The Pilot News - Conflicting dates brought before school board

Lyn'a Moriarty brought the date for Spring Break—March 23 through 27—to the attention of the board, explaining that if the team was again successful, the championship tournament would take place at the same time, thus prohibiting players and their family members the opportunity to vacation for the holiday.
"If you move your vacation to the following week the kids get it held against them," she said. "Other schools don't penalize the kids but ours does."
Parent and Triton coach Carmen Meister explained how other area schools allow their students to use their sick days (if not used) for their vacations since the junior-senior high school allows them to only have two excused vacation days. She also noted that the elementary allows five.
"We all have college-bound seniors," Meister explained. "The way it is set up, in essence we're encouraging them to lie about their illnesses," added Moriarty.
School board members shared their opinions and their unhappiness with the school policy but said that at present, they could not change the schedule for this year to accommodate the students should they go on to win the basketball season.
"We do the same thing over Christmas," said board member Deb Shively. "My son has to choose between basketball or our family vacation. We're not going to lie. We're going to take our lumps."
Member Rodney Kreft concurred. "My kids take zeros when we vacation every year," he said. "It penalizes the family. I'd like to see something done. My son was up for National Honor Society but he had to take zeros for missing tests (even though he had completed the proper assignments)."
Triton Jr.-Sr. High School Principal Michael Chobanov said the school policy was guided by the state's attendance requirements and educator Diana Westphal spoke on behalf of the teachers explaining the extra effort and changes in curriculum they have to deal with when tying to keep track of who has to catch up and Shively said she understood that at the high school level, as opposed to the elementary, teachers are dealing with hundreds of students they must keep track of and the kids are working toward individual credits.
The IHSAA (Indiana High School Athletics Association) calendar, which Triton's sporting events follow, are figured five years in advance so parents questioned why the school calendar didn't reflect a Spring Break holiday that was planned around other potential school events. Board president Kris Glingle said that presently, the board could not make any changes but could look into amendments for future calendars.
School superintendent Carl Hilling noted that the school calendar is contracted and bargained to coincide with the JESSE calendar. "Sometimes it's not as easy than it sounds," he commented on a potential schedule change.
Some things that were decided upon were personnel proposals for the corporation. Junior-senior high school administrators Robert Ross and Mike Chobanov were approved as junior class sponsors and Sonja Riffle was approved for hire as high school instructional assistant.
Mollie Hurd's resignation from her position as special education chairperson for the 2008-2009 school year. Her replacement, Michelle Waymouth as also approved.
Lisa Eiser was approved to act as high school Destination Imagination and Drama Department representatives while Michelle Waymouth and Nancy Nordmann were approved as seventh grade class co-sponsors. June Klotz and Sharon Bules were approved as Aces representatives for the elementary while Jennifer Mosier was approved as elementary Destination Imagination sponsor.
The following coaching positions were also approved by the Triton School Board: Dara Greenwalt as elementary cheerleading coach, Teresa Watkins for seventh grade girls basketball coach, Samantha Graverson as eighth grade volleyball coach, and Karyn McFarland for sixth grade volleyball coach. Several volunteer positions were also approved. They were: Scott Heckaman as assistant tennis coach, Justin Grubbs as assistant cheerleading coach, Whitney Ambrose as assistant cheerleading coach and Jamey Bell as sixth grade volleyball coach.