Board of School Trustees honors 20 displaying core value at Feb. 27 meeting
By Kenzie Gamlin | HCCSC Communications Intern
During the most recent school board meeting on Feb. 27, members of Huntington County Community School Corporation were invited to be recognized for displaying HCCSC‘s core value of High Expectations, High Achievement and Accountability. The members were grouped by Executive Secretary Cindy Gray and thanked and congratulated by Superintendent John Trout and Director of Elementary Education Jay Peters. Director of Secondary Education Chuck Brimbury then gave a brief summary of their achievements.
After being verbally recognized, Superintendent John Trout and School Board Trustee Kevin Yarger gave the individuals an official certificate in honor of their core value and took a picture with the group to remember the moment.
During the board meeting, 20 members of the community were invited to be recognized for their achievements. These include the Andrews Elementary School robotics team, the Crestview Middle School robotics team, the Huntington North High School academic quiz bowl team, Kayla Reich, Annika Carpenter, Luke Teusch and Bobby Blair. All of these individuals will receive a congratulatory letter and a picture of the moment to remember for a lifetime.
The Andrews and Crestview robotics teams were the first two groups recognized for having such a successful season so far this winter and qualifying for the state competition on March 25.
The members of the Andrews robotics team are Teagan Lahr, Mattox Wallace, Levi Walter and Kendall Yarger, with coaches Blake Childs and Annette Little. The Crestview robotics team consists of Noah Bolinger, Isaiah Bordeaux, Collin Eidson, Cole Ellet, Brandt Kline and Ryne Scott, with coaches Travis Bolinger and Jon Bordeaux.
The next group invited to the recognition for their achievements is the HNHS academic quiz bowl, unfortunately they could not attend the recognition in person, they still did receive a verbal recognition and will be sent a letter of congratulations. This is the first year the HNHS quiz bowl competed as a team, coached by HNHS teacher John Petrovich.
Even though the team is new, the five seniors, Mason Hill, Kendrick Myers, Dylan Palmer, Ian Pax and Peter Pax, who participated performed spectacularly, even qualifying for the state finals. Being one of the only 16 schools competing at state finals on Feb. 18, the five unfortunately lost their first round of competition but continued to the third round of the “Bounce Back Bracket.”
Reich, a senior on the HNHS girls swim team was recognized next for setting a new school record in the 50 yard freestyle. Reich has been swimming for many years and this record-breaking time is just one of her many accomplishments throughout the seasons.
With this being Reich’s final high school swim season, she went into the Jay County Sectional Preliminaries on Feb. 2 and swam the 50 free in a time of 25.66 seconds. This broke the 25.94-second record set by Tyffany Patrick in 2007. Reich will continue her education next fall at Purdue University.
Alongside Reich, sophomore swimmer Carpenter was recognized for another successful season. Carpenter also broke a school record and turned in her second school record in the 100 yard backstroke. Also attending the Jay County Sectional Finals, Carpenter broke her own school record by one one-hundredth of a second, bringing her record of 1:01.56 to 1:01.55.
This time sent her to the State Finals in Indianapolis, where she placed 32nd in the 100 back competition. This was Carpenter’s second time competing at State Finals, succeeding her freshman year where she competed in the 100 back and also with fellow teammates Delaney Houser, Kaydince Kalhoefer and Reich in the 200 yard freestyle relay.
The last student to be recognized at the meeting was Teusch, a member of the HNHS wrestling team also was recognized for a successful athletic season. Teusch not only placed fourth at semi-state and competed at the State Finals, but he also reached his 100-win milestone for his career, earning a 43–3 record for the season.
At the State Finals, Teusch competed in the 145-pound weight class. Unfortunately, Teusch did fall in the first round against the eventual state champion of their weight class. Even though Teusch felt the loss, he represented HNHS with excellence. Teusch has the chance to achieve 150 wins before his high school wrestling career is over, a task not accomplished by many.
The final member of the night being recognized by the school board was Blair, the HNHS JROTC director. He was recently named the Dept. of Indiana VFW’s Teacher of the Year for the High School Division.
This accomplishment is very well deserved by Blair, as he has created an excellent program for many students at HNHS, a program that pushes kids to help their community, learn survival skills, push themselves in competitions and teach them the basic understandings of being a leader.