Shelbyville Central Schools will add three Building Level Behavior Support staff members who will be assigned to each of the three Shelbyville elementary schools in the 2023-2024 school year.

“Each elementary school next year will have a behavior support position. It will more than likely be a certified position. It could be non-certified but it would depend on what the qualifications of the applicants are,” said SCS Superintendent Dr. Matt Vance following Wednesday’s April school board meeting. “We are looking at an additional layer here to help with any kind of behavior issues that students may be dealing with in the elementary buildings.

“A lot of times it ends up being a principal or an assistant principal in terms of discipline. We are hoping this position can run some different programs and do some different things to help us. It’s not always discipline … help with corrective behavior and help students with some issues they may be having and help our social workers. It’s just another layer that we are putting in our elementary schools to try and help our students.”

The new staff member also will be utilized to support, train and coach teachers and paraprofessionals on strategies to help with student behavior.

“We are going to pay next year mostly out of title money,” said Vance. “It is not coming out of our education fund or our operations fund or any other of our current funds. We will reallocate some title money and pay for these positions for next year and see how it goes.”

If successful, SCS could hire similar positions for Shelbyville Middle School and Shelbyville High School.

“We will see how it goes,” said Vance. “At the elementary schools, students are getting started in the school corporation and it’s important to help as much as we can at the lower ages.”

Following an open board meeting in late March where bullying within the school system was discussed, SCS board president Curt Johnson announced that the school system is working on an informational release to update concerned parents and family members. Johnson and Vance confirmed the release will be out either later this week or next week.

In other board business Wednesday:

• Approved the 2024-2025 SCS calendar so families and staff members can now see the calendars for the next two schools years.
• Approved an out-of-state field trip request for SHS students Elizabeth DeRolf and Connor Zobel to attend the BPA National Leadership Conference from April 26-30 in Anaheim, California. DeRolf and Zobel qualified for the national event through regional and state competitions.
• Approved an out-of-state field trip request for eligible eighth-grade students to go to Washington D.C. trip from March 15-19, 2024.
• Agreed to pay support staff for April 14 when the school system was closed due to a bomb threat to more than three dozen schools around Indiana. Dr. Vance made the request to the board to pay the support staff, which is typically not paid when school is not in session.
• Hired Stephanie Munger as the new head girls soccer coach at Shelbyville High School. Munger is currently serving as the assistant junior varsity softball coach.

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