DARKE COUNTY — Darke County schools are preparing to open their doors to students, beginning August 14, with Bradford Exempted Village Schools. Preparation is on-going, from: parents, students, boards of education, superintendents, administrators, teachers other faculty and volunteers.
According to Franklin Monroe Local School District Superintendent Jeff Patrick’s annual report, Franklin Monroe has been working to complete the setting of the new K-12 facility. He said a lot of projects have been completed from the resurfacing of the track, to building new baseball and softball fields on the campus.
Arcanum-Butler Local School District Superintendent John Stephens said in an annual report, that the district continues to use a Continuous Improvement Plan to provide on-going feedback and direction to monitor performance and to identify district goals and action plans. According to Stephens, each building within the district created performance indicators and action plans related to the following goals: the district will maintain academic excellence with instruction that will support the unique educational needs of every student, the district will promote pride and traditions of Arcanum-Butler Local Schools “The Trojan Way” and the district will provide learning opportunities that prepare students to excel in a modern society.
The school nurses work collaboratively to maintain best practices. Versailles Exempted Village Schools District School Nurse Tracy Cordonnier said the county school nurses meet monthly during the school year, to discuss topics affecting them all.
“Especially if it is related to a policy or procedure within our schools,” she said. “Larger schools have multiple nurses to collaborate with and create policy/procedure. Here in our small schools, there is only one school nurse per school, except Greenville. So we collaborate and create strategies on how we as a county will proceed with things, such as : bed bugs, lice and EpiPens (epinephrine injection) in schools. Sometimes we don’t all do the same thing, such as not all schools have Epipens, but usually if we do have the same thing in our school, we handle the process in the same manner. We use evidence-based practice to guide our decision-making. At our meetings each month, we usually have a speaker come to discuss a relevant topic: i.e. juvenile diabetes and immunizations.”
St. Mary’s School Principal Vernon Rosenbeck said St. Mary’s School purchased two 65-inch smart boards to replace the smart boards that were in Mrs. Foster’s room and Mrs. McCoy’s room. The school also purchased 30 high definition tablets, with a charging cart and network switch.
“I am looking forward to being with the students and teachers and continuing our strong spiritual and academic traditions,” Rosenbeck said.
