RIPLEY — At their meeting on earlier this month, Ripley Central School District Board of Education members learned that the district has initiated a new program called Capturing Kids Hearts.

District Superintendent William Caldwell told board members that the program “is a shift in the way we interact with our students.” The program, founded by Flip Flippen, is designed to have all school personnel interact with each student every day. According to the website, “from an early age Flippen experienced the critical role educators play in the lives of children. In fact, it was his second-grade teacher who encouraged him to spend the rest of his life helping people reach their potential.”

The goal of the program is to increase the trust children have in school personnel and to build strong relationships with the kids, so they will be more eager to learn, Caldwell said. “It’s all about creating & building relationships with students and colleagues,” he said.

Ripley Principal Micah Oldham said the school year started strong and the program seemed to be well implemented. He noted the training program, which took place before school began, was very practical. “They gave us a lot of concrete ways of applying the program,” he said.

One focus of the program, Oldham said, is for adults to know how they communicate nonverbally, such as body language, tone, etc. “A lot of the tools they gave us to implement the program, the teachers have really latched on to,” he said.

Caldwell followed up by noting that the program will take a lot of commitment to implement it fully. “It is a shift in the way we interact with our students and will take some time for everyone to acclimate to the changes,” he said. Nevertheless, as Flippen has stated, “If you have a child’s heart, you have their mind.” In other business, Caldwell updated board members regarding the plan to sell parcels of land to people whose properties connect with land owned by the district. The property which is on the lower part of Ross Street suffers from bad drainage. Caldwell told board members that some of the neighbors had installed drainage tile to help alleviate the problem. “They don’t own the drain, it’s our responsibility,” he said. “It’s more like a partnership we have with them.”

Difficulty in selling the parcel revolves around how to divide it and how to price it, Caldwell said. “If it was one person buying the whole thing, it would be much easier,” he said.

In another matter, Oldham told board members that there was a gathering of the entire student body, in which they discussed character strengths at RCS. He said he plans to tie this subject into the monthly reading challenge. “There a lot of different things that make Ripley a special place,” he said. Oldham also spoke about how students who went through Eagle U showed “minimal regression” in terms of retention of learning. “Some actually advanced in learning,” he said.

The district will also be starting on its safety program, Oldham said, including such things as fire drills and lock downs. “It’s been a really big start to the year. There are very good vibes running through the building,” he said. In response to a question about the possibility about another COVID shut down, Caldwell said the district will follow the protocols of self testing. “We have not been given any direction from the state, as far as restrictions,” he said. He also noted that the district has an order for 50 new COVID kits that have the latest up-to-date tests.

Oldham added the school will do everything possible to avoid having a shut down. “The only way we will not have in school learning, is if the state mandates it,” he said. “Everyone knows that students don’t learn as well with an in-home environment, so we don’t want to go back to that.”