YMCA: The Valparaiso YMCA is looking to expand services to the south Porter County area. They are looking at providing summer programming and have developed a survey to help gauge interest. Check out this link to provide feedback to the YMCA! This is great for our community!
Community Child Care Needs Assessment Survey
Virtual Inclement Weather Make-up Day: Don’t forget, we will be having virtual make-up days on February 13, 2015 and April 6, 2015.
ISTEP+ Testing: You may have read about ISTEP+ testing times in the newspaper this weekend. This year we have new standards to assess and the state is also implementing "technology enhanced items" on the test this spring. Both of these items lead to increased testing times--adding up to about 20 hours in grades 3-8 for this spring. This encompasses both the practice tests and the testing sessions for the applied skills and the multiple choice tests. Obviously this is a lot of time spent in testing. These test scores are used to determine if each student is making adequate growth, and to determine a school's A-F grade (measuring teacher effectiveness). Spending this much time testing is a challenging way to accomplish this goal. What can you do? Reach out to Governor Pence, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz, or your Senator or Representative.
Empty Bowls: Watch for more information on the Empty Bowls event which will be held at BGHS to support the Porter Township Food Pantry.