Batesville Community School Corporation

09/10/2026

Bulldog Ready Attribute of the Month: CONFIDENCE

From kindergarten Mandarin teacher Guili Zhang:

"When you give students the tools to learn, there is no limit to how far their CONFIDENCE will take them.

In class, we have been working hard on counting and writing numbers 1 through 5 in Mandarin. But one of my amazing students, Miles Prickel, decided that 5 just wasn’t enough! Driven by curiosity and the CONFIDENCE to try something new, he went completely above and beyond and wrote all the way from 1 to 10 on his whiteboard.

Seeing our students take ownership of their own learning journey is the absolute best part of teaching. It takes real courage and confidence to jump ahead and try a new challenge all on your own, and he absolutely crushed it!

Check out that proud smile and his incredible work. Join me in celebrating Miles’s dedication to learning!"

We are !

09/10/2026

Bulldog Ready 101: What is a pathway?

Students follow one of our high-quality pathways (one 3-course sequence) in a selected field that includes post-secondary credits, certifications, and support from community partners. While not every possible student interest is represented by a pathway, all of our pathways prepare our students for life after high school by teaching them real-world skills.

Today's highlight: Engineering! Our engineering pathway leads to a variety of careers. Bulldog Ready student ambassadors Solara Scheel, Macey Benjamin, Katie Moenter, and Issac Butz are our representatives, sharing their pathway knowledge with other students and community members.

09/10/2026

Yesterday marked the kickoff of our new 7th Grade Community Service Series — and our first group set the bar high.

Five 7th graders, along with BMS teacher Mr. Pierson, spent half of their school day serving at Versailles State Park alongside volunteers from SIMBA — Southeast Indiana Mountain Bike Association.

The group hiked tools and supplies into the woods, helped remove an old bridge from one of the park’s mountain bike trails, and hauled materials back out so SIMBA members could install a new bridge later in the day. Along the way, students learned more about the work SIMBA does to maintain and improve local trails while also getting to enjoy some pretty incredible scenery.

This is exactly what we hope the Community Service Series becomes — students learning by showing up, lending a hand, working alongside community members, and seeing firsthand how their time and effort can make a difference.

A huge thank you to SIMBA, Versailles State Park, and Mr. Pierson for helping make our first experience such a meaningful one.

Community-connected learning through real-world experiences. We are !

09/09/2026

There is still time to help Batesville Primary School with its Walk-a-Thon fundraiser! See below for all of the details.

BPS Walk-a-Thon - Batesville Primary School PTO - Cheddar Up. Collect online payments for events and fundraisers with Cheddar Up.

09/09/2026

Yesterday, our BCSC teachers stepped outside the traditional classroom for a professional development day, experiencing firsthand what Community-Connected Learning can look and feel like.

Throughout the day, teams explored more about project-based learning: How we can make learning more meaningful, using engaging projects to connect strong academic standards with real-world purpose?

We are not asking teachers to create more projects. We are challenging ourselves to look at what we already teach and ask: How can we, as educators, give students a stronger reason to care and a more authentic way to apply their learning?

From hearing directly from students about the learning experiences they still remember, to digging into standards, exploring community connections, collaborating with colleagues, and beginning to redesign existing units, our teachers spent the day doing exactly what we hope our students will do — question, explore, create, reflect, and learn together.

A huge thank you to our staff, facilitators, and community partners who helped make the day possible. This work is about more than one professional development day. It is about continuing to strengthen the connection between our classrooms and our community so that BCSC students experience learning that truly matters.

We are !

09/09/2026

Work-Based Learning Wednesday is back!

Throughout the year, we'll feature some of our high school students who are getting real-world experience in the community.

Alex Shupe is a BHS junior who works in the Batesville Tool & Die Tooling Department in robotics automation, earning high school credit for this experience.

Thank you to BTD for hosting Alex!

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09/09/2026

BHS Senior Viktor Aylor Named National Merit Semifinalist

Viktor Aylor, a Batesville High School (BHS) senior, has been named a semifinalist in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program, BHS Principal Brad Stoneking announced. Aylor, the son of Mitch and Gerlinde Aylor, is among approximately 16,000 semifinalists from across the nation recently named semifinalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

National Merit Semifinalists were narrowed down from 1.2 million students across more than 20,000 high schools who took the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) test in the fall of their junior year. Each state is granted a preset number of qualifiers proportional to its percentage of the nation's high school graduating seniors. The cutoff scores vary by state, generally representing the top 0.5 to 1% of students in that state. As a semifinalist, Aylor will continue in the competition to receive a National Merit Scholarship.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, the semifinalists must have a consistently high academic record, write an essay, be endorsed and recommended by a school official, and take the SAT or ACT, earning a score that confirms the PSAT performance. About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to do so, with about half of those students earning the Merit Scholar title and a National Merit Scholarship. Many of those who are not selected for the Merit Scholar title will receive other academic scholarships from their college of choice. National Merit Finalists and scholarship winners for 2027 will be announced next spring.

“Achieving National Merit Semifinalist status is a true accomplishment,” said Stoneking. “In the spring, we hope to be able to add his photo on the wall at BHS, joining the 27 previous National Merit Finalists from the Batesville Community School Corporation.”

09/08/2026

Bulldog Ready in Action: September's Attribute of the Month is CONFIDENCE!

From 5th grade teacher Charla Westerfeld at Batesville Intermediate School:
"BHS senior and work-based learning student (cadet teacher) David Wilson demonstrated the Bulldog Ready attribute of CONFIDENCE by reading aloud 'The Great Fuzz Frenzy' to my class."

We are !

09/04/2026

Game start time update for all of our Bulldog football fans! Please share!

09/04/2026

Just a reminder that there is NO SCHOOL on Monday, Sept. 7 (Labor Day) and Tuesday, Sept. 8 (Professional Development Day). If you see our teachers out and about downtown Batesville on Tuesday, they are participating in planned group activities to brainstorm ways to bring learning to life in the classroom. We are !