By Lauren Olsen
The Westfield Washington School Board is back to full strength as Amy Pictor was sworn in as the new policy liaison and board member on March 11. She takes over the remaining term of Dennis Ells, who retired last year after serving for 21 years.
“We have two kids in the school system, one already graduated,” said Pictor. “It’s a great school system, and I wanted to get more involved.”
Land sale
The sale of the 14.1 acres of land is moving forward as the development group and the purchasers have come to an agreement. At this point, the city is working through the process of the sale as the development group already has big plans for the land.
“It appears there will be 60,000 sq ft. four-story building, 15, 000 sq. ft. per floor, built here at the corner. They’ve already talked to three people, the first three people they talked to all want 2,000 sq. ft., so they don’t think occupancy is going to be very difficult,” Superintendent Dr. Mark Keen said.
Ready steps
One year ago, the district moved to a ready steps program, designed to prepare students at the eighth grade level for the PSAT test. The results show that 66 percent of middle school kids are college and career ready while the national average is just 29 percent.
“I think that’s a pretty phenomenal number,” Keen said.
School officials said this test is normally taken by high performing districts and is unique in Indiana as very few districts within the state use the program. Teachers use these results to adjust the curriculum to better prepare the students for high school.
