This and that: … including more on Vinton’s 4-day school week
This and that: … including more on Vinton’s 4-day school week
Plus, campuses in contrast on Gaza demonstrations. And catching up with the praise the National Science Foundation, Sen. Young heaped on Purdue’s semiconductor research push
Today’s edition is sponsored by Daybreak Rotary Club, hosting its 17th annual “A Toast To Mental Health” Thursday, May 2, at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds. The fundraiser, featuring live music, food and live and online auctions, benefits three Tippecanoe County mental health agencies, NAMI West Central Indiana, Willowstone Family Services and Mental Health America-Wabash Valley Region. For tickets, check here or click the link below.
Now, catching up on this and that on a Monday …
MORE ON VINTON ELEMENTARY’S 4-DAY PLAN
With the second of three parent meetings coming today/Monday about the north end Lafayette grade school’s pending move to a four-day week in August – the first of its kind in Indiana – a few more details about the logistics emerged from the first meeting with Vinton Elementary and Lafayette School Corp. leaders.
The first meeting, held Wednesday in Vinton’s cafeteria, drew parents of nine students from an elementary that LSC says has roughly 420 students. The questions about the Monday-Friday schedule, including longer school days, mostly centered around how kids would get to and from school, day care possibilities on Fridays while parents worked traditional five-day schedules and timing for before- and after-school extracurriculars.
A few things that came out last week:
About the plan: The LSC school board voted in mid-April to move Vinton Elementary to a four-day week, after the State Board of Education granted LSC a three-year waiver in late March, clearing the way to start the new schedule as soon as the 2024-25 school year. Initially, LSC had discussed pushing off the idea until the 2025-26 school year. But Alicia Clevenger, LSC’s associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction, pitched the plan to start the four-day week in August to coincide with LSC’s move to a three-tier transportation plan that will change start and dismissal times across the district next fall. Based on results from four-day schedules gaining traction in Missouri, Utah and a handful of other states, LSC officials say they believe the concept could be a recruiting and retention feature for teachers and staff and would build on the district’s goal of bringing more school choice options to LSC. (LSC also is introducing a dual-language program to Edgelea Elementary for 2024-25 and already has a balanced calendar schedule at Oakland Elementary and a high-ability program at Edgelea. Clevenger said LSC is contemplating concepts for STEM and performing arts.)
The new school day: Vinton will be in class 8 a.m.-3:45 p.m. next year. That compares to 8:30 a.m.-3:25 p.m. at the other seven K-4 buildings under LSC’s new schedule. With the state allowing LSC to count minutes of instruction instead of the usual 180 days for schools, Vinton will be in class 275 minutes more – 64,175 minutes over 151 days, compared to 63,900 minutes over 180 days – than the other Lafayette elementaries. The state requirement is a minimum of 54,000 minutes.
Transferring in/out of Vinton: While LSC was studying the idea, Vinton Principal Cindy Preston told the school board that a survey of parents last school year found that 52% said they favored moving to a four-day week, 23% were against it and the rest were undecided. The new test: How many families in Vinton’s boundaries are still on board. Preston and Clevenger said last week they weren’t sure. LSC has a transfer policy that will allow students to move to another LSC elementary – with a choice of three, so no one school gets requests difficult to manage – or for students at other schools to move to Vinton. The deadline for that choice is July 31, with forms available at Vinton and at LSC’s Hiatt Administration Center, 2300 Cason St. Transferring from Vinton to another school would include transportation, with buses taking children to and from other elementaries from the school at 3101 Elmwood Ave. Transferring in from other parts of LSC would not include transportation.
About Fridays: The YMCA will have day care based at Vinton from 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays. Bethany Childcare at Preschool, based at a church across the street from the school, has offered space from 6:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays, too. Both will cost $25 a day.
Breakfast and lunch programs: Chartwells, which has the student meal contract with LSC, will serve breakfast and lunch to Vinton students on Fridays. Preston said students will have to eat the meals at the school, so there won’t be a carry-out option. Preston said food backpack programs now geared for Fridays would shift to Thursdays.
Studying the results: The four-day schedule is touted as a three-year pilot program. Preston said Vinton and LSC plan to study academic metrics, attendance trends, discipline and what she called climate and culture at the school in that time.
Extracurriculars: Parents asked about before-school choir and other programs, given the earlier starts and later dismissals. Preston said Vinton would look to bring those back after seeing how the first semester goes in fall 2024.
More info sessions: Vinton and LSC have two more informational meetings about the four-day schedule, set at Vinton Elementary, 3101 Elmwood Ave.:
3 p.m. Monday, April 29
8:30 a.m. Thursday, May 2
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NSF DIRECTOR, SEN. YOUNG TOUT PURDUE’S CHIPS WORK
The director of the National Science Foundation last week heaped praise on Purdue and its work in semiconductor research during a ceremonial ribbon cutting amid ongoing renovation of a clean room and more at the Birck Nanotechnology Center on the West Lafayette campus.
Sethuraman Panchanathan, NSF director, joined U.S. Sen. Todd Young for a tour of the facility, along with a Presidential Lecture Series talk with Purdue President Mung Chiang. The day was devoted to the follow-on effects of the CHIPS and Science Act and how it, as Panchanathan put it, was about seeing how the U.S. could “supercharge our innovation ecosystem.”
“Big and bold is what I see at Purdue,” Panchanathan said.
Purdue trustees agreed in spring 2023 to put $49 million toward renovations for Birck Nanotechnology’s 13,000-square-foot clean room space, in anticipation of research tied to semiconductor and quantum-focused research on campus and Purdue’s push to help the state recruit chip facilities to Indiana. That investment was what Purdue said was the first phase of plans to put $100 million into the Birck Nanotechnology Center. (See: “‘We won:’ Inside the chase for a $3.87B SK hynix chip facility in West Lafayette.”)
“This is our own skin in the game, our own statement of support and our own dedication of resources for the students, faculty and industry partners in semiconductors,” Chiang said Thursday during the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Young, an Indiana Republican, authored and carried the CHIPS and Science Act, a $280 billion piece of legislation passed in 2022 that puts $52 billion toward planting semiconductor research and manufacturing across the country.
“This center has long been aware that you just needed the opportunity – you needed to be given the opportunity to produce the workers for the emerging technologies of tomorrow,” Young said, talking about Birck Nanotech’s position in the hopes of burgeoning U.S. chip ecosystem. “You are doing that with great expertise and attracting the attention of businesses and government leaders alike in the process.”
Panchanathan said he saw the CHIPS and Science Act as more than just rebuilding U.S. capacity to develop and make semiconductors.
“Yes, it is about chips, that we are trying to make sure that we capture and recapture and seize the global leadership position, no question about that,” Panchanathan said. “But it also is a moniker, if you may, what is happening with semiconductors. It is that we will not let that happen on AI, on quantum, on advanced wireless, next generation systems, biotechnology – you name it. We are not going to be in a position when you're going to have to go back and seize anything. You will be the vanguard of all of this innovation, so far ahead in terms of competitiveness. That’s what the CHIPS and Science Act guarantees.”
He encouraged Purdue to continue to look at producing research that in turn produces what’s next in technology.
“What the NSF is investing in today doesn't even have labels for those technologies that are going to emerge from in next decade or two decades or three decades from now,” Panchanathan said. “We will then say, ‘Oh, that’s a great technology.’ But guess why that happened. Because of NSF investments now, persistent investments now.”
Part of that conversation, of course, was derailed when students interrupted the lecture in Fowler Hall to challenge Young to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and to defund military capability of Israel. Read about that here: “Demonstrators confront Sen. Young at Purdue, as pro-Palestinian encampment goes up on campus.”
Speaking of which …
GAZA DEMONSTRATIONS, CAMPUSES IN CONTRAST
A demonstration encampment, dubbed the “Purdue Liberation Zone,” persisted through the weekend, with groups camped on Memorial Mall to call on support for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment by Purdue in assorted defense-related research and industry partnerships on the West Lafayette campus. The strategy includes an attempt to skirt campus’ policy against unauthorized camping on university grounds by members setting up overnight shifts that stay awake through the night. Through the weekend, the protest hadn’t faced police. Purdue did not immediately respond Monday morning to questions about whether that situation would hold. Purdue Exponent reporter Wil Courtney had this update from the fourth day of the encampment, first set up Thursday on campus: “Protesters dodge 'camping policy' on fourth day of 'Purdue Liberation Zone.’”
That was in contrast to some of the pro-ceasefire/pro-Palestine encampments that have popped up on more than 50 U.S. campuses, including Indiana University in Bloomington. There, the demonstrations have led to calls for police to clear tents and arrests, which bring sanctions of one-year suspensions from the Bloomington campus. The Chronicle for Higher Education pulled some of that together here: “Some Professors Face Punishments as Colleges Crack Down on Gaza Protests.” The Indiana Daily Student, a campus paper at IU, had running updates on the scene, including police action there in this file. The IDS also had this after IU President Pamela Whitten and Provost Rahul Shrivastav put out a letter about the escalating situation, saying “the events of recent days have been difficult, disturbing and emotional.” The story’s here: “Student leaders denounce Whitten, Shrivastav’s first signed statement on protests.”
Thanks, again, to sponsor Daybreak Rotary Club, hosting its 17th annual “A Toast To Mental Health” May 2 at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds. For tickets, online auction items and more information, check here.
And while we’re here: I'm not saying it's up there with a Day of Fishing with Sheriff Bob Goldsmith or a round of golf with former Purdue coach Gene Keady (actual auction items at A Toast to Mental Health), but you could come drinking with me and get a year of Based in Lafayette tossed in. Why they asked, who knows? But it's a for real thing: Details/bidding here.
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Isn’t it interesting that IU has arrested 23 students while Purdue is handling the situation without the help of the state police? We must realize that these students have means to the “real” news that the Israelis are preventing us from having. Even US Rep Katie Porter’s standing committee is unable to get the reports coming out of Israel! They are sitting on the desk of the Sec of State Blinken. But if they were released, and proved that the Israelis were bombing citizens - such as the people in the hospitals - are strictly off limits, the US would cut off $$$$ and military equipment. Where do we think the bodies now found in the MASS graves came from? Tortured some with hands tied behind their backs, burned! Maybe if you knew these reports, we might change our attitude about the wicked murderous Palestinians that had nothing to do with Oct 7.