From The Superintendent

Dear Tri-County Patrons,

2011-12 CORPORATION GOALS

Recently the School Board adopted the 2011-12 Corporation Goals. I encourage you to study these goals as they appear elsewhere in the Dec/Jan newsletter.

Education Reform: What Happened In Last Year’s Legislative Session? Was It Good or Bad?

The short answer is many things happened in regards to education, ranging from changes in collective bargaining, teacher evaluation, how employees are compensated, public tax money going to private schools, major funding reductions to most schools in the State, and more. I say “and more” because we are six (6) months removed from last year’s legislative session and there continues to be more questions than answers in regards to what happened.

One might ask how can this be? You would think that some legislators could clearly explain what they voted for and passed. Sadly, at both the State and Federal levels many legislative issues are passed with very few people knowing the details. I find this concerning but also reality. The upcoming legislative session will deal with “cleaning up” many areas of last session’s reforms.

The jury is still out as far as the overall impact of the reforms. Some of the changes will enhance education while other changes appear to be authored by some who have little understanding of education. As with most changes, it is important that we benefit from positives and learn from negatives. I encourage you to have dialog with legislators in coming months. I really believe most legislators want to do what is best for their local communities, and they might be in a listening position with upcoming elections in 2012. It is clear that the political education momentum is currently not moving in ways to help small and or non-growing schools. There is a cost to small and there is a cost to rural, but there is an even greater cost to eliminating small and rural Indiana. While Tri-County must continuously look for ways to best overcome smallness, we have many exceptional areas and success that very few schools can match in Indiana.

Sitting back and being silent is not a viable option if you truly believe in small, rural education. With everyone working together we will continue to be one of the smallest and striving to be one of the best. It is ironic that many of the Charter and Private Schools we see popping up are extremely small. Kind of messes up the political lingo that bigger schools are always better.

Thank you for helping make Tri-County Schools successful.

Sincerely,

Dr. Gib Crimmins
Superintendent of Schools