Board approves expansion of STEM program with the TIGER Academy
Karen Wilson, right, the Bardstown Middle School speech and drama coach, tells the board about students’ recent successes at local, regional and state competitions.
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
The Bardstown Board of Education discusses The TIGER Academy, a proposal to extend science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) program content throughout the district’s schools.
Tuesday, April 19, 2016, 11 p.m. — The Bardstown Board of Education approved a proposal to request funding from the Bardstown Foundation for Excellence in Education to expand the school district’s focus on STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — and create the Bardstown TIGER Academy.
The Bardstown TIGER Academy is the district’s next step in its STEM program which began three years ago with funding from the foundation, according to Amy Adams, the gifted and talented programs coordinator.
The academy expands STEM to include arts content and adds an “A.’ The “arts” curriculum that turns STEM into STEAM includes a variety of content, including english language arts, reading, writing, presenting and more, which will be embedded into the STEM content.
The program offers an immersion in STEM content that will be directed from 3-year-olds all the way through eighth grade, Adams said.
The TIGER Academy’s main focus is to see that all students are exposed and engaged in STEAM learning opportunities as often as possible, she said. The program will also have additional opportunities for gifted students to address their needs, give them more time to explore and engage, more rigor and challenge.
For students in grades 4 through 7, the program will offer a full day of instruction to those who qualify. A second outreach program will take STEAM content to other classes, and provide teachers with ready-made lessons, activities and content assessments. The program will use the district’s existing STEM resources.
A funding from the foundation will also fund a teacher for this program.
“We’re going to look very hard for the right person for this position,” Superintendent Brent Holsclaw said. “We want a person with the kind of love and passion that we need for this position. We think we have some people who can do that.”
SUMMER NUTRITION PROGRAM. The board approved the district’s 2016 Summer Nutrition application that will offer free breakfast and lunches to children up to age 18.
The program will operate this summer from June 6 through July 22. The program is free for children, and adults who accompany them can eat a meal for a $3 charge.
Breakfast and lunch will be offered at the Bardstown Middle School cafeteria, with breakfast available 8-9 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Holsclaw told the board that the popular program fed about 1,300 children last summer. The federally fund program costs the district little more than the use of the facility.
In other business, the board:
— approved changes to the district’s Certified Evaluation Plan.
— set Bardstown High School’s graduation time and date as 11 a.m. Saturday, June 4, 2016.
— hired Betty Pendergrass as an audit consultant.
— approved hiring an occupational therapist to replace a therapist who left to take another job.
— announced a special meeting to discuss the Leader In Me program at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 27.
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