South Knox School Corp

South Knox Elementary School began the 1999-2000 school year in a beautiful new school building located next to the South Knox School Corporation Office. The two elementary schools in the South Knox School Corporation, Decker Elementary and South Knox Elementary have consolidated in this new building. It is a Kindergarten through Grade 6 building of approximately 645 students. The school is located on State Highway # 61 next to the South Knox School Corporation offices and the South Knox Middle-High School. The instruction is presented, for the most part, in self-contained classroom assignments. Students are departmentalized in grades 5 and 6 as a means of transition conditioning for middle school. There are 4 sections of each grade K-6. The average class size is 23 students per regular ed classroom. Special education classes are provided for Speech & Hearing, Mildly Mentally Handicapped, and Learning Disabled or Emotionally Handicapped. There is also a Title I program for reading in grades 1-2, and a music program and art program with specialized teachers. Three 30 station computer labs with Internet capabilities are provided for all grade levels and an instructional aide is on staff in the computer lab at all times. All other curriculum areas are taught by the classroom teacher. There is a large playground with traditional playground equipment and a fenced regulation sized Little League baseball diamond. The school facilities are used heavily throughout the year for activities outside the regular classroom instruction. The school gym is used for our own boys’ and girls’ basketball programs. The gym is also used by the South Knox Middle School and South Knox High School for various team practices. Other parts of the facility are used to support Girl Scout and Boy Scout groups. The school has a very active Parent-Teacher-Organization (PTO). The PTO provides funding for a wide variety of activities and materials for the school. Activities, such as book parties and cultural arts programs, along with providing learning/teaching materials for the classroom, students, and teachers, plus rewards for student achievement, are examples of the excellent support given the school by the parents and the community. The community is completely rural with approximately 75% of our students’ families living on farms or having their primary income source from various agriculturally related businesses. The majority of the other employed population work in the county seat of Vincennes, especially at the Good Samaritan Hospital and Vincennes University, or in other nearby cities such as Petersburg, Princeton, Washington, or Lawrenceville. Approximately 20% of all students qualify for the free lunch program and over 99% of the population is Caucasian. Students feed into the South Knox Middle School after completion of the sixth grade and then to South Knox High School after completing the eighth grade.