Welcome back, North Adams Family. I hope you had a wonderful holiday!

The New Year always represents a time for reflection for me. Professionally, I think about the next twelve months and what I may want to accomplish. Projects I want to to start. Goals I want to impact. After thinking, reading, and researching, I usually determine a "Word of the Year" that represents the overarching theme for the my next steps.

In 2022, the word was PROGRESS. We were at the end of COVID and were so tired from being in the holding pattern life had seemed to stall in. We were ready to move on. To move forward. To progress.

In 2023, our school family was rocked by several critical medical diagnoses and more than one loss. We needed strength, faith, and hope with which to lift up those who were in the throes of battle. We were RISING.

In 2024, there was this overriding feeling that the world needed to get back to business. Certainly, back to work. We needed to double down on the message that we were here to help our students get ready to be contributing citizens, informed consumers, and thoughtful neighbors. To be ready to pull, to do their part, to STAND UP.

As 2025 gets going, I'm seeing a lot of things coming at schools across Indiana that could cause a great amount of change and perhaps even anxiety. Lots of shifts in rules and laws and finances. But, our purpose is, and will always be, the same--to care for and educate these children. So, we are endeavoring to FOCUS. FOCUS our time, resources, and capacities on those things that will have the biggest positive impact on our students and community. Life will always seem hectic and chaotic, but, underneath, it's really pretty simple.

I look forward to working with all of you as we get zeroed in on those practices, strategies, and programs that will support our kids on their paths to greatness!

- Kim Hiatt, Superintendent

ALL DISTRICT

• Flex Day #3--February 10th, "Legends Day"--No school or eLearning for students. Staff engage in professional development for the day.
• President's Day, February 17th--Our last snow make up day. There will be NO SCHOOL that day unless we would need to use it for a cancellation between then and now.

BES

• Parent/Teacher Conferences, March 12, 3:30-6:00 p.m. --If you haven't scheduled an appointment with your child's elementary teacher, please reach out so that they may get a time set up for you.
  
• Pre-K Roundup--COMING SOON!
• Kindergarten Roundup--March 18th, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
• Donuts with Grownups, April 18th--Mark your calendars for our annual opportunity for your child's special "peeps" to have breakfast and visit his/her classroom.
• BES BRAVES Days, Feb. 7th, March 21st, April 25th, May 22nd

BMS

• Parent/Teacher Conferences, March 12, 3:30-6:00 p.m.
• BMS BRAVES Days, March 21st and May 22nd
• Adams County Spelling Bee @ Wyneken School, February 4th, 6:30 p.m.
• BMS Wrestling and Swim/Dive--Currently underway. It is NOT too late to come out!
• BMS Spring Soccer and Track, March 17th start

BHS

• Adams County Community Foundation Scholarships, Due January 22nd--Students have been receiving information about these opportunities in their English classes by guidance and given opportunities to participate in workshops to help them complete the applications. There are NO exceptions to the deadline, and quality does matter. Please be talking to your senior today if you want them to submit an application.
• Freshmen Scheduling starts Jan. 27th--Parents may schedule times with their freshmen student and his/her guidance counselor to update their 4-year plan and schedule for 2025-2026.
• Incoming Freshmen Expo, Feb. 5th, 6:30-8:00 p.m.--All students considering enrolling in Bellmont High School in 2025-2026 are encouraged to attend this fun and informative evening. There is special programming for students and parents to learn about graduation requirements and the different dual credit options, vocational courses, and clubs/activities into which they may opt.
• Junior SAT Testing, March 4th--The SAT is now a State-mandated test for all juniors. In order to give them the best testing environment and to meet testing requirements, 9th, 10th, and 12th grade students will have ASYNCHRONOUS eLearning that day.
• FAFSA--The portal is already open. Remember, it is now a State requirement for all senors to fill out a FAFSA or the parent must sign off at the school to opt out. Any student who wants to attend any post-secondary institution must complete a FAFSA, regardless of whether they feel they will qualify for aid or not.

One thing that everyone seems to be able to agree to disagree on is whether school should be closed or delayed due to weather. While I know this information may not settle the debate, I wanted to provide a little background information on how those decisions are made.

Who Is Involved in These Decisions:

The short answer is LOTS of people. I am talking in group texts and emails with the Adams County superintendents and another group text with all Adams and Wells Counties superintendents anytime there is poor weather. At least one superintendent is talking to the county highway superintendent and/or the sheriff to determine road conditions and when/if plows are out. In-house, I am talking with our Operations Director who is driving roads by 5 a.m. and talking to different drivers in different parts of our district to see what our particular roads are like.

When Are Decisions Made:

As early as possible. Unfortunately, only when the weather is really bad is the decision easy. It is when weather or road conditions are somewhere in-between or where questions on timing of weather enter in that things become more difficult. Some caveats are:

• Our first bus leaves the bus barn by 6:15 a.m. That is the drop-dead time by which to decide.
• If we do delay and are trying to decide if we need to then cancel, we have to decide by 8:15 a.m.
• Occasionally, we know enough of what has happened or will happen that we make a decision the night before. Those moments are beautiful because they give us all enough time to do what we need to do!

What Are Some Considerations in Making These Decisions For _________:

Snow/Ice:

• If there is much ice, we usually will not go.
• Is it the first snow of the season? I know that sounds a little funny, but, especially with the number of new drivers we have, giving them a chance to get used to driving on snow or ice each season takes a little practice.
• Beyond the amount of snow or ice, we then consider if the plows have been out. There is a big difference in getting around in town versus our backroads. Are there two lanes of traffic or just one open? How are intersections? Is one able to stop, or is there a big chance of sliding through?
• What is the wind doing? Are we seeing a lot of drifting? Are we expecting to see drifting throughout the day?
• What about temperature? Do we expect moderation or freezing?
• What time is the weather coming in? Will the plows have a chance to remove it? Will we get caught trying to dismiss in the worst conditions?
• If we can give drivers daylight to come in on, will that significantly improve safety?

• We reference the wind chill safety chart below from the National Weather Service. Our threshold is a real feel or wind chill of -15 to -20 degrees or lower to trigger a delay or cancellation.

• We realize cold temps are a part of life, but I always think of our littles standing at a bus stop or walking to school. Not all of them have adequate cold weather outerwear. On that note, if your child does not have access to coats, hats, gloves, or shoes, please let their teacher or school office staff know. We keep a free closet of different articles to help.

Fog:

• Have I said that fog is the WORST?
• Fog can rise, lower, roll in, or roll out with no warning. The best I can say with fog is that we do our best, but at times it will surprise us. Again, if things look decent at 6:15 a.m. when we must decide for busses and we may go, but fog could be dense by 7:30 a.m. when most parents and drivers are coming in.

Believe it or not, but Pre-K and Kindergarten Round-Ups are right around the corner. Interest call-outs will be going out very soon. If you aren't familiar with our early childhood programs, let me share some things that make Bellmont's programs stand out !

• All PK teachers are certified early childhood teachers
• All paras have completed high quality training
• Small class sizes with a 12:1 student-to-teacher ratio
• Paths to Quality Level 3 certified
• 4- and 5- half-day per week options
• FREE breakfast, lunch, and snacks, depending on session
• FREE transportation to and from school
• Available daycare 6:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. (before or after Pre-K)
• We take On My Way Pre-K and CCDF vouchers, which may result in FREE Pre-K AND daycare, if eligible. Otherwise, our rates are very affordable.

Call 260-724-3137 to find out more.

From the last couple legislative sessions, some priorities regarding the instructional side of education have emerged:

1. Ensuring students are reading by the end of 3rd grade;
2. Redesigning ILEARN;
3. Rethinking High School; and
4. Improving students' digital literacy skills.

In this edition, I want to review, again, the increased emphasis on reading by the end of 3rd grade and, now, take a deeper look at the high school redesign and how that will impact our secondary programming.

Last issue, we talked about all things IREAD. In this edition, I want to reiterate some of the new requirements concerning the outcomes of students' scores on the test. Recently, our State legislators passed legislation about students being able to read by the end of 3rd Grade based upon research that shows if a student fails to be proficient with basic literacy strategies by the end of 3rd grade, he will likely struggle throughout his academic career. The metric they are using to determine if a child can read by then is IREAD.

Starting in the 2024-2025 school year, if a student reaches the end of their third grade year and has been unable to pass IREAD, State law now requires them to be retained in 3rd grade unless they meet what is called a Good Cause Exemption (GCE). Those exemptions are:

• The student has already been retained in 3rd grade;
• The student has an intellectual disability and the Case Conference Committee decides retention will not benefit the student;
• The student is an English Learner (EL) who has received EL services less than two years;
• The student scored Proficient or Above Proficient on ILEARN Math; or
• The student has received intensive interventions in Science of Reading strategies and has been retained more than once during grades K-2.

Yes, the thought of retention is scary for any parent. But, I also encourage you not to panic and to remember that we have many programs and interventions in place to help your child meet this goal. Elementary teachers and administration have been reaching out to families of students who may be statistically showing signs of being at-risk of not passing IREAD . If you are concerned for or have questions about your 2nd or 3rd grade student's progress in reading, please reach out to his/her teacher or the elementary administration to talk through things. We want to partner with you to help your child succeed!

After more than a year of planning and revising, the Indiana State Board of Education passed the final diploma rule for the Class of 2029 on December 11th. This new diploma is designed to allow increased flexibility for students to make their high school education more relevant to their post-secondary goals through increased emphasis on both work-based learning and credentials of value.

Some of the main takeaways from this new diploma are:

• There is one base diploma with minimum requirements for every student. This is basically what has been the Core 40 diploma for the last several years, and, yes, means the "general" diploma is no longer an option.
• Another focus is to provide better differentiation for post-secondary goals:
• Enrollment--College-bound
• Employment--Workforce or trades/vocational
• Enlistment--Military
• Instead of "Honors" diplomas like we have today, students will have the opportunity to earn "Seals of Distinction" aligned with their unique path.
• Another option will be an "Honors Plus" seal that adds a heavy focus on work-based learning, internships, job shadowing, etc. in a student's chosen path.

Indiana’s current graduation requirements will sunset October 1, 2028, again, making the new diploma requirements effective for the class of 2029 (current 8th graders). The IDOE allowed schools to opt-in to this diploma option beginning in 2025-2026, and Bellmont High School will be opting in, as well, for their freshmen class next year.

I would encourage all parents of 8th graders registering for high school classes this next fall to attend the Freshman Expo on February 5th from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at BHS. Students will have a fun night getting introduced to all course and involvement options in high school and parents will get to hear from our guidance department how Bellmont High School will be meeting these new requirements.

Here is a short presentation that describes how public schools are funded in Indiana. If you want to learn a little more about school finance and the Operation and Debt Service Funds, specifically, take a look at the presentation below.

In this category, our strategies are centered around providing students opportunities, experiences, and programming to grow their resiliency, citizenship, work ethic, literacies, and post-secondary readiness.

In this edition, we will share a little about BHS's WBL program and the Indiana College Core.

As related earlier, a big push in the new high school design is students getting real-life experiences and to even accelerate their credentialing or schooling so they have access to high demand, high wage jobs, if desired, at the end of high school. So, Work-Based Learning, or WBL, will be a big focus in the graduation pathways. In this program, students go to school for part of a day and work the rest. They also get weekly lessons on "adulting" from our instructor, Matt Converset. In our senior exit interviews each year, students often remark how grateful they are for the information they learned from him about budgets, buying a car/house, taxes, retirement, etc. Mr. Converset also visits the students on their placements to make sure things are going well for the student and business.

Bellmont High School has had a well-developed and strong WBL program for years. We are looking forward to potentially more students electing to take part as well as more businesses agreeing to partner with us. If you are a local business who would like to have a student intern or work for you, contact Bellmont High School or Mr. Converset at conversetm@nadams.k12.in.us.

The Indiana College Core (ICC) is a block of 30 credit hours of college courses taken in high school that are GUARANTEED to transfer between all public (and many private) colleges in Indiana. This certificate meets the basic general education requirements that usually make up freshman year of college. So, there are several perks to earn this certificate depending upon your post-secondary plans:

• Potentially saves a year's worth of tuition and other costs, which could mean savings upwards of $25,000 if the student graduates within three years.
• Allows the student to concentrate on their major immediately upon enrollment.
• If graduating early isn't an interest, it provides time to study abroad or pick up another major or minor.
• May allow the student to enter college with sophomore status which gives them preference in scheduling and potentially housing.

Bellmont High School, with its long-time focus on meaningful college preparation and dual credit, has been offering the ICC for several years. Unlike most schools in our area, our courses are taught in-house by credentialed dual-credit teachers, insuring quality instruction and meaningful supports over a longer period of time. In many other schools, students must take the courses online or at a regional college campus. If you want more information about the ICC to see if it is right for your child, talk to our high school guidance team.

There are many paths to a successful career that will help one lead a comfortable, safe, and sustainable living. Few post-secondary paths today do not require some time of specialty skill, training, or education, however. For many students, enrollment in a college after high school may not be their chosen career path. Fortunately, there are many, many programs available to help a student learn a skill, gain a certification, or provide a pathway to enter an apprenticeship in the trades.

Bellmont High School offers 13 of the 18 career pathway programs available to our students in Adams and Wells counties on-site. Check out the various options below.

Advanced Manufacturing: Welding, Precision Machining (SA), Adv. Manufacturing (AC)

Agriculture: Animal Science/Veterinary Science

Arts, AV, and Communications: Digital Design, Radio/TV

Business: Accounting, Business Administration

Construction Trades: Carpentry

Education: Early Childhood, Education Careers

Health Sciences: Nursing

Hospitality: Culinary Arts (BL)

Information Technology: Computer Science

Public Safety: Criminal Justice, Fire and Rescue (SA)

STEM: Engineering

Transportation: Automotive Services (SA)

This strategic priority involves the things that go into positive teaching and learning: facilities, transportation, food service, technology, procedures, safety, etc. In this edition, we will go over what parents should expect if we need to perform a relocation and reunification.

Last January several schools around Indiana received a surprise in the form of an anonymous bomb threat. Certainly we were all relieved this was determined to have been a hoax, but not before we relocated students off-campus and performed a formal reunification with parents.

Even though North Adams had fortunately trained staff on these responses in November, we still learned a lot and spent several months following the event to look at some improvements to our protocols.

Should we have to relocate students off-campus and perform a reunification, please be aware of the following things:

• If there is a need to relocate, the school's first responsibility is ensuing the physical safety of students followed closely by accounting for each student's whereabouts. First responders will be doing a patrol and scan of the relocation pathway and locations before students arrive at the locations, if possible.
• We will let parents know that students have been relocated as soon as the immediate safety of the students has been addressed.
• At the same time, the first responder agency in charge of the incident will be working to resolve the safety issue that caused the relocation.
• Reunification will be called only after student accounting and the Incident Commander (likely law enforcement) have determined reuniting students with parents is safe. Flooding the reunification sites while we are transporting, accounting for, or holding students while the safety situation is contained may only divide first responder resources and access.
• District staff will be keeping parents informed at least in 30-45 minute intervals as the situation unfolds.

Reunification Procedures for ALL Parents:

• We WILL make parents show IDs for reunification, so make sure to bring your IDs when arriving. We will NOT allow a student to leave with a non-parent/guardian or someone who is not on their emergency contact list.
• Depending on the reason behind the relocation, there MAY be a Parent Receiving site set up at the Old Monmouth School. This step would happen if it appeared resolution to the incident would take awhile or if there were injuries involved in the incident. There would be staff at this site to provide regular updates to parents in-person.
• Plan for this process to take time. Again, whether through checking IDs and filling our Reunification Forms or checking both digitally through ZoomQ, we will be thorough in our release.
• Students will be cared for by staff, receiving comfort, snacks, drinks, appropriate explanations of the situation, etc. They are our first priority.

Parents with ONLY Elementary/Middle School Students:

1. You MUST start on Piqua Road northwest of the Piqua and Monmouth Road intersection. (See the BLUE line on the first map below.)
2. At the intersection of Piqua and Monmouth the road will be closed to two way traffic, and your vehicles will be divided by those who have ZoomQ and those who do NOT to enter the BOUNDLESS CHURCH LOT from the west. (see the next 2 pictures below).
3. You will stay in your vehicles, and staff will bring your student to you as you arrive at the doors on either side of the building.
4. The two lines of cars will converge on the east side of Boundless, and take Bellmont Road east to leave the area. Those who live North or West of Hwy 224 must go North to 900 N. Those who live South or East of Hwy 224 may go South at 700 N. (Continue to follow the blue line east of the church. See the 3rd picture below.)

Parents with Elementary/Middle AND High School Students:

1. See Numbers 1-3 above.
2. The two lines of cars will converge on the east side of Boundless, and take Bellmont Road West to 224 and then Jackson Street to RIVERSIDE CENTER. (Follow the GREEN line on the first map.)

Parents with High School Students ONLY:

1. You will need to access RIVERSIDE CENTER from 1st STREET ONLY. (Follow the RED line on the map below.)
2. Park where directed at or near RIVERSIDE CENTER. (See the 3rd map.)
3. Take your ID to the doors at the rear of the center by the Pickleball Courts to be checked in.
4. Once checked in, get in the queue in the half circle drive in the front of the building to pick up your child.
5. You must exit to the RIGHT or heading WEST on 224.