burnett
Photo

Pictured from left Ripley County Auditor Bill Wagner; a representative of the furniture construction crew; Ripley County Recorder Ginger Bradford; and Lisa Vestal, auditor's office, were checking out the new furniture as it was being installed in the new Ripley County Courthouse Annex located on the north side of the existing courthouse in Versailles. The furniture had some options of how it could be put together and the officerholders were just checking out how it would work best for their offices. Not pictured, but also in the group were Ripley County Assessor Shawna Bushhorn and staff from her office and Amy Copeland, Ripley County treasurer's office. All of the mentioned offices are in the bottom east wing of the new building. There is also a room where the public records will be kept for those who need to do research and private offices for each of the officeholders. The new anticipated move-in date is October 22 but some county employees think it could be a little later.

SR adopts budget, approves personnel changes at Sept. meeting

Wanda Karen Reynolds
Contributing Writer

The South Ripley School Board of Trustees met September 17 for a hearing regarding the 2013 budgets. Approval of the 2013 budget hearing was unanimous.

The regular business meeting began at 6:30 p.m.

The following personnel changes were unanimously approved:

• Andrew Bayne as junior high girls basketball coach for the seventh grade team, effective immediately.

• John Kalb, substitute custodian at the jr./sr. high school to fill a FMLA leave, retroactive to August 29, 2012 to continue through September 21, 2012.

• Beth Mathes as fourth grade teacher to fill FMLA leave for Ashlee Miller, beginning September 6, 2012 continuing through the first semester. Mathes will be paid substitute rate for the first 15 days, and teacher scale for the remainder of the leave.

Under education items, the following were approved unanimously:

• South Ripley FFA to attend the FFA National Convention in Indianapolis, during the week of October 22-26,2012. Fourteen students will attend each day, but will not be staying overnight.

• Trace Tucker's functional skills class will travel to Sam's Club in Florence, Kentucky, as part of their classroom curriculum for the 2012-2013 school year. These trips are taken approximately once a month during the school year.

• Superintendent Rob Moorhead will attend the IAPSS New Superintendent Hallmarks Professional Development program at a cost of $350.00.

• Using the online provider Aventa at the cost of $319.00 per student, the French foreign language classes will be completed. This will cost about $5,423.00 for the 2012-2013 school year, based on the current enrollment.

• Student membership count day was September 14. South Ripley had a decrease in students, which will have a negative effect on 2013 funding.

• The South Ripley principals had a demonstration on accountability relative to the growth model and Public Law 221. Supt. Moorhead thanked the administrative staff for their hard work and positive results.

Under other information:

• Moorhead gave an update regarding the Safe Haven grant and the school resource officer program. South Ripley will be able to have the officer in the buildings for six hours per day through this grant for the remainder of the 2012-2013 school year. The Southeastern Career Center will utilize the officer in their building for two hours per day.

• According to Supt. Moorhead, the review and update of the building disaster plan at all three buildings was completed and is on file in the administrative office.

• Supt. Moorhead shared with the board its agreement with SIEOC to deliver meals to Head Start children for the 2012-2013 school year.

• The ISBA (Indiana School Board Association) Region 10 fall meeting will be October 31 at the Pines in Seymour. Board members wanting to attend should call the administration office.

Those attending the meeting were Supt. Rob Moorhead, Merritt Alcorn, Lana Miller, Robert Garcia, Gil Landwehr, Keith Mathews, Randy McIntosh, Jim Miller, Tim Taylor and Becky Turner.

The next business meeting will be October 15 at 6:30 p.m. in the administrative office.