Manchester defeated Southwood in the only baseball game between Wabash County Schools, while Wabash four games, and Northfield split a doubleheader.

Southwood defeated Wabash and Manchester in Three Rivers Conference sotball matches last week.

The Southwood Knights ran into a juggernaut in the opening round of the IHSAA Boys Basketball Frankfort Regional Saturday, March 12, falling to No. 11 Lafayette Central Catholic, 75-56.

By Phil Smith

The school board for Wabash City Schools decided April 18 to put a pin in a proposal designed to give middle school and high school students less down time in the morning.

The proposal, based on research on the sleep habits of adolescents, as well as the desire to eliminate lag time in the morning before classes begin, occupied nearly a half hour of the meeting. Superintendent Dr. Amy Sivley summarized the proposal, ultimately recommending an amendment to the original plan.

According to Sivley, the plan was originally designed with set schedules for four days in the week, with an alternative proposal for Wednesday to allow for Professional Learning Community curriculum.

“On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, we would be picking up our elementary students first,” Sivley said, saying that the original idea would have OJ Neighbors students dropped off at that school at 7:40 a.m. and LH Carpenter students dropped off next. Both schools would have changes made to school closing time.

“Their end time would be moved back, they would be ending at 2:30 and 2:45 p.m., Sivley said. “After the elementary students are dropped off, the high school students are picked up in the morning and would be dropped off at the high school at 8:15, where right now they’re being dropped off around 7:40 a.m. and their start time would be moved to 8:30 a.m. and end time would be 3:30 p.m. Then, on Wednesday, we had late arrival day, where all of our students are arriving 30 minutes later. End times would be the same, and this would be to allow for PLC time.”

Sivley said surveys were given to families and staff. Of approximately 250 staff members, 57 faculty responded to the survey.

“They were asked if they supported these changes,” Sivley said, pointing out that 35 percent of faculty supported the proposal, while 18 percent were neutral and 47 percent opposed the idea. Of the surveys that were handed out to parents, the majority of 128 responses — 45 percent — said yes. The percentage of respondents who were neutral was identical to the faculty survey and 38 percent of parents opposed the idea.

Sivley said the parent survey prompted 64 comments and added that many felt students need consistency and that the changes would be a struggle for students.

“And, in our staff survey, many of our staff voiced that similar concern, that the Wednesday late start would be difficult for our families,” said Sivley, proposing an alternative plan. “Based on these results, I recommend that we eliminate the late start Wednesday and proceed with the schedule that was put up, but that would be our Monday through Friday schedule. We would not have anything different on Wednesday. This will have our elementary students being picked up first in the morning, so that big brothers and sisters can get them on the bus and they’re not left alone.”

Sivley added that the plan would also eliminate secondary students sitting around for an hour before starting class.

Sivley was asked how the district would keep PLC time in play.

“We will go through and see if there is a way that we can cut five minutes here and five minutes there from teacher contract time Monday through Friday that would give us a chunk of time then one day a week,” said Sivley.

Board member Jason Fry said he would want a plan in place to keep PLC.

Board president Rod Kelsheimer pointed out why the plan was being considered.

“Part of this, making these changes was due to the fact of how much time high school and middle school kids were arriving before school started,” Kelsheimer said.

Sivley was asked about whether starting classes earlier for the older students was an option. She said it was not an option, due to research showing that older students have trouble getting to sleep and need extra time in the morning to be fully rested.

“If we move it back, we’re forcing them to get up when physically, it’s a struggle for them,” Sivley said.

Board Vice President Rhonda Hipskind asked if it was possible to keep all early arriving students in a room to be supervised by a paraprofessional.

Sivley said some of the early students have breakfast and some sit in the hallways.

“It’s a lot of students. It wouldn’t just be a para,” Sivley said. “When you get that many middle school and high school students together for that long, and it’s unstructured, you’re bound to have issues.” Another proposal involved having all students picked up and dropped off at the same time.

“We do not have enough drivers to pickup K through 12 at one time,” said Sivley. “We have to do it in two shifts.”
Parent Rebecca Immitt opposed the idea.

“I have several concerns that I expressed on the survey that have not been addressed here,” Immitt said. “First and foremost, it is pitch dark at 7:20 in the morning. Kids are going to start to walk to the bus stop at probably about 7:10.”

Immitt said bus drivers have little time to wait for students, prompting riders to arrive early to avoid being left.

“When the bus gets there, the bus is there,” she continued. “They have to be there and ready to get on the bus. They’re going to, for a very large part of the winter, have first graders and second graders walking in complete darkness down their city blocks to get to the bus stop.”

Immitt added that for other school systems in the county, the large number of rural students means most bus riders have their transportation arrive at their house, rather than having to walk to a central location for multiple students. She also said many young students have to walk past driveways at the same time many residents are leaving for work.

“I could just see a very small first grader not getting seen,” Immitt said. “This is not Alaska, where they are used to people walking around in the dark because it’s dark all the time. This is Indiana. We are not used to children out walking in the dark.

My biggest fear is those kids aren’t going to get seen and we’re going to have a kid get run over.”
Immitt’s concerns were heard by the board, with Kelsheimer suggesting the proposal be delayed until additional discussion can be had.

“Having the younger kids walk to a bus stop when it’s dark out is a major concern,” he said. “Trying to solve the issue of middle school/high school kids being in the building, in the facility an hour before school starts…I guess I would like to see us look into this a little bit more.”

The board voted to table the issue.