The Tippecanoe Valley School Board approved the hiring of several new staff members at its regular meeting on Monday, July 18, at Mentone Elementary School including Akron Elementary School fifth grade teacher Amanda Carnes, left, and Valley Early Learning Academy coordinator Nicole Hines. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

MENTONE — The Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. is progressing with its plans to offer child care for employees.

At its regular meeting on Monday, July 18, the Tippecanoe Valley School Board approved the hiring of Nicole Hines as coordinator and Jody Moss as lead instructor respectively for the Valley Early Learning Academy.

The academy, which will begin this school year at Mentone Elementary School, will provide child care for TVSC employees. Several grants are helping covering costs to begin the academy.

Hines, who was at the meeting along with her husband and four children, talked about her background. She’s from Royal Center. She has an associate degree in early childhood education and will finish her bachelor’s degree in December in the same field.

“(I have) over 15 years of experience working with young children (from) birth to age 5 and I’m so excited to start this journey and help build this program from the ground up,” she said.

Other Staff

The board also approved hiring Amanda Carnes as a fifth-grade teacher at Akron Elementary and Amber Miller as an instructional assistant at Akron.

Carnes is to fill the spot of Jon Ocock at Akron, who has switched to being Akron’s PE teacher. The board also approved the latter change at the meeting.

Carnes was also present at the meeting along with her husband and shared some information about herself. She has bachelor’s degree in elementary education and “worked at Mentone (Elementary School) all year last year.”

The board’s next regular meeting is 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 15, at Mentone.