Adams Central School Board Discusses Athletic Program and New Staff
Aug. 12th, 2008
By Nathan Hartman
It was business as usual for the Adams Central school board as they met for the last time before regular school sessions begin.
To start the evening, Rick Minnich presented an update on the health and progress of the A.C. athletic department. He said that, financially speaking, the department was very capable of using the funds they have without needing any more. This being Minnich’s fourteenth year in his position, he explained that, when he first started, revenue from athletics were in the negatives but now, thanks to local support, everything is running smoothly.
He also mentioned some of the new purchases the department has made, which will benefit this years incoming students. For one, a new baseball batting cage has been bought to replace a worn-out older version and new vinyl banners have been brought in to replace their fading felt counterparts. Minnich said that, in the future, the older felt banners will be put up for a public blind bidding and more information on that would be coming soon. Also, by this fall, Minnich hopes to have all new wall padding for the wrestlers, as the current padding is falling apart.
In conclusion, Minnich thanked Dan Michaels and his team for keeping the athletic facilities in good condition and made note that 98% of the school’s coaching positions have been filled. He also reminded the board that A.C. will host a football scrimmage Friday night at six with a one dollar admission.
After the update, the board welcomed the recommendation of 1979 A.C. grad Jana Taylor for the position of High School and Middle School Business Teacher. Ms. Taylor will be teaching courses in business and computer applications for the high school and keyboarding and computers for both buildings.
The board then went on to converse about new school policy including changes in the transfer students and early graduation rules. For transfer students, the board changed their policy from not allowing incoming students to join, if they have been suspended or expelled from their current school, to dealing with each situation on a case-by-case basis. For early graduation, the board now states that requests must be presented to the superintendent at least one semester prior to the expected graduation instead of the earlier policy that stated that the superintendent must be notified a year in advance.
To conclude the meeting, A.C. superintendent Michael Pettibone went over the results of a survey given during registration on whether or not the school system should change their start time to 8:30 and provide a breakfast for interested students. Considering the later start time, 305 voters were for the plan while 156 were against and the breakfast survey results concluded that 170 parents would use the service while 283 believed they would not.
Pettibone also gave the registration enrollment for Adams Central for the upcoming year. He stated that the elementary would be housing 489 students, 14 more than last year, the Middle School, 300 and the High School, 384. The total attendance for Adams Central would then come to roughly 1173 students for the 08/09 year.