According to Superintendent Nicholas Wahl, he will continue to evaluate Carmel Clay Schools before attempting to implement an action plan for the school year.

“We plan to present the draft goals to the school board and have a discussion there at a public meeting and adopt them at a next meeting in October, so we have an action plan for the year. We’ll work with the building leadership team to march out these goals as we continue to strive for continuous improvement,” Wahl said.

Senior Jessie Meltzer said that she would like to see the proposed programs through Senate Bill 189 enacted this year.

“I remember last year they talked about a program where senior students would be able to take less courses throughout the year and do a project to prove their knowledge,” Meltzer said. “It’d be a nice way to learn skills that we could directly apply to jobs.”

Wahl said that, due to a lack of directive about the rules and regulations required to implement plans for Senate Bill 189, the school board is currently unable to begin such plans.

Wahl said, “There has been no new information from the Department of Education on the rules and regulations. We’re monitoring that and hope they get some, so hopefully we can expand student opportunities around the bill.”

Wahl also said he hopes to improve communication amongst all groups in the school district, including teachers, principals, parents and students.

“I’ve been in all the buildings multiple times listening to people, which is very vital, meeting with community leaders to listen to their perspective, engaging the principals in active dialogue, and basically a needs assessment on how we do what we do. That’s ongoing with the principals, who have been outstanding and very open to evaluating how we do the business of organizing and delivering instruction to students,” Wahl said. “I think that if I were a reader I’d want to know ‘are you really doing collaboration?’, and we are.”