The Whitley County Board of Education held its regularly scheduled meeting on Nov. 20 to present an Above and Beyond Award and approve a number of items on the agenda related to improvements to the district’s schools.
The Above and Beyond Award recognizes educational staff in the district who do more than their jobs entail.
The employee who was recognized was Vanessa Strickland from Oak Grove Elementary School.
“She always greets everybody with a welcome to Oak Grove. She takes care of business,” said Superintendent John Siler. “She does a wonderful job. I have seen her interacting with our parents and our kids.”
Strickland was awarded because of her exceptional work ethic and incredible support to the school. The report gave specific instances, such as witnessing Strickland help with car issues at 7:30 p.m. at the school, and defusing situations with upset parents to ease the load on other staff members.
A presentation was given by Sharon Foley on the state-mandated wellness policy.
The new policy was set in place in July and can be accessed on the board’s website, along with the school nutrition page.
“The new rule is that there’s a triangle assessment of what the policy says against the model,” said Foley.
The hope is that they’ll have another committee meeting in Feb. or March to hear about more good ideas.
Siler mentioned to the board that one of the “good ideas” was vending machines in the school for healthy snacks.
Each board member received a t-shirt for the district receiving blue ratings. The shirts read “Whitley County Schools. Excellence Starts Here” on the front and “Hard Work Tested. Excellence Proven” on the back.
The board members approved several agenda items, including the volunteer generation partnership grant, which allows people who want to volunteer in the school district to cover the cost of background checks. Siler mentioned he had concerns because he was in a meeting where they discussed the uncertainty of funding. The board members also approved Whitley County Primary flooring replacement, the Whitley County High School (WCHS) athletic improvements to the baseball and softball turf field, and WCHS gym bleacher improvements.
