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GARRETT — Garrett students are getting into the Christmas spirit, school administrators reported Monday night.
Students and staff members at Garrett High School collected 2,255 food items for the annual Christmas Bureau food drive, principal Matt Smith told school board members. They donated an average of 3.9 items per person.
Garrett Middle School students raised money to buy presents for needy classmates, said principal Linda DePew.
J.E. Ober Elementary School principal Greg Myers related a story from the Boomerang Backpacks Christmas party at Miller’s Merry Manor nursing home. He said a high school student spent 30 minutes feeding and holding the hand of a nursing home resident she had never met before the party.
Administrators said the acts of charity show the results of the school district’s Character Counts ethics training program.
The theme carried to other topics in Monday’s meeting.
The board honored Garrett High School band director Paul Marlow for his recent selection as director of the year by the Web site Indianamarching.com.
“One of the things they talked about was how our kids show class when they’re in public,” Marlow said. He attributed the students’ attitudes to Character Counts.
The board approved an agreement with the Garrett-Keyser-Butler Education Association, which represents teachers, to cooperate in a Race to the Top application for federal grants.
The teachers and administrators pledged “to do what is best for all parties involved, especially the students,” said superintendent Dennis Stockdale. Race to the Top could require changes in the teacher evaluation process.
Stockdale said administrators at Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools will pay part of their health insurance premiums for the first time.
The school board voted that administrators will absorb an 8 percent increase in health premiums. Until now, the school district has paid all premiums for administrators.
Stockdale said the change means he and other administrators will pay approximately $1,100 per person to cover the increase. He said administrators agreed “to be part of giving back so we can keep everybody employed.”
The insurance change follows last week’s proposal by the state board of education to reduce school spending. The state board said all school employees should contribute equally and fairly to insurance plans.
Schools across the state will be asked to trim a combined $300 million from their budgets due to shrinking tax revenues.
“We’re not going to have a lot of knee-jerk reactions,” Stockdale said.
“Together, we’ll do what’s right for kids and right for employees.”
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