July 23, 2008

Northern Wells Board considering 100 percent tobacco free policy

No smoking anywhere on school grounds may become the rule at Northern Wells soon.

That was the policy proposed by Molly Hoag at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Northern Wells School Board.

Hoag pointed out to the school board members that the current policy has a loophole in it permitting smoking outside of school-owned buildings and school-owned vehicles. The policy that Hoag would like to see is no smoking anywhere on Norwell property.

No exceptions. No lighting up in the car at halftime of ball games, no sneaking in a quick one in the parking lot while waiting to pickup your kid from practice—no smoking at all.

She would like to see the policy reach even further—off school grounds. If an activity is school sponsored, even if it is not on school grounds, the policy of Northern Wells would be no smoking, 24 hours-a-day.

“I strongly believe that a 100 percent tobacco free campus is necessary for this school board to pursue and I would like to challenge the board to make a new 100 percent tobacco free policy a priority for the Northern Wells School Corporation,” said Hoag.

Currently only one school corporation in Wells County is 100 percent smoke free. Bluffton-Harrison adopted the policy last fall, observed Hoag. It was her understanding that Southern Wells permits smoking in designated areas.

Supt. Dr. Scott Mills informed the board members that Hoag was bringing the recommendation to the board members for their consideration. No action was requested of the board Tuesday night.

“I really would like to get the public’s opinion of this before making a decision,” said Mills. He urged anyone from the public who had an opinion on the policy change recommended by Hoag to contact him at the school corporation office.

In a related matter, board president Gene Donaghy and members Michelle Brown-Stohler, Debbie Miller and Scott Elzey (Donna Spear was absent) approved of a recommendation by Hoag to allow Northern Wells to participate in a passive survey by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation (ITPC).

Northern Wells participated in a similar survey which tracked high school and middle school tobacco usage rates in 2006. Hoag could not be certain that the school corporation would be included in the fall 2008 survey, but she believed that the likelihood was high since Northern Wells was part of the 2006 survey, and the CDC and ITPC will probably be looking for comparable data.

The passive survey of students in grades 6-12 means that students will participate unless their parents or guardians intentionally opt out of it. Parental permission forms will be sent home but only those kids whose parents request that their children not be part of the survey will be excluded from it.

Hoag assured that the students participating in the survey will remain anonymous. The CDC and ITPC will not be able to identify individual students who participated and the teachers will not know how the students answered the questions.

She added that the purpose of the survey is not to single out Northern Wells, but to determine tobacco usage by teens in Indiana, not at Norwell High School or Middle School.

And to make the survey even more random, not all students in grades 6-12 will be participating in the survey. The CDC and ITPC will randomly pick and choose the classes where the survey is given.

In other business, the board members gave school corporation business manager Brandon Penrod permission to seek a second tax anticipation warrant.

The warrant will not exceed $3.9 million and is expected to be less, added Penrod, who noted, “We really hoped we wouldn’t have to do this.”

But the school corporation—like all other local government entities—requires property tax money to fund certain portions of its budget, and up until now, Northern Wells has had to live on a couple draws—one of which is expected tomorrow. Now, noted Penrod it appears that the majority of property tax funds will not be coming until November or December.

Without the tax anticipation warrant, Northern Wells will find itself unable to pay for such necessities as electricity, water and sewage.

The warrant will be paid back with tax funds in December and will not have any impact on the tax rate or levy.

It is a short-term loan made by a lending institution to Northern Wells based upon the anticipated tax revenue that will be coming to the school corporation.

The board will seek bids from lending institutions mainly looking for one offering the lowest interest rate on the loan.

In other business, the board members:

—Learned that Amy Donley has resigned as the high school yearbook and newspaper instructor and Debbie Darnell has resigned her extra-curricular position of internship coordinator/internship instructor.

—Approved of hiring the following: Steve Barone as a high school science teacher; Elizabeth Gerber as a middle school mathematics teacher; Kristi Thompson as high school language arts teacher; Melissa McCabe as Ossian Elementary nurse; Joseph Ault as high school boys’ soccer assistant coach; Casey Bailey as eighth grade volleyball coach; Zachery Krinn as eighth grade football coach; Michael Miller as seventh grade football coach and Jeffery Reed as volunteer assistant football coach at the middle school.

—Received an update from buildings and grounds supervisor John Kochert regarding the summer maintenance, refurbishing and remodeling projects going on at the four schools. Mills wanted to make it clear that the remodeling projects going on at Norwell are being done in such a way that they can be used as part of any long-term remodeling project being considered by the school board. “We’re not investing money into the school right now only to replace what we’ve done a few years from now,” he observed.

Following the meeting, Mills asked Donaghy and Elzey to stay afterward as members of the architect search committee to review the nine proposals received from the architect firms hoping to land the Norwell remodeling project contract. The effort is to start whittling down the number to three or four to call back for interviews.

The next regular meeting of the board is set for Aug. 12.

Email Glen Werling