Mike Wolanin | The Republic Students wait to get off a bus on the first day of classes at Hope Elementary in Hope, Ind., Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023.
HOPE – New principal, new athletic director, new sports teams.
Public school students in northeast Bartholomew County will discover a number of changes when classes resume in the Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corporation (FRHC) on Wednesday.
Last September, enrollment throughout the district had dropped to about 930 students. But early estimates and projections indicate the size of the student population is going up, according to the superintendent.
Price has cited projections that show the number of Hauser seniors, which was only 53 during May’s commencement, will rise into the mid-70s during the upcoming school year.
“I can’t really give you a definitive number at this point, but I think it’s going to be a substantial increase for our district,” Price said. “I know we have a nice, healthy kindergarten class coming in.”
After nine years of serving as principal of Hope Elementary, Jessica Poe has been promoted to the corporation’s first director of special education. Dean of Students Kyle Wheeler takes over as the new principal.
Poe’s new position becomes more significant after Earlywood Educational Services of Franklin closed permanently at the end of the 2023-2024 school year, Price said. Earlywood had helped increase the achievement of Flat Rock-Hawcreek students with special learning needs for the past 14 years, serving as a co-op service for six different school corporations.
“Now, we are doing special ed on our own,” the superintendent said. “This is one of the big shifts we are excited about, since it will enable us to control our own special ed programming.”
The change will involve sharing services and staff with some of the smaller school districts in the region such as Southwestern, Shelby Eastern and Edinburgh, Price said.
Kyle Shipp, who has served as girl’s basketball coach, has been promoted to be athletics director at both the junior and senior high levels. He will remain as the girl’s basketball coach. Former AD Tyler Phillips accepted the position of AD at Monrovia.
In sports, this will be the first year that Hauser will have separate soccer teams for high school boys and girls. Price said he’s heard substantial interest in giving the girls a team of their own.
In addition, Hauser will be offering girl’s golf for the first time.
Over the summer, administrators have worked with the FRHC attorney on policy changes enacted by the Indiana General Assembly.
“The big one everybody has been talking about is the cell phone change,” Price said.
The superintendent is referring to Senate Bill 185, which states students in Indiana will no longer be able to have their cell phones during instructional time in classrooms.
“But we don’t see it as fundamentally changing the way we do things,” Price said. “It’s just a reminder to students that if they have their cell phones, they are supposed to be for educational use. And we’re really going to emphasize that in the classroom setting.”
Price said his school corporation will also be keeping an close eye on proposed new requirements to earn a high school diploma, The new requirements put more emphasis on workforce development and real world experience for students who may not want to go to college.
“I think (the state) is still ironing out what that’s going to look like,” Price said. “We kind of got our own ideas, but we want to get guidance from the Indiana Department of Education.”
One thing that has not changed from recent years will be the early release of students at 2:25 p.m. every Tuesday for teacher development, or to let educators catch up with their work.
Finally, FRHC will be expanding the daycare program inaugurated last year for the children of staff members, the superintendent said. Additional staff has been hired to accommodate nearly 20 pre-schoolers.
The purpose of the daycare program is really about retention, Price said.
“One of the cool things is that we’ve maintained consistency, retaining over 90% of our certified staff,” Price said. “ We had very little hiring we had to do over the summer. “
