By Casey Jarmes | The News-Review
PACKWOOD – During the Jan. 12 meeting of the Pekin School Board, instructional coach Johanna Neff talked to the board about the district’s plans to begin a drone program, which will provide Industry Recognized Credentials (IRCs) for students. She explained DARTDrones, a leading company in drone training, approached the school last year about beginning a program. Neff stated that she and High School Principal Shawn Dorman were looking into offering more IRCs this year, due to them now counting for a higher percentage of the district’s School Performance Profile Score. This, alongside the large endowment the district received from Roland McCreery to fund agriculture classes, led Neff to begin work to start a drone program.
She explained that DARTDrones offered customizable, turn-key curriculum created by educators, and that this training could help students with careers in Ag, oil and gas, construction, railways, real estate, engineering or food delivery. Neff stated that Pekin Ag teacher Zachary Brecht was willing to teach the class and would need to receive training and certification first. She stated that the district will offer two drone classes: an Intro to Drones class that taught students to understand the hardware and basic flight features, gain hands on experience, and expose them to different careers, with a heavy focus on agriculture; and a certification prep class that will teach FAA regulations and safety, to prepare students to become drone certified. Indian Hills offers certifications, which last for life. She stated that, ideally, the classes will begin next spring with Intro to Drones, with a full year of classes offered in the 26/27 school year.
Superintendent Dave Harper called the drone program exciting, stating it was another thing to offer to kids who don’t have a four-year college plan and a way to promote their agricultural base. Dorman stated that Pekin was at the forefront for these classes and that no other school in the area offered them. Harper stated that they would be able to fully fund the classes out of the McCreedy endowment. Dorman stated that the smaller drones for the intro class would cost $50 or less, but that the bigger drones for the certification class could cost a couple thousand dollars.
Also at the Monday meeting, Harper stated that they would vote between two options for the 26/27 school calendar next month, one that would stick to the current hours and one that would add 1:15 p.m. early outs every Friday. Harper stated that three people in the community had emailed him, two of them preferring a traditional schedule, but that most of the staff preferred the early out schedule. He stated that the early out would better support the district’s Professional Development time. He stated that it was hard to make curriculum robust with just one day a month for PD and that making the schedule consistent and weekly would work better than having meetings a month apart.
Board member and bus driver Mike Davis asked how this would affect bus drivers, noting that it would hurt him bad. Harper stated that Transportation Director Austin Fariss would meet with the bus drivers and get feedback. Davis asked about teachers who live in Fairfield and have children too old for the daycare; Harper stated that was a challenge to overcome.
The board approved the 26/27 course offerings, which will add the Intro to Drones class and combine some Health classes into PE, which will now be called Lifetime Fitness and Wellness; PE teacher Klynt Weber stated they were trying to get away from traditional recreational PE games and focus more on giving students awareness of their own health and teaching them to be proactive about health.
Harper stated that they were looking into ways to possibly bring preschool into the building and expand it to four days instead of two. He stated that the hot lunch account was $17,000 in the plus, but still needed to pay back the $20,000 loan by June; Harper stated that the employee salaries for the lunch program would be paid out of the general fund until the loan was paid back. He stated that a heat pump at the elementary had gone out and needed to be upgraded; Harper stated that a large-scale upgrade for the elementary HVAC system was planned for two years from now. He stated that they were looking into buying two school busses in July, which would cost $230-250,000.
