September is Attendance Awareness Month, and Perry Township Schools is joining the Indiana Department of Education in spreading the word about showing up to school and actively engaging in class.

Consistent attendance must start at an early age. Chronic absenteeism, which is defined as missing on average two or more days a month totaling 18 days or 126 hours of missed instruction per year, is an important predicator of school performance, including high school graduation.

In fact, education leaders with Attendance Works, which champions student success by reducing chronic absences, report that absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance throughout the school year.

Poor attendance is often related to a lack of reading proficiency by the end of third grade. By sixth grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high school according to researchers. When students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects and chances for graduating. If a student is chronically absent, by the time he or she is in 12th grade, over a year of instructional time has been lost.

Our teachers and administrators recognize that there are a variety of reasons, excused and unexcused, that can derail a student’s academic performance. Sometimes factors that are outside of the student’s control, such as housing instability or illness, can hinder the child from making it to school. Our educators and social workers try to direct families to solutions or resources to relieve the problem that is contributing to poor attendance.

It is our intention to reduce the number of all lost instructional days. Even late arrival and early departure leads to lost instructional time. Our administrators, teachers, and social workers engage with our families to help them understand how chronic absences negatively affect students’ long-term success in the classroom and in the workplace. We also strive to make the connection between attendance and academic, social and vocational success.
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Parents who have concerns regarding their child’s absences should contact the school’s social worker by visiting perryschools.org/for-parents/student-services/social-workers/.
For more information about encouraging student attendance, visit attendanceworks.org.

Perry Township Education Foundation’s time-honored tradition is around the corner.

On Saturday, Sept. 28,PTEF’s Family Fit Fest, featuring the coach Hathaway run, will take place at Southport High School. Though the name is different, and the lineup has been expanded to offer more activities for people of all ages,  the race is the same event Southsiders have come to know and love over the years

Registration is underway for runners and walkers interested in signing up for the 10K, 5K, and 1-mile run which honors Coach Tom Hathaway who taught and coached cross-country and track in Perry Township schools for 46 years. Before his death in April 2012, Hathaway ran 131 marathons and countless other races. Every year, it is touching to see hundreds in our community come together to honor coach Hathaway’s memory and to support education.

In addition to the run/walk, PTEF has added additional activities:
• Fitness Circuit led by district physical education teachers, including an obstacle course, soccer goal contest, and 40-yard dash
• Discovery Zone for small children with hula hoops and giant stacking cups
• Health & Community Fair
• 1/4-mile Kiddie Romp with school mascots
•  Food, music, and more!
This year, PTEF is encouraging participants to “go the extra mile” by raising the most money for a chance to win the following prizes:
• Two seventh-row tickets to an Indianapolis Colts game for the highest individual fundraiser.
• $250 grant for the top three fundraising teams affiliated with Perry Township schools.
• A sports towel, insulated water bottle, wireless speaker and/or sport duffel bag.
• Trophies and recognition at the awards ceremony

Schools are even raising the stakes. The elementary school or kindergarten academy with the highest rate of participation will receive an all-school assembly with Indy Eleven.

PTEF serves our students, teachers, administrators, and staff. Since 1994, the Foundation has funded more than $1.2 million in grants to support innovative and creative programs to enhance learning.
PTEF regularly awards teachers with Creative and Innovative Educator Grants that allow teachers to apply for funding for a specific project.

The Foundation strives to offer experiences to students who may not otherwise have the opportunity. For example, PTEF sponsored a trip to Connor Prairie for every fourth-grade student in our district last year. It also granted $1,500 to each of our kindergarten academies to fund much-needed literacy and math materials, as well as a mega grant for the Early Childhood Academy to build an outdoor classroom and lab for preschool students.
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There’s plenty of time to register as a volunteer or participant. For more information, visit ptef.org.

Perry Township Schools is committed to creating a culture where every student and staff member is valued.

We celebrate all the cultures and differences represented in our community, and we’re consistently working to cultivate an environment that emphasizes diversity, inclusion, representation, and belonging for all. Our district is proud to announce that Perry Meridian High School (PMHS) is among 14 Indiana schools to receive the Special Olympics North America National Banner recognition.

The distinguished schools are being honored for their efforts to engage students, with and without intellectual disabilities, in inclusive activities during the 2018-19 school year. They participated in Special Olympics Indiana’s Unified Champion Schools and Champions Together programs and met national standards of excellence in the areas of inclusion, advocacy, and respect. At PMHS, students join forces to compete in Unified Track.

The Unified Champion Schools program was designed to empower students to become change agents by encouraging special education and general education students to work together—along with educators and administrators—to promote social inclusion through a variety of year-round activities.

Through an innovative partnership with the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) known as Champions Together, Indiana has become a global leader in the implementation of Unified Champion Schools programming.

This partnership has led to the establishment of Unified Track and Field and Unified Flag Football as officially sanctioned IHSAA sports, along with the development of state championships in Unified Bocce and Unified Bowling. The partnership has also helped to provide new opportunities for students of all abilities to “play unified” and to learn from each other while representing their schools in competition.

The Unified Champion Schools model is supported by the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education. This model has been proven, through research by the Center for Social Development and Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston, to be an effective approach to providing students with and without disabilities the opportunity to form positive social relationships and promote a socially inclusive school climate.

More than 650 schools are currently participating in the Unified Champion Schools program. Special Olympics has a global goal of creating 10,000 Unified Champion Schools by 2020.

​Perry Township Schools is a shining example of educator effectiveness, recognized nationally as well as locally. Because of the proven success we have achieved in professional development and student academic growth, the National Institute for Education in Teaching (NIET) asked our district to host a roundtable discussion to mentor other districts throughout the state.

Partners since 2010, NIET and Perry Township Schools welcomed several education leaders from Brown County, Beech Grove, Goshen, Decatur Township, Whitley/Kosciusko counties, and even the University of Indianapolis to discuss how teacher leaders are a critical component of student achievement. Supt. Pat Mapes, Assist. Supt. for foundational learning Vickie Carpenter, and Assist. Supt. for career preparation, who lead schools in educating 16,700 diverse students, described the strategy involved in meeting the needs of our scholars:
1. Develop formal school-based teacher leadership positions.
2. Coordinate weekly collaborative professional learning tailored
    to the needs of teachers and students.
3. Provide an instructional rubric and training on best classroom
    practices.
4. Create a culture of continuous improvement through regular
    coaching and feedback.

Led in discussion by NIET chairman and founder Lowell Milken and CEO Candice McQueen, superintendents and other leaders reflected on what it means to prioritize a strong focus on instruction which involves thinking strategically about funding, as well as communicating continuously with internal and external stakeholders. Some of the visiting representatives are in the early stages of implementing the NIET framework to build a better teaching environment for educators and a better learning environment for students. Our leaders were able to reassure them to trust the process. In fact, they recalled how our veteran teachers -- with 30 to 40 years of experience -- have remarked that they are receiving the best professional development of their lives.

In addition to providing specialized development to our existing teachers, we also value relationships with partners like Marian University which prepares student-teachers by instructing them with the same NIET principles that shape our curriculum. Teacher candidates who graduate from NIET-supported programs will enter our classrooms well-prepared to work with students and are often comparable to a second- or third-year teacher. When they arrive in our classrooms, they are also accustomed to our specific coaching style that isn’t taught in other programs.
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Following the roundtable discussion, NIET leaders visited Southport High where they met students and watched our excellent educators in action. With the support of NIET, we are able to continue our focus of empowering students to grow academically, socially, and behaviorally.