AVON, Ind. (WISH) — Every month, WISH-TV highlights a local school district with “The Morning Bell,” a conversation centered around new or exciting programs and accomplishments within Indiana schools.

This week, the Morning Bell’s focus is getting people ready to head back to school through interviews with superintendents in central Indiana.

On Thursday, Avon Community Schools Corporation superintendent Scott Wyndham joined Daybreak to discuss the upcoming school year which started on Wednesday.

“It was great. I had a chance to get to all of our schools yesterday and the staff, students, and everybody was very excited. (There were) lots of smiles around the district on the first day,” Wyndham said.

District growth

This school year Avon is welcoming the largest number of students the district has ever seen.

“We will start the school year with just about 11,000 students. More than we’ve ever had before. So we’ve got a lot of construction projects happening around the district and lots of planning that has been underway to make sure that we’re equipped to handle more students coming to our district,” Wyndham said. 

Most of the construction, renovation and expansion projects are slated for completion next summer and will allow the district to make room for more students, all with no increase to taxpayers.

“Avon High School is about 25 years old. The core of that building is about 25 years old. So, it needed some attention. And then just to expand the facility to make sure that we have capacity to continue to serve more students there. The high school project will be about a three-year project. Parts of it were completed this year. So, it was exciting to see students going to new hallways, and new classrooms. Then the rest of the project will be completed by the start of the next school year,” Wyndham said.

Redistricting 

Avon is working on redistricting kindergarten through 8th grade for the 2025-2026 school year. This year they will engage with staff and families to help make the decisions.

“We’re seeing growth at other parts of our district besides just the high school. So, this project will allow us to push fifth grade back to the elementary school, sixth grade to our middle schools, and be one less transition for our students. So, we’re excited about that. To accommodate that though, we have to build a new middle school, expand our other schools. So, we’ve got projects happening at just about every school in Avon to get us ready for this big transition that will happen in 2025-2026,” Wyndham said.

The district is also building a third middle school. Both of the existing middle schools are being expanded to serve a higher number of students. 

Accomplishments

“Our band with some exciting things happening this year, a trip to Macy’s in their future. The Macy’s parade around Thanksgiving. So, lots of exciting things happening, that our staff are doing really great things to get our kids such incredible experiences when they’re in our schools,” Wyndham said.

The four-time (reigning) world champion Avon Marching Black & Gold will represent the community in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on Thursday, November 28.

“Our band has always been very successful, but this past year they won the grand national championship, so really proud of them. And then also the Macy’s trip will be really just a neat experience for our students to go to New York City, experience, the Macy’s parade,” Wyndham said.

Last fall, Avon High School was the only public high school in Indiana to be named a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education. 

The district is also celebrating diversity with more than 100 languages spoken in the homes of students and continued growth in supporting multilingual Learners. Last school year’s Teacher of the Year was a multilingual educator, Sam Smith.

Wyndham’s advice to students and parents 

“For our students and our parents, it is to make the most out of every day. School is a great opportunity. And for our parents to know that we’re partners, and we love partnering with them, and a strong parent and school connection can really have just incredible outcomes for students. And we love to see that and love to be a part of it and appreciate all of our parents just sharing their kids with us every school day that we have them,” Wyndham said.