The South Central School Board Wednesday night approved changes to the student handbook and the athletic code of conduct.
Superintendent Kerry Herdes says the handbook change addresses a growing concern about misuse of Artificial Intelligence.
“We want to make sure that kids realize that we don’t want them using AI to just write their papers from scratch and plagiarize articles that have been written by other people,” Herdes said. “We want them to work on doing their own work and judge them for what they write. We’ve got some filters and filtration systems to judge whether they wrote it, or whether it was just taken word-for-word from another author.”
Herdes says students utilizing AI will be asked to re-do their papers and face potential other penalties to be decided upon by the principal.
The Athletic Code changes will add potential suspensions for activities outside of school that place the athlete or school in a bad light.
“It’s not just when you have that uniform on,” Herdes said. “When you take that uniform off you still represent the district. You’re one of our athletes, you’re one of the kids that our younger kids want to be like and look up to.”
Penalties will be up to the coach but could result in a two-game suspension for first offense, four game suspension for a second offense and potential removal for the season for a third offense.
The board approved an amended budget for the 2023-24 school year. Herdes says all funds are in the black with a $20,000 surplus.
The board was told concrete pads for the new outside walk in freezer at the elementary building have been poured. While the new freezer will cost around $100,000, there will be a quick payback as the school will now be able to accept an additional $30,000 in free commodities from the state each year.
The board commended retiring bookkeeper Ginny Keen for her work over the past 15 years.
Following closed session, the board approved the resignations of High School Math and Assistant Scholarbowl Coach Emily Piper and Color Guard coach Sarah Beth Williams. The retirement of teacher’s aide Julie Green was approved.
The board hired Cameron Eischens as high school math teacher and Lacy Green as elementary teacher’s aide.
The board named Alex Phillips as elementary school lunchroom supervisor. Paul Ruholl and Jeremy Chasteen were named co-middle school softball coaches. Jeremy Dodson was named middle school assistant baseball coach, Spencer Johannes as high school assistant baseball coach. Jordan Geiler was hired as high school assistant cheer coach and Bianca Little as Marching Band/Color Guard coach.
