JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- Greater Clark County Schools kicked off the 2022-23 school year for about 10,000 students Wednesday, one of the first school corporations in Indiana to begin classes.
"I've been doing this for 21 years as an administrator," GCCS Superintendent Mark Laughner said early Wednesday at Franklin Square Elementary, where a new classroom dedicated to science, technology, engineering and math opened. "I've yet to see a perfect start, but right now, things are going really smoothly today. The kids and teachers are excited to be back."
Many GCCS students walked into schools fully-staffed with teachers, a luxury not all surrounding school districts have heading into the 2022-23 term.
Jeffersonville High School Principal Pam Hall credits Laughner's commitment to raising pay in helping schools like hers hire new teachers and keep experienced ones on staff. Close relationships with nearby universities also give GCCS schools "the first crack" at student teachers, who sometimes get job offers before they finish their studies, she said.
"I think when you offer competitive pay or you're at the top of that pay scale, it's attractive to people to come," Hall said in an interview Wednesday. "... We have a number of first-year teachers who did their student teaching here and love Jeff High so much that they knew they had a job before the end of the school year."
Students dropped off at Jeffersonville High School on the first day of the 2022-23 school year July 27, 2022.
One of those first-year teachers at Jeffersonville High is one of Pam McCoy's daughters. McCoy, a 25-year educator who teaches government and economics, is sharing a classroom with another daughter as she enters her second year in teaching.
"That's going to test our mother-daughter relationship," McCoy joked.
Both of her daughters graduated from Jeffersonville High, she said.
"I'm super blessed to be able to have him here teaching with me," McCoy said.
Utica Elementary School Principal Kathy Gilland is entering her 10th year as principal and said her school does not experience much teacher turnover.
"It feels wonderful," she said. "We have a high success rate with student achievement, and that momentum is running, and we think it will just continue to. We're so proud of the growth that our students have shown."
Utica Elementary students enter the building on the first day of the 2022-23 school year on July 27, 2022.
The start of the 2022-23 school year also marked the opening of the new STEM classroom at Franklin Square Elementary.
The fully-equipped STEM space was made possible by Niagara Cares and a $30,000 grant from the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, which has provided funding for more than 150 STEM classrooms across the U.S.
The new classroom connects students at every grade level with computer coding, computer programming, robotics and more, and it can be used for cross-curricular activities to connect different academic subjects with STEM studies.
Franklin Square Elementary is seeking recognition as a STEM-certified school, according to GCCS.
Students at Franklin Square Elementary test out the new STEM classroom on the first day of the 2022-23 school year on July 27, 2022.
"We're trying to start our kids as soon as possible in Greater Clark in terms of learning STEM fields," Laughner said. "... We would like to eventually get all of our elementary schools to be STEM-certified schools and do things like what we're doing here this morning."
Utica Elementary also unveiled renovations completed in time for the 2022-23 school year and major projects underway, namely the new wing under construction.
"They're going to come in to new flooring, new HVAC and construction on a new wing, so I know that all of these things will just be another fresh start to a great year," Gilland said.
The new wing at Utica Elementary will house six classrooms for preschool and kindergarten, GCCS Facilities Director Jeremy Shireman said.
It's one of several construction projects in various stages of completion, and Shireman says the project will be complete by spring at the earliest and in time for the 2023-24 school year at the latest.
"When they built this building and previously, those classrooms were not built at a larger size to accommodate the exploratory learning that we have now, so the classrooms will be a lot bigger," he said.
A student heads to Utica Elementary in the rain on the first day of the 2022-23 school year on July 27, 2022.
Two other elementary schools -- Riverside and Northaven -- are getting similar additions to accommodate growth in their enrollments, and GCCS will break ground in January on two new elementary schools to replace older buildings, Shireman said.
"I think the thing that's the most exciting about it is that our community has supported it," Shireman said. "They see the need for upgrading and modernizing our facilities, adding additional space for the growth."
GCCS has executed these plans without recent property tax hikes, which Shireman believes is one factor in garnering support from the Clark County community.
"We're able to do this without adding additional burden on the taxpayers," he said. "... The community is really behind that to be able to bring our facilities into the current times."
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