FLORA —
Sophomores at Carroll Junior-Senior High School will have two more vocational courses to consider for their junior year.
School board members Wednesday night approved two courses — one in athletic fitness training and physical therapy and one in recreational and mobile equipment. The equipment course will focus on repair and maintenance of motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, small tractors and similar machinery, according to superintendent Chris Lagoni.
Administrators recommended these courses based on student interest surveys, Lagoni said, and what was already available through the Indian Trails Career Cooperative, of which Carroll Junior-Senior High School is a member.
Carroll high school will be one of a few Indiana schools to pilot the athletic training and physical therapy course this coming fall. Only the first, junior-level course has been developed so far and approved through the Indiana Department of Education’s career education office.
Students who complete the career pathway that includes the athletic training and physical therapy course will be eligible for job-ready certification as a fitness instructor right out of high school, once the pathway is fully developed.
Three other classes toward that certification — anatomy and physiology, medical terminology and a general health sciences class — have already been approved at the state level, according to the IDOE’s website.
The recreational and mobile equipment class will be housed in existing lab space, but the school will buy new equipment for it, Lagoni said.
That will include a lift that Lagoni hopes to procure using federal funds allocated through the state for vocational education under the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act.
“I’m hoping we can get one for under $5,000 but it just kind of depends,” said Lagoni. He’s consulting with area mechanics to research what kinds of lifts the school should consider, where to acquire them and what other equipment will be necessary.
Some equipment, like specialty tables and lab equipment, will also be purchased for the athletic training and physical therapy class.
Lagoni expects to hire some additional part-time instructors to teach the two new classes.
The school board on Wednesday also announced it began talking to a law firm to start the eminent domain process.
Withered Burns LLP based in Lafayette have submitted documentation of what their fees would be if the school corporation decided to invoke eminent domain in order to acquire a 10-acre tract of land south of the school, Lagoni said.
“We just did the first step. That doesn’t mean we are going to move forward totally with that,” Lagoni emphasized. “Anything could happen along the way that, we could work out a resolution or find a solution without having to engage eminent domain.”
The corporation wants to use the 10 acres to add a bus lane at the drop-off points, to keep bus traffic separate from cars and pedestrians, and to create a buffer zone at the south end of the school property.
The land is currently used to grow crops and beans, Lagoni said.
According to the Carroll County GIS, the 30-acre parcel adjacent to the school’s south side is owned by the Wagoner Living Trust.
Sarah Einselen is news editor for the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at sarah.einselen@pharostribune.com or 574-732-5151.
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