Triton Celebrates Success
By Mike Siroky
Pilot News
BOURBON � OK, the school corporation name is Triton. As in good things happen in threes.
So it�s just natural the Triton School Board celebrated the start of its work year with three Triton Spotlights.
The board just couldn�t limit itself to just one celebration to kick off 2003.
Among the discussions: The communications marvel of Distance Education, the stellar work of the school�s planetarium and a look back at last week�s arrival of space walkers.
The board also had its reorganization and paid the bills through approvals of claims.
Distance Education kicked off the party.
Triton uplinked with Culver�s school board, itself in session on Monday night, and showed the board how the immediacy of visual communication could be used in a conference setting. Each board introduced itself to the other.
At the heart of the project is Greg Renz and the Crossroads Academy. Triton received its software and cameras through a Lilly grant administered by the Marshall County Community Foundation. Every school in Marshall County now has the service. It offers live feeds, words and pictures. Soon, said Renz, the county schools would have their own �bridge� or direct connect to each other.
Right now, the service flies through Indianapolis and back again.
As Triton Superintendent Ted Chit-tum observed, the possibilities are limited only by imagination. �In a small school, what limits us is the course we can offer. Now, a student can access a course being taught at another school.� And that student would be a class participant, not a passive listener.
Athletic directors, for instance, could huddle from their own offices rather than having to drive to a pre-arranged meeting.
Schools across the state are providing courses which generate fees back to the originating institution. And, as Renz pointed out, you could even have a sister school from a distant continent, though interaction would be as if the students were sharing a classroom.
The second Triton Spotlight shone on the planetarium and the evolving work of director Eileen Mariani.
She outlined the work of the most recent nine-week period, the reception of a program worth $2,000 from NASA and then led the board into the planetarium itself for a visual display of the work in progress.
Chittum, the board and the school principals all had praise for Mariani�s work at integrating new classes into the curriculum. She had outlined 133 hours worth of work in the most-recent nine-week period. �We are lucky to have her here,� said Chittum.
Her presentation led directly to the accolades for teacher Lori McClellan and her national championship science group which was rewarded with a visit from three NASA astronauts last week.
The board then got down to business as usual.
All board officials will serve again this year: Kevin Boyer (president); Steve Feldman (vice president); Larry Lemler (secretary). The same officers serve in the same capacity for the Board of Finance. Janet Barker remains board secretary. Roy Burbink and his Plymouth firm are chosen again as the corporation legal counsel (at $75 per hour).
Feldman is the Discussion Committee Representative of the board, with David Shively as alternate. Lemler is the Legislative Liaison. Shively is the Elementary Textbook Adoption Committee Representative and Steve Feldman is the Junior/ Senior High Textbook Adoption Com-mittee Representative.
On the recommendation of high school principal Rick Dehne, athletics director Mike Byron and Chittum, the board approved: Jeremy Riffle and Paul Walker (assistant baseball coaches); Lori Teeple (varsity softball coach) and Cara Seiber (assistant softball coach).
In Chittum�s superintendent�s report was the assessment that the $300,000 invested in certificates of deposit gained $12,000 in interest last year. But, Chittum pointed out, in past years, the interest had been as much as $60,000.
Chittum also reported all buses owned by the corporation had passed annual inspection. He said the first round of meetings with the community�s feasibility study group for proposed improvements had gone well.
The meeting closed with the signing of applications for the Indiana Bond Bank loans and the approval and signing of the board�s own conflict of interest statements. The three conflicts: Lemler Oil sells products to the corporation and Blackford and Feldman are each married to employees of the corporation.
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