Teachers Earn Praise as Literacy Rates Soar in NE Dubois County

 In the course of the meeting, fifth grader Noah Thackrey gave a presentation on recent happenings at NDIS. One event of was the creation of the Fab Lab, which is a digital fabrication lab being put together as part of the internship program by Trevor and Jace Berg, seniors who attend Forest Park High School. In addition, the student council has been busy holding fundraisers to go toward future student activities and sponsoring an Angel Tree family. 

 Students from the high school CTE program provided the board with an introduction to Jeep Health. This is a student-led business that will be part of Jeep Enterprises, a network of student-led businesses run by the CTE classes. In the future, the program would like to expand to get real-world experience by marketing their work on social media and working more with others in the community. Last week saw the beginning of the legislative season here in the Hoosier state. Amy Mitchell provided an update on some legislation bills that are focused on education and that could affect our local schools. Anyone who wanting to learn more about these bills is invited to a Legislative Breakfast on Saturday, January 20 th , at 9am at VUJC in the CTM building. Please bring your questions and your appetite! 

 A distribution of the Early Literacy Achievement Grant was approved by the board. The grant was established by the IDOE to reward schools and teachers for improving the foundational reading skills of its early education students. The program provides cash stipends to teachers, literacy coaches, and staff responsible for literacy instruction, PK through grade 3, during the 2022-23 school year. The board was particularly gratified to be able to reward our teachers and staff for all their hard work moving our elementary students toward their current IREAD 98 percent rate, which certainly holds up well against the overall state rate of about 80 percent. The board also provided a list of upcoming events. January 18 th is preschool registration from 6-7 pm at Northeast Dubois Elementary School. January 29 th is professional development for teachers, so there will be no students on that day. February 1 st is kindergarten roundup from 6-7pm, also at Northeast Dubois Elementary School. With winter weather sweeping in quickly, school cancellations and weather delay information can always be found on the Northeast Dubois school website and also right here at W-I-T-Z. The school’s website is www.nedubois.k12.in.us. 

Reporting on the school corporation meeting, this is Drew Hasselbring for W-I-T-Z.