The Indiana Secretary of Education, Dr. Katie Jenner, visited the Lebanon Community School Corporation on Tuesday, Oct. 17 to celebrate test scores and invite the corporation to join the conversation about reimagining the high school diploma.
– Photos courtesy of Lebanon Community Schools
Jenner visited Lebanon High School to learn about the school’s robust career engagement program, and she spoke with three seniors about their experiences with the program and their takeaways from the program as they look toward graduation. Superintendent Dr. Jon Milleman commented that the three seniors, Breanna Page, Mason Crew and Madi Garvin, impressed Jenner with their experiences and their knowledge, prompting Jenner to invite the corporation to join a select group of corporations across the state tasked with providing comment on the plans to reimagine the high school diploma to better incorporate work-based learning.
“They were the stars of the show, of course,” Milleman said. “In the meeting today, Dr. Jenner learned about their experiences, and they have invited us now to be a part of a cadre of districts in the state to help look at the high school diploma revamp as well as how that’s going to play into workplace learning, and I eagerly agreed to participate in that to be part of that discussion.”
Milleman expressed that the group will be tasked with discussing the barriers that may be constructed with the introduction of legislation and policies, and the group will be leaders in the effort to ensure that any difficulties students may experience are addressed rather than worsened by legislation. Milleman commented that he was eager to join the group as he strives to ensure all students excel through their elementary, middle and secondary education and beyond graduation.
“They’re wanting to talk about that and what needs to be changed within policy manuals, legislation, direction, curriculum and all that,” Milleman said. “She was asking us if we wanted to be part of that group (Tuesday), and I told her that we would be honored to be able to share our experiences and thoughts.”
Jenner’s second stop on her tour of the opportunities found at Lebanon Community Schools was Perry-Worth Elementary School, where she was treated to opportunities to explore the new STEM programming available for the elementary students. Milleman commented that the initial reason behind Jenner’s visit stood with celebrating IREAD-3 scores, but as Jenner began exploring the opportunities throughout the schools of Lebanon, she realized that the programs were worthy of exploration while on her statewide tour to explore work-based learning programs.
“Originally, she contacted us to speak at Perry-Worth and stop by Perry-Worth Elementary to celebrate IREAD scores with them, and in the midst of it, there’s more discussion about the state’s direction in kind of retouring the high school diploma, and part of that is work-based learning,” Milleman said. “We have a lot of examples of success with that within our program here at the high school.”
Overall, Milleman expressed that Jenner’s visit was successful, and he looks forward to the corporation exploring further implementations of work-based learning as well as providing input on the reimagining of the high school diploma.
“We were very pleased to host Dr. Katie Jenner, Secretary of Education for the State of Indiana, to Lebanon Schools (Tuesday),” Milleman said. “Dr. Jenner has been very impressed with our work-based learning program out here at Lebanon Schools.”
