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Bluffton, Ind.
July 26, 2005

"New education laws aid some, hurt others"

By Sarah Pulliam
Cheerleading may be safer but mentoring could become more scarce.
An assistant cheerleading coach may be added at Norwell High School thanks to a new law that went into effect July 1, according to Superintendent of Northern Wells Schools Gina Berridge.
A cheerleading safety law and elimination of funding needed for mentoring program, which allows experienced educators to assist new teachers, were part of a package of education laws Indiana Legislature passed last session.
The three Wells County Schools currently follow IHSAA’s cheerleading guidelines but may need to add more specific guidelines.
“I think most schools are very careful anyway with their cheerleading,” Berridge said. “Sometimes I think they pass laws based on emotion instead of saying, ‘How many times does this happen?’ and ‘Do we need this law.?’ ”
The Indiana State Department of Health and the Indiana Department of Education do not keep cheerleading accident statistics.
Sen. Robert Meeks (R-LaGrange), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said eliminating funding for a mentoring program was necessary to decrease state spending.
“We’ve got to get our spending under control,” Meeks said. “I was just looking around for places to cut where I could save money and that was one of them.”
Meeks said the structural deficit where the state spends more than its revenue was estimated to be $630 million and Gov. Mitch Daniels is taking steps to eliminate the structural deficit by June 2006.
The state passed a law requiring schools to provide mentors to new teachers at $600 a year. Meeks guessed the law was passed about 10 years ago.
Police have a mentoring program similar to the school system, but the program isn’t funded by the state, said Meeks.
“Education in my opinion, is no different,” Meeks said.
Superintendent of Southern Wells Schools Neil Potter he was disappointed the state eliminated funding for the mentors.
“I think that’s a step backwards,” Potter said. “If they’re going to require it, they ought to fund it.”
Other laws that went into effect July 1 include:
Kindergarten Age: Changes the kindergarten cut-off to from July 1 to Aug. 1 for the 2006-2007 school year, opening the way for more students in next year’s kindergarten class.
Indiana’s current July 1 kindergarten entrance date is the earliest in the nation and caused difficulties for families who move to Indiana from other states, according to Scott Minier, Legislative Liaison & Policy Analyst for the Indiana Department of Education.
“Parents, who anticipate a move from Indiana, also expressed concerns about their children being so much older than classmates in their new state,” Minier said, “The kindergarten entrance date needed to be moved to provide Indiana’s children the opportunity for earlier, quality educational experiences during this critical window of opportunity for learning.”
Minier said Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed asked the date be moved to Aug. 1 and then to Sept. 1, a goal she will likely pursue, along with full day kindergarten, as the state’s financial condition improves.
Berridge said 10 more students may be added to next year’s Northern Well’s kindergarten program.
“It may increase our kindergarten classes a little bit but I don’t see us having to hire an additional teacher,” she said, echoing the two other superintendents’ feelings.
Graduation Rates, Dropouts: Requires an exit-interview for 16-to-18-year-olds who want to withdraw from school. Defines a dropout to include all students in the determination of a school’s graduation rate, unless they have left to transfer to another school, been removed by parents, withdrawn for medical reasons, detained by law enforcement, placed elsewhere by court order, enrolled in a virtual school, or already graduated.
The three superintendents said they already have exit interviews for students who wish to drop out.
Norwell graduated 96 percent of their 2003-2004 class, Southern Wells 93.3 percent and Bluffton 90.5 percent keeping the schools below the state average of 89.8 percent, according to the Department of Education’s Web site.
Superintendent Tom Johnson thinks defining a dropout is an improvement for the school system.
Johnson said, “Some of the schools are more lenient on what they call a dropout and if we’re competing with other schools, our graduation rate will be different so that could potentially be an improvement in statistics.”