Help us create a safer school zone! A new school year brings another reminder of where TVSC stands with bullying. We are very serious about having a safe school zone, and this starts with you!
Report bullying by sending an anonymous report to us. Your reports are confidential and will be acted upon quickly. Thank you for making our schools safer! Click here.
VALLEY INSIGHT By Cory Cooper, Assistant Principal, Tippecanoe Valley Middle School
“There’s an app for that” and one of our students designed it!
Preparing students for the workforce of tomorrow is an always-evolving task. The Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation (TVSC) continuously evaluates the entire K-12 curriculum to ensure that it offers its students the best opportunities for success while at TVSC and beyond graduation.
The projected number of job openings in 2018 for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields will reach 2.8 million. Of these, approximately 1.4 million jobs will be for computer specialists. Indiana Hot Jobs and The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics both list software developers, applications/Computer Science (CS) degree fields as occupations with the most job growth between the years 2014 to 2024. The average salaries for CS related fields currently range from $65,000 to $100,000. The projected industry demand for students with these skills will likely exceed the supply of qualified workers.
In light of these projections, TVSC has added more STEM components to its K-12 curriculum that will not only provide challenging problems for students to solve, but involve them in exciting, real-world, hands-on activities. And what could be more exciting for students than learning how to design, program, create, and test apps for a multitude of devices or programming a robot that their group built to solve a challenge?
This past year Tippecanoe Valley Middle School (TVMS) became the second school in the TVSC to add a STEM curriculum program through Project Lead the Way (PLTW). Tippecanoe Valley Middle School’s PLTW STEM program initially offered two courses: Design and Modeling (DM) and Automation and Robotics (AR).
Starting in August of the 2016-2017 school year all TVSC schools will offer STEM programs with computer science-related curriculum components that will prepare students for the 21st century workforce.
Through the Corporate Partnership for Economic Growth (CPEG) Northern Indiana PLTW School Grant, TVMS will send its PLTW STEM instructor to receive the additional Intro to Computer Science (ICS) course training this summer. TVMS students from grade 6 to 8 will take two foundation courses: Design and Modeling, Automation and Robotics; and the newly added specialization course: Introduction to Computer Science.
Mentone and Akron Elementary Schools will both be starting new STEM PLTW Launch programs that will have computer science components embedded into the curriculum as well, and are sending two teachers to training this summer. This STEM program for kindergarten through fifth grade will help students become problem solvers. Students will use structured approaches, like the engineering design process, and critical thinking. They will apply STEM knowledge, skills, and habits of mind, basic computer science concepts, and learn that it is okay to take risks and make mistakes.
Tippecanoe Valley High School (TVHS) will also send a business instructor to receive the high school level of Computer Science training. TVHS students in grades 9 to12 will be offered this new Computer Science and Software Engineering course through the business department this year. Computer Science and Software Engineering is a PLTW course in which students will create apps for mobile devices, automate tasks in a variety of languages, find patterns in data, and interpret simulations. Students will collaborate to create and present solutions that can improve people’s lives.
With the addition of these new courses and the implementation of this new program at the elementary level, TVSC is now offering a fully aligned STEM curriculum from Kindergarten through 12th grade, and in the near future, we’ll be able to proudly say “There’s an app for that and one of our students designed it!”.
As Tippecanoe Valley’s vision statement states, TVSC does whatever it takes to equip all students to be outstanding – today, tomorrow, and beyond.
Help us create a safer school zone! Report bullying by sending an anonymous report to us. Your reports are confidential and will be acted upon quickly. Thank you for making our schools safer!
Visit www.tippecanoevalleyschools.com and click on the School Safe Zone link in the bottom right-hand side of the page. TVSC also offers a Safe Schools Hotline, a telephone application (voice or text message) that allows students, parents and members of the community to report threats of violence, bullying, suicide, theft, gang activity, drug use, vandalism or any other concern at any TVSC school. When someone calls the number to report a threat or problem, the caller is prompted to leave a message along with any other important information.
The message is immediately transmitted via telephone, cell phone and email to the building administrators and the TVSC school resource officer. TVSC has the ability to manage the calls through a web site, where school officials can see and download call reports. A full transcript of the call is transmitted with each email so that the administrator has first-hand knowledge of the call received. A school administrator will evaluate the potential threat level and respond accordingly. If you have first-hand knowledge of a potentially harmful situation, please call the TVSC Safe Schools Hotline at (574) 387-3825.
New and returning students can register at www.tippecanoevalleyschools.com/enrollment.
First Day of School:
August 8th, 2016
School Hours
Regular school hours at Akron and Mentone Elementary
Schools are 8:30 a.m. to 3:40 p.m.
Regular school hours at Tippecanoe Valley Middle School
6th grade: 8:11a.m.-3:16 p.m.
7-8th grade: 8:15a.m.-3:20 p.m.
Regular school hours at Tippecanoe Valley High School are
8:25 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Meal Prices
Lunch Prices
Elementary/Middle School ………………………………………$1.60 per day
High School………………………………………………………………$1.65 per day
Reduced Price …………………………………………………………… $.40 per day
Adults ………………………………………………………………………….$3 per day
Additional Milk ……………………………………………………..$.25 per carton
Breakfast Prices
Full Price…………………………………………………………………… $.75 per day
Reduced Price ……………………………………………………………$.30 per day
On Monday night, July 11, the conference room of the administration building of Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation was filled with people excited to honor teachers and staff members for their years of outstanding service. Micah Lukens, a thirteen-year lead teacher of the alternative education program at the Burket Educational Center, was recognized as one of the corporation’s World Class Teachers. Throughout his career, which began at the same time the Burket Educational Center opened, Lukens has touched the lives of 284 students who have graduated from the program.
Recent retiree, Wayne Landis, was also recognized for his 30 years of service as a Math teacher at Tippecanoe Valley Middle school. Landis received a glass apple and gift card to commemorate his years of teaching.
Teachers were not the only honorees at Monday’s meeting: both Cheryl Simons, Tippecanoe Valley Middle School’s attendance and athletic secretary, and Lyle Butt, the corporation’s head bus mechanic, were recognized for their hard work and dedication and presented with the TVSC Pillar Award for Outstanding Support Staff. Simons, who was unable to attend, has been a part of the corporation since 1985; Butt has been ensuring the safety of the corporation’s buses for twenty years. Everyone in attendance expressed their gratitude to these teachers and staff for their dedication to the corporation and its students.
Pictured, left to right, are Micah Lukens, TVSC School Board President Dave O’Brien, and Lyle Butt.
Pictured, left to right, are TVSC School Board President Dave O’Brien and Wayne Landis.
As part of the United Way of Kosciusko County’s Day of Caring initiative, a group of Zimmer Biomet employees visited Tippecanoe Valley Middle School, transforming two areas into new health and fitness rooms. Other groups appeared at different area schools throughout the day, painting the bleachers at Mentone Elementary, the curbs and some exterior doors at Tippecanoe Valley High School, as well as the conference room, stage walls, and bleachers at Burket Educational Center.
Pictured are the newly-completed health and fitness rooms at Tippecanoe Valley Middle School, which are sure to be well-used.
Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation will be holding registration for the 2016-2017 School Year on July 26-28 from Noon-8:00pm. Online registration will be available for new students beginning July 5th and for returning students beginning July 18th. Visit our website at http://tippecanoevalleyschools.com/enrollment/.
TVSC builds in time for students to read at school each day, but research shows that this may not be enough. Students who read at home in addition to reading at school tend to have higher test scores. Here are some ways to incorporate reading at home this summer!
*Read the cereal box each morning
*Find a reading website or app that your child enjoys
*Look up information about a favorite subject on the computer
*Take regular trips to the library and join the summer reading program
*Start a book club with friends
*Model reading by reading in front of and to your children each day
Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation, 8343 S State Rd 19, Akron, IN / Main: 574-598-2759