Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation Superintendent Brett Boggs has announced he will retire at the end of the current school year.

The board of trustees officially accepted his retirement at the Jan. 15^th school board meeting, but Boggs will continue to serve as superintendent through June 30^th. He is putting an end to a 40-year career as an educator at Tippecanoe Valley. Boggs has served as a teacher, coach, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent over the past four decades.

“Having had the opportunity to work with many students and staff members during that period of time has been extremely fulfilling and rewarding,” said Boggs.

Boggs graduated from Grace College in 1978 and began teaching fourth grade and coaching junior high basketball and track at Akron School, which at the time, was kindergarten through eighth grades. He moved into administration in 1985 as assistant principal and athletic director and became principal in 1988. He served as the principal of Akron School for 17 years before being named assistant superintendent in 2005 and superintendent in 2008.

“Tippecanoe Valley is a community where people truly care about each other and put the needs of children first,” said Boggs.

Boggs was named Indiana Administrator of the year for 2002-2003 by the Indiana Association of Student Councils and the District 2 Elementary Principal of the Year by the Indiana Association of School Principals in 2003.

Some of the more notable achievements during his tenure at Tippecanoe Valley include establishing the Valley Hometown Fund, honoring the first class of Distinguished Alumni in 2010, the implementation of the Professional Learning Community model in each Tippecanoe Valley school, completion of the $17.6 million Akron Elementary School renovation project, establishing Project Lead the Way classes at all grades levels and the achievement of Tippecanoe Valley receiving district accreditation by the AdvancED Accreditation Commission in 2008, 2013 and again in 2018.

But along with the positive achievements Boggs looks back on, he said there have also been plenty of challenges to education during his time as superintendent.

“One of the most significant changes I’ve seen in education in the past 10 years involves schools competing for students. Because of legislation passed by the Indiana General Assembly, the same schools we should be collaborating with we are now competing with for students. Since the state took over each school district’s general fund in 2009, the funding follows the child, which has resulted in intense competition for students,” said Boggs.

Other notable achievements Boggs said he is proud of are the energy-saving upgrades to several Tippecanoe Valley facilities. Those upgrades include a comprehensive energy-savings initiative at the Burket Educational Center in 2009, the construction of a 900 kilowatt wind turbine on the campus of Tippecanoe Valley High School and Tippecanoe Valley Middle School in 2011 and a new 44-panel solar array being installed on the grounds of Mentone Elementary School during the winter of the 2017-2018 school year.

Boggs is also highly involved in the community in which he lives. He currently serves as board president for the Palestine Bible Church and the Palestine Cemetery and is a member of the board of directors of the Fulton Economic Development Corporation, Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation, Fulton County Chamber of Commerce, Gradway and the Fulton County Leadership Academy.

Boggs also served on the board of directors of the Akron Carnegie Public Library for 16 years. He is the founder and currently a member of the Akron Community Relations Task Force and is also the founder and chair of the Tippecanoe Valley Community Mental Health Task Force. The task force was formed with the vision of empowering all citizens to good mental health and the mission to both increase knowledge and provide support, while reducing the stigma of mental illness.

“The two and one-half year period in which we lost multiple students and staff members to suicide and tragic accidents was the most difficult period of my professional and personal life. Today, our students, staff and the community are better prepared to see the warning signs and know how to properly respond to individuals at risk of suicide,” said Boggs.

Brett and his wife, Sarah, live in Akron and are the parents of three grown children with three grandchildren.

“We enjoy being a part of this community. I am looking forward to finding something that is flexible and will keep me busy. I am looking at a few possibilities, but no decisions have been made. There is no more noble profession than that of educating the young people of our community. There is no place I would rather have been than Tippecanoe Valley,” said Boggs.

As part of the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation’s ongoing partnership with Lutheran Health Network Kosciusko Community Hospital, each month we will be sharing a health tip with our parents and staff. January’s health tip is all about community wellness screenings.

More information about the screenings can be found here: http://kch.com/wellness

With the winter season in full swing, Tippecanoe Valley staff members, parents, and students are reminded of the ways to receive school delay and closing information.

School Messenger

• Students are automatically registered to School Messenger based upon the primary contact information provided in Chalkable(STI). New students and any updated primary numbers are automatically uploaded to School Messenger daily.
• New staff members are added when they complete their New Employee Enrollment package and turn it into the TVSC Administration Office.
• If a parent would like to have a different or additional number called (they are allowed up to 5 different numbers), then they must call TVSC Director of Technology Keith Lang at (574) 598-2759 and ask for the number(s) to be added. They must include with the number(s), the name(s) of their student(s), their grade level, and the school.
• If a staff member would like to have an additional number added to the call list, they need to send an email to Mr. Lang’s attention indicating the number(s) they wish to receive calls at and the primary building in which they work.

The School Messenger system is a service TVSC provides for school employees and its students.  If someone from outside of these two lists would like to be informed of a closing, TVSC recommends that they listen to the local media outlets to which TVSC provides delay/cancellation information, or sign up for one of their texting services.  The media outlets are:

Radio

WRSW* & Willie 103.5*            https://www.newsnowwarsaw.com/schooldelays/

WROI                                       http://www.wroifm.com/closings–delays

WIOE                                        http://wioe.com/site/2018/01/wioe-school-delay/

Television

WNDU*                                      http://www.wndu.com/weather/closings

WSBT*                                      http://wsbt.com/news/local/closingsdelays

The * indicate texting service is available. 

Social Media

In the event of a delay or cancellation, each school’s Facebook page will post a status update with the information.

TVSC: https://www.facebook.com/TippecanoeValley/

TVMS: https://www.facebook.com/Tippecanoe-Valley-Middle-School-1574471089447534/

TVHS: https://www.facebook.com/tippecanoevllyhs/

Mentone Elementary: https://www.facebook.com/Mentone-Elementary-School-201649846662868/

Akron Elementary: https://www.facebook.com/Akron-Elementary-School-356826074490517/

School Websites

Delay and cancellation information can also be found on each school’s website in a scrolling message at the top of the homepage. You can also find the information at the bottom of each homepage in the colored weather information box.

TVSC: http://tippecanoevalleyschools.com/

TVMS: http://tippecanoevalleyschools.com/schools/tvms/

TVHS: http://tippecanoevalleyschools.com/schools/tvhs/

Mentone Elementary: http://tippecanoevalleyschools.com/schools/Mentone-elementary/

Akron Elementary: http://tippecanoevalleyschools.com/schools/akron-elementary-school/

128 families in the Tippecanoe Valley area received assistance this holiday season through the Miracle Tree program – six more than last year’s total of 122 families.

Miracle Tree is sponsored by Mill Creek Missionary Church and has been going strong for years in the Rochester area. Tippecanoe Valley teachers Darren Parker and Crystal Heckaman helped expand the program two years ago after noticing a growing need for it in their school corporation.

“This year’s program was another huge success in the Tippecanoe Valley community. It wouldn’t have happened without all of the community support we received in buying gifts and volunteering,” said Parker.

Families who expressed an interest in receiving help this year were assigned a number. Those numbers were then placed on ornaments and hung on trees inside Bell Memorial Public Library in Mentone and Akron Carnegie Public Library in Akron. The numbers let sponsors know how many children were in each family. Sponsors were then provided a wish list for the family they selected.

All of the gifts were presented to the families on Dec. 13th at a special event that included food and activities for children.

“Even with the poor weather that night, we still managed to feed roughly 500 people and pass out gifts to 351 kids this year,” said Parker.

The Tippecanoe Valley High School Student Council was one of the largest sponsors of families this year. Heckaman, who also serves as student council co-advisor alongside Cami Shriver, says they adopted 13 families, spent $6,100 on 61 kids, and then another $300 to supplement gifts for 10 kids who didn’t receive many gifts from their secret givers. They also created, set up, and played games with the kids on the night the gifts were given out.

“It was fun seeing the kids that we shopped for having such a good time, playing games, and bouncing in the inflatables,” said Heckaman.

Student council members used donations from the community to purchase the gifts. They, along with students in Shelly Engle’s English 11A class, took a trip to Meijer in Warsaw to shop for the children. The students in Mrs. Engle’s class have been discussing philanthropy and wanted to see how they could help with the Miracle Tree program this year.  

“Thank you to all of the families that sponsored one or more of our households in need as well as to all of the local businesses and organizations for their support,” said Parker.

Those businesses and organizations include Regional Rehab, Akron Las Donas Club, Craig Welding, Splendor Boats, local area farmers, TVHS Student Council, Glam, Mentone United 4-H, Beery Construction, Biddle Auction Co., Cargill, Midwest Poultry, Mill Creek Missionary Church, Hoffman Body Shop, Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation, Meijer, Bell Memorial Public Library, Akron Carnegie Public Library, Silver Creek Church, 4-H Jr. Leaders, and Beta Epsilon-Psi Jota Xi Sorority.

Written by Aaron Leedy, TVSC director of marketing, public relations, and grant writing

There has probably never been a time when the purse strings for public school corporations have been tighter.

As the state legislature prepares to reconvene on Jan. 3^rd, public school administrators and teachers across Indiana will again watch as state lawmakers debate and decide the future of education.  What bills will they introduce this year? How might those bills, if they become laws, affect public school funding? These questions come up every year along with the uncertainty of how the policies surrounding education might change.

One thing a school corporation can do to fill potential funding gaps is apply for grants. Grants can provide financial assistance for classroom projects that cost a few hundred dollars to corporation-wide projects that can reach six figures or more in price.

In the summer or 2016, TVSC created a Director of Marketing, Public Relations, and Grant Writing position to help research and apply for grants. Some grants submitted are also written by teachers and administrators. Grant writing is a collaborative effort throughout our school corporation to provide the best facilities and programs to meet the needs of students.

Since Jan. 1 of this year, the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation has received more than one million dollars in federal, state, and local grant funding. This is, in essence, free money that otherwise would have had to come out of the corporation’s budget to fund projects or services throughout Tippecanoe Valley’s five schools – Akron Elementary, Mentone Elementary, Tippecanoe Valley Middle School, Tippecanoe Valley High School, and the Burket Educational Center.

In addition to receiving funding, another benefit to pursuing grants is the ability to foster great relationships with local community foundations. Simply put, money donated to these foundations can stay in the communities they serve. TVSC continues to work closely with local foundations such as the Kosciusko County Community Foundation, Fulton County Community Foundation, Dekko Foundation, K21 Health Foundation, and the United Way to research and pair grants with specific projects throughout our schools.

Some of the more notable grants received since Jan. 1 of this year include an $84,230 grant from the K21 Health Foundation for a paved walking/biking path at Mentone Elementary School, a $30,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment for counseling services, a $14,000 proactive grant from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation to enhance counseling services, a $16,000 grant from the United Way of Kosciusko County for kindergarten readiness, a $20,000 matching grant from the Dekko Foundation and a $10,000 grant from the Fulton County Community Foundation for library upgrades.

TVSC also received 10 Kosciusko Endowment Youth Services grants earlier this year. Teachers apply for KEYS grants to fund classroom projects ranging from $100 to $1,000. The grants are reviewed by KEYS members who are high school students from four area school corporations in Kosciusko County.

As we continue to watch for changes at the state and federal levels to education, grants will be the one constant we can rely on to equip all students to be successful today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Valley Insight is a recurring monthly article written by administrators on a variety of topics related to education and the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation. Articles will be posted to the district’s website and also shared with the local media.