Starke County Youth Club Basketball Program Sign-up

All Starke County students in grades K-4 are eligible to join. 

Registration is $25 for Starke County Youth Club members and $45 for non-Club members. Multi-student discounts are available. 

Students can register at the following dates and locations: 

Thursday, December 3rd at the Knox Elementary cafeteria from 5:00 – 7:00 PM  

Monday, December 7th, at the Oregon-Davis Elementary cafeteria from 5:00 – 7:00 PM 

Tuesday, December 8th, at the North Judson-San Pierre Elementary cafeteria from 5:00 – 7:00 PM.  

Kids Closet Receives a Plethora of Supplies for Upcoming Back-to-School Event

Published: July 25, 2015 By: Jacque Ryan, WKVI

Kids Closet Ministry annually provides school supplies to underprivileged children in Starke County with their Pack-a-Backpack event. Community members get the chance to contribute during their school supply drives. This year while Kids Closet was posted outside the Dollar General stores in North Judson and Knox they received an ample amount of supplies from weekend shoppers. However it was the donations from two other local foundations that helped provide the new backpacks for all the donated supplies.

Kankakee Valley REMC donated 100 backpacks along with enough supplies for 100 children. Kids Closet also received a generous monetary donation of $2,000 from Starke United which helped offset the cost of buying even more backpacks. With the collected supplies and bags Linda Lewandowski, founder and director believes they have enough resources available to help 100 more kids than last year.

She said, “We should have about 350 backpacks. We will also have a table set-up for those that might need school clothes for their children. Last year we had about 250 kids walk through our door, so this year I’m thinking, we’ll have more.”

In order to receive a backpack parents are required to fill out some paperwork, confirming that your child is enrolled at any Starke County School. This offer applies to any kids attending local pre-schools as well as any students going to North Judson-San Pierre, Oregon-Davis or Knox Community schools this fall.

This event is meant to assist students on free or reduced lunch. Since Kids Closet operates on an honesty policy no information is required proving that you are in need of assistance. However, if you can afford school supplies you shouldn’t abuse the organizations’ trust and potentially take a backpack away from a family that cannot afford it. Kids Closet Ministry will be in fellowship hall at the North Judson United Methodist Church on Monday, July 27th and Tuesday, July 28th from 5 o’clock until 7pm.

Several Area Schools Considering Balanced School Calendar

By: Ben Haut, WKVI
Published: January 24th, 2014

A number of area schools are considering the possibility of implementing a different school calendar than has been the norm for more than a century. North Judson-San Pierre School Superintendent Lynn Johnson told WKVI that she presented the school board with a presentation for the 2015–2016 school calendar using the “balanced calendar” system which stretches breaks out over a school year.

“A balanced calendar means that your breaks are balanced throughout the school year, and so basically instead of having a long summer break, you have intersessions every nine weeks. One of those breaks would be for intersession for remediation, so instead of waiting until the summer break, we’re able to remediate kids and, hopefully, in the future, also offer enrichment opportunities during that time period,” Johnson explained.

Johnson said NJ-SP is considering implementing the calendar along with the Knox, Oregon-Davis, Culver, Triton, and Plymouth school corporations, among others. She said community meetings will be held in March at all the area school corporations to present them with information about the balanced calendar system.

The balanced calendar system includes two-week intersession breaks between each nine-week session, but would require students to start school earlier in August. The calendar would also include a summer break, but it would be no longer than eight weeks long, according to Johnson.

“The major benefit is that we don’t have that large learning gap over the summer break. We’re no longer an agrarian society; kids don’t need to be available to work on the family farm. It’s a model that was established 150 years ago and it’s just no longer relevant. So the balanced calendar is not a year-round calendar; it’s still 180 days, it’s just broken up differently,” Johnson said.

The first meetings will be held on March 4 and March 6 at the North Judson-San Pierre School Corporation, beginning at 7 p.m.