School Town of Highland Superintendent Brian Smith took some time at T school board meeting Tuesday’s school board meeting to thank staff and students for their work this semester as the district gets ready to begin winter break.
The district, which has switched between in-person to online multiple times, will end the semester Dec. 18 and will have winter break from Dec. 21 to Jan. 1.
School will resume online only for the first week after the break and return in person Jan. 11.
“This is my 27th year in public education, and I never thought I would see anything like this,” Smith said. “We’re asked to pivot and change constantly and you hear terms like ‘navigate’ and ‘unprecedented,’ and it’s just crazy. I want to thank everybody for their hard work first semester. We have over 430 staff members and everybody has worked above and beyond and gone above and beyond.”
Also at the meeting, Smith made a recommendation of a 1.5% salary increase for all administrative and classified personnel for the 2021 school year, which the board approved. Smith noted a teachers contract was approved last month, which is typically done before other employees.
“The teachers’ contract is done a little bit different, because they have a stipend and they had some money on the base and they have what they call the TAG, Teacher Appreciation Grant, so it’s money coming from a lot of different places,” Smith said. “So it’s a little bit different than just to say percentage-wise and depending on where you’re at on a salary scale to what your percentage is, so that’s just the way that was set up through the state of Indiana.”
The board also discussed a 2% salary increase for Smith, retroactive to July 1, 2020, though no final action was taken.
“Under the Indiana statute, there cannot be action taken on this matter until seven days have elapsed from tonight’s hearing, so there will be no final action on this taken this evening,” attorney Rhett Tauber said. “It will be done at a further date of a public meeting of the School Town of Highland.”
Donations to the district were noted Tuesday, including materials donated by the Education Foundation, such as a near $1,000 value of social and emotional learning materials for a class and counselor’s office, at least $312 value in novels, and more than $600 in STEM supplies for classes.
“I would like to say thank you, first of all, to every individual donation,” President Luann Jurczak said. “Also, the parents, the teachers, thank them so much, and the education foundation and athletic boosters. They’re all there to help us, all voluntarily.”
Allencia Ballard was also sworn in at the meeting Tuesday night, and the board said goodbyes to Secretary Carol Green-Fraley, who chose not to run this election cycle.
Green-Fraley served many years on the school board, and gave some closing remarks for her time in the district, noting the need for better funding for the school amid the pandemic.
“If we are going to at least maintain, and make up for what we’ve lost during COVID, residents have got to realize that they’re going to have to dig a little bit deeper into their pockets to support the schools,” she said. “If you want to maintain a strong community, you’ve got to have strong schools, and that includes sufficient funding to provide the services that they all need.”
“It’s been a good 16 1/2 years, but now it’s time for — and congratulations to our latest board member — it’s time for someone else to take a run at it,” Green-Fraley said. “This is going to sound strange, but like McArthur once said, old soldiers never die, they just fade away. Well, old school board members never die, they just fade away.”
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