Published: September 26, 2008 12:17 pm      

Schools improving despite financial challenges

Gasoline prices up, stocks are down, intentionally misleading political ads bombarding us at every commercial break. ... Whew, it is a wonder we can function at all; yet, somehow, in the past couple of years we have managed through it all to find a way to provide a quality education for the students of the Logansport Community School Corporation.

The Logansport Community School Corporation has made great strides. In November of 2006 the overall corporation score was 60.8 percent, and we had six schools failing to make AYP. Two of those schools were on probation with the state. Now, here in September of 2008, our overall score is 65.7 percent and although we still have six schools failing to make AYP, two of those schools only missed by one category, and our schools are no longer on probation.

We have changed the schedule at the high school from block scheduling to a traditional 7 period day. We have implemented a one-to-one program at the high school where every student in freshman English will be utilizing technology on a daily basis. Our elementary and middle schools now have unified handbooks, and our attendance policy is well on its way to helping ensure that students and parents understand the importance of being at school every day. We have implemented a much more efficient method of managing our need to fulfill our substitute teacher requests. At last report, we were hitting around the 99.36 percent fill rate for subs. We have been able to eliminate two administrative positions, one and a half custodial positions, two secretarial positions, one maintenance position, and a few other positions mostly through attrition. We are confident that we are operating in a more efficient manner than we previously were.

In July 2008, we were blessed with three new board members. All five of our board members are now serving as school liaisons and bringing to the meetings positive reports about all of the wonderful things happening at our schools. We are hearing through our board members about the backpack food program at Fairview and Columbia, about the progress we are making through the InSAI process at the high school, and many other positive happenings at our schools.

We have dealt with triumph and tragedy, and through it all, we are growing into a school corporation that has the potential to be the very best in Indiana. Trust me, we won’t stop here. We know we still have a lot of hard work ahead. We will continue to work hard, earn the trust of the community, and strive to provide the best education possible for our children. I’ve said it before and will say it again, our children deserve nothing less than the very best we have to offer. We look forward to working with the Logansport community to ensure this happens.

Julie Lauck is superintendent of Logansport Community School Corporation.