FRENCH LICK — The four Dubois County school corporations were honored for their commitment to collaboration — and not competition — at a Regional Opportunity Initiatives annual report meeting Tuesday.
Greater Jasper Schools, Southwest Dubois Schools, Southeast Dubois Schools and Northeast Dubois Schools were awarded the first-ever regional collaboration award by the nonprofit at the gathering.
“They exemplify what it takes to collaborate effectively, and I’ve been incredibly impressed with their high standards, their commitment, their hard work, professionalism and determination,” Michi McClaine, ROI assistant director of education initiatives, said as she presented the corporations the award. “These characteristics define Dubois County.”
While other schools across the state compete for students, funding and teachers in a less-than-favorable education climate, Dubois County schools implement a different approach.
They operate on a universal calendar. They pooled money and resources together for a countywide professional development day. The Patoka Valley Technical Cooperative allows students attending school in one corporation to take classes in another.
Northeast Dubois Superintendent Bill Hochgesang said that instead of fighting for enrollment numbers, the schools want all area students to get a great education.
“We’re an anomaly,” he said. “Nobody else really has that type of relationship amongst their schools.”
ROI’s mission is to support economic and community growth in Dubois, Brown, Crawford, Daviess, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Orange, Owen and Washington counties. The organization formed in 2016, after the Lilly Endowment awarded the organization’s steering committee a grant worth $25,870,000.
Local school corporations are currently working together in a yearlong development process with ROI for a countywide grant that could net them a pool of $1 million that would be distributed over a four-year span.
ROI granted the Dubois County schools $300,000 in the form of a development grant last July by way of the inaugural Ready Schools Initiative, a program that seeks to better align schools’ K-12 curricular and programmatic offerings with the education and workforce needs of the area.
Whether the schools receive the $1 million will depend on how well their implementation proposal addresses ROI’s six core principles — that every student is engaged in a relevant path to success; students graduate high school ready for post-secondary and career success; meaningful and ongoing collaboration occurs among schools, industry, and community; teaching and learning are grounded in relevancy; K-12 schools are aligned around a common vision of student success; and schools embrace the significant role they play in achieving regional prosperity.
The four Dubois County corporations each have a designated representative who works with teachers, parents and community business partners in their area to develop this proposal. Rick Gladish is the Northeast Dubois representative as well as the coordinator of the other three corporation representatives in the county.
He said that the corporations’ plan is still in rough draft form and will be closer to its final form in a few weeks. He didn’t want to disclose the details of it, but said the goals of the plan are to meet the needs of all four county districts.
Tom Heeke, a director of human resources at Kimball International, also attended Tuesday’s event and said that while each corporation may have its own challenges, collectively, they bring a diversity of perspective together.
“I think it’s a great collaboration that we’re trying to simplify some things and working as a Dubois County unit versus four independent schools,” he said. “It has certainly streamlined communications and hopefully accelerates the speed at which you’re operating because we’re all working together.”
The implementation proposal will be submitted this summer and the plans that receive funding will be announced shortly after. Brown County Schools and Loogootee Community Schools are also developing an implementation plan.