On Wednesday, March 11th, the East Noble Board of Education unanimously voted in favor of the proposed changes outlined by the administration in January of this year. LaOtto Elementary School will close it's doors forever when the final bell rings on the last day of school this year. LaOtto houses classes for students in Kindergarten through 5th grade.  All these students will move to Avilla Elementary School for the 2009-2010 school year. They will also be greeted by a new principal!  Mr. David Pine will move from principal at Rome City to take the leadership role at the Avilla Elementary School.  Fifth graders from LaOtto and Avilla will be housed in 6th grade classrooms at Avilla for 2009-2010. 

Avilla's 7th and 8th graders will move to the new East Noble Middle School located in the former Kendallville Middle School building in Kendallville IN. 

They will be joined by the 7th and 8th graders from Rome City. All students will be welcomed by Travis Heavin, the new middle school's principal.  Mr. Heavin comes to East Noble Middle School from Avilla. 

Mr. Jim Taylor takes over the leadership of the Rome City Elementary School, a K-6 grade building starting in the fall of 2009. Fifth graders at North Side, South Side, Rome City and Wayne Center will remain in their home schools as sixth graders next year.

Many exciting opportunities are coming from the changes that are occurring at East Noble. We look forward to them!  If you have questions about  the changes, please feel free to contact any East Noble administrator for a chat.

Students who would have attended LaOtto's kindergarten next fall should attend the Avilla Elementary School Round Up. The date and time for this year's round-up is located in another article on this page. 

CHARACTER COUNTS! at East Noble

CHARACTER COUNTS! of the East Noble School Community is a new, voluntary partnership of all public schools in eastern Noble County, along with other agencies serving youth, plus a number of contributing and grant-making supporters.    The stated mission is to uplift the attitudes, aspirations and achievements of youth in this school community through a purposeful community-wide initiative focused on character development.  Our partnership gives school and agency employees leadership, training, resources, a common vocabulary and methodology for imparting the Six Pillars of Character (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship).  All trained staff are expected to teach, enforce, advocate for and model these character attributes in all settings. 

CHARACTER COUNTS! of the East Noble School Community was recently launched in nine district schools, and at other partnering sites including our YMCA, two daycare sites, two faith-based youth organizations, two public libraries, and the Four County Vocational Cooperative.  This has immediately reached over 4000 youth, ages 3 to 18, and many of their families.  This community-wide initiative is open to any cooperating youth-serving institution, and any supportive business, service or social club, church, organization or agency.  So far, local grant-makers and donors have underwritten many start-up expenses.  This initiative has received enthusiastic support from the general community, and specifically from the school board, the Mayor’s Office, the City Council, a number of local service organization, businesses, and grant-makers.

Educators at all schools, as well as administrators, secretaries, instructional assistants, custodians, bus drivers, and cooks, are encouraged to teach, enforce, advocate for and model the Six Pillars of Character in their work with children and with each others.  Similar expectations exist at the job sites of every partner organization.  It has instantly become the definitive model for purposeful character development at every public school and partnering site in four townships. 

A team of forty Character Development Specialists lead this initiative at each one of the schools, and at each partnering site.  The Specialists have participated in an in-depth training by the national faculty of CHARACTER COUNTS!, and they are charged with training their own fellow staff at their job site, and then leading the effort at that location, be it a school, YMCA, library or daycare, and coordinating those efforts with the other partnering groups in the community.  The Specialists are also charged with maintaining fidelity to the principles of CHARACTER COUNTS! in their work, and in their own lives.

Parents are strongly urged to look for and read communications from the schools about CHARACTER COUNTS!, so they, too, can effectively discuss these important traits with their children.  Parents are the most important partners schools can recruit to this initiative.  Private citizens, businesses, service organizations are invited to contacatEast Noble to find out more about how they can effectively support strong character in our school community and among our growing children.