By BRIDGET FRYMAN
SYRACUSE — The Wawasee School Board took another step toward using interest-free bonds to fund energy savings projects at Wawasee Middle School, but some board members want to be sure the timing is right.
Board members approved preliminary resolutions and the scheduling of a 1028 hearing for the Oct. 13 board meeting.
Tuesday’s action does not mean the school board will definitely use the bonds. Members asked if these projects were on the corporation’s 10-year capital projects plan or if they were being suggested because interest-free money was available.
Corporation officials received word in July that the state had approved their application for a Qualified School Construction Bond.
Federal stimulus money being distributed by the state allows the corporation to borrow $2 million and begin the 15-year repayment after the corporation’s tax rate drops (in this case in 2014 when other debt is paid off) with no interest.
Superintendent Tom Edington told the board Tuesday if there is money left over after replacing heating and air conditioning units at the middle school, the next item on the list would be a pool cover that could save the corporation $35,000 each year that they lose from water evaporating overnight.
The motion was approved 4-0, with board member Dallas Winchester abstaining. Winchester said he had no negative feelings toward the idea, but that he wanted to read over his copy of the 10-year plan.
In other business, board members received a report on a new discipline strategy that has the school year is off to a good start, according to staff members.
The corporation is using Positive Behavioral Intervention Supports, or PBIS, as a way to reinforce positive behaviors instead of a misbehave-and-be-punished approach.
“This is the best start to a school year we’ve had and I think PBIS is the reason,” Milford School Principal Cindy Kaiser said.
PBIS is a general approach to preventing problem behavior, not a specific curriculum, said Mark Mitchell, a mental health therapist with the corporation who has been overseeing the implementation of the program.
Mitchell used prisoners who become repeat offenders as an example of a traditional disciplinary strategy that fails to teach — it only punishes.
He saw PBIS in action on a recent visit to North Webster Elementary.
A boy took off running down the hall for recess, and his teacher called him back into the classroom to walk calmly with his classmates and then praised him for it, Mitchell said.
More than 5,000 schools have successfully implemented PBIS in 42 states and it has been proven effective: reduction in office referrals, suspensions, drop out rates and unsafe incidents and increases in attendance, Mitchell said.
The true effect of PBIS can be seen three to five years after the program begins, he said.
