LAPEL — Following suit with many school districts statewide, Frankton-Lapel Community Schools has adopted eLearning days to aide in making up of missed school days.
Upon application, the Indiana Department of Education gave immediate approval to the district.
“I talked with administrators, who talked with teachers and, for the most part, overwhelmingly, there is consent in wanting to try it,” Frankton-Lapel Community Schools Superintendent Bobby Fields said.
“What I have found, as superintendent, (is) school cancellations don’t mean now what they meant in the past. Conditions we may have gone in (to school) years ago, now they are canceling because they have eLearning days to fall back on. If we have eLearning days, kids could still get something out of those days.”
The IDOE website describes the eLearning Day Program as one that provides school districts an option for continuing an instructional day away from the classroom.
It can be used on a day when school is canceled or be used as a make-up day when school is missed.
Saturday, March 23, was the first scheduled eLearning day.
The online education format will also be used May 17. Both dates are makeup school days.
Academic hall of fame
The board approved changes in the qualifications of achieving academic hall of fame status for seniors at Frankton and Lapel high schools.
Starting in the 2019-20 school year, seniors must achieve a 3.85 grade-point average. The previous standard was set at 3.5.
For 2018-19, Frankton High School had 37 representatives and Lapel High School had 34 honored at the annual banquet. The totals are 28 and 29 percent, respectively, of the two schools’ senior classes.
Fields said that 3.5 was set when the corporation began honoring students with hall of fame prestige and, with the ever-changing addition of more weighted classes, attaining a 3.5 has been getting easier.
“If (3.85) was put in place this year, we would have had 18 and 21 students from our two classes inducted into the academic hall of fame, which is probably, in my opinion, more representative of what an academic hall of fame should be,” Fields added. “That’s still a good percentage of the entire classes.”
Along with the new standards, the board set a date for next year’s hall of fame banquet. The ceremony that honors seniors from both Frankton and Lapel high schools will be March 9, 2020.
Fields scholarship
The board approved to start a scholarship fund in remembrance of long-time educator and coach Woody Fields.
Fields passed away at the age of 71 in February.
A 1966 graduate of Lapel High School, Fields taught in the school system and was instrumental in the founding of both the Lapel football and wrestling programs. He was the coach for the Bulldogs first football sectional championship in 1995.
He retired in 2013 after 43 years as a teacher/coach.
Bid rejected
The board rejected the lone bid for construction manager for the Design Build Project, a scheduled plan for updates to several school properties in the corporation.
Fields said those projects will now be bid out in-house and the school system will serve as its own construction manager.
Other business
• The board accepted the retirement of Betsy Beeman, a fourth-grade teacher at Lapel Elementary School. She has been at the school for 22 years and is a graduate of Frankton High School.
• Schools will be on spring break April 1-5.
