How Rushville Consolidated High School Is Reimagining Education (And Preparing Teens for Real Life)

What if high school prepared teens for real life—not just college? In this episode of The Hoel Truth, Liz Meek (Assistant Principal at Rushville Consolidated High School) breaks down how they're transforming public education with EMT, criminal justice, and career certification programs—all while supporting early college for those who want it.

🎓 What we cover:
-New diploma options: Enroll, Enlist, or Employ
-EMT, Fire & Rescue, Digital Design, and Dental Tech pathways
-Early college dual-credit programs with Ivy Tech
-How real-world experience is shaping better employees and people
-Why Rushville grads are more prepared than ever before

📞 Want to mentor or hire local talent? Contact us at 765-561-4023 to get involved.

Transcript

Liz, how is Rushville High School setting up kids for success for after high school?

We are making sure that we are helping all students. We have opportunities for students for wanting to go to college. We are looking at early college programing, dual credits graduated with the ICC.

We also recognize that that's not for everybody. So wanting to make sure that we are providing opportunities for students, for the workplace, for the employment, we have our fire and rescue, our EMT programs, we have criminal justice working on partnering with KLR for students that are currently right now getting vet and dental certifications. So we have opportunities for students for college and also careers.

Welcome to this edition of the Hoel Truth Podcast. Today our special guest is Liz Meek, with, Rushville Consolidated High School.

Currently the vice principal over there. So, let's take a second, introduce yourself and, just tell us kind of what your role is with the high school. I am the assistant principal at the high school. This is going into my third year. I was the curriculum director for two years at Rushville before I became the assistant principal.

So I kind of do a little bit of everything. I help Mr. Zachary, who's our new dean, and I help him with some discipline I go through. I'm the testing coordinator, I talk about attendance with students, and I just yeah, I'm a 2010 grad from Rushville High School. I still live in Milroy and I love being a part of this community.

So, recently married within a couple of years, married another Rushville alumni. So, that's that's always cool to see, you know, on our end. So we kind of were talking off camera a little bit like some of the we've seen a shift in the public education. I love Mr. Cook. Principal. I, I love his energy.

I love, like, I mean, he's genuinely there for the right reason, you know, to help the kids. Yeah. And, you know, we're seeing a shift where we're trying to help kids be more prepared for after high school in more prepared for kind of what their fate is if it's military, if it's work, if it's, you know, continuing their education.

So kind of, kind of tell some of the different stuff that the schools, transitioning into. I know you mentioned that even the freshmen this year, their diploma is going to look completely different, when they're done with high school. Yes.

So with Indiana, they've made quite a bit of change with the new diploma system. You know, it used to be core 40 academic honors, and those were your diplomas.

And that's what our current 10th, 11th and 12th graders are under. And Warren and I, this is our third year working together. And we've talked to that. We're pretty sure Indiana had his office bugged, because a lot of the things that were coming out with Indiana, with the different kind of pathways or the different buckets, you know, the enroll in list employee, we had talked about trying to figure out how we could do that at Rushville before it was come out as being mandatory.

So we wanted to make sure that our students were graduating Rushville, not just with the diploma, but with some sort of experience, with some sort of skill that they can take on with them. So when we're looking at the, you know, the employee section, you know, the students, that they really want to get that certificate and then go right to work when they're done with high school.

And we really try to support that. We've started some different programs, and we've really just tried to figure out what we can do to make our students successful, to make sure that they have what they need to be members of society and to be good people. Yeah. So what? We're kind of talking a little bit. I know they've added like, the fire department, or the fire degree or however you guys call that the EMT.

Like, what are some of them specialties that they can come out of high school with a certificate, you know, within the next couple of years, we have the connection to Whitewater Career Center. We've also there were some programs that they didn't have that we were really wanting to start. And a couple years ago, Warren had met with the mayor to talk about, okay, what are some things that our community needs?

And some of those things were fire and rescue, criminal justice and paramedic. So those are the three programs that we initially started with to make sure that we were focused on. And as of now, we have those three programs up and running. Students are able to get dual credits from those programs. So we have our fire and rescue class, we have our criminal justice, and we have our EMT program in the EMT.

Their classes actually are out of the work center on Main Street, and the other two are housed in the high school. But we've also started digital design pathways for students. We have our construction pathway, and we've just partnered this year with KLR, and we've able to put students in that tech programs and dental tech program. So we're just being able to expand those types of programs for students.

And they're getting like when I'm thinking of the fire and rescue, I mean, they have the fire gear. They're able to go into the burn houses and they're able to get that real experience. And that's with all of our other programs, too. With the EMT program, they're taking a look. They have an ambulance, a real ambulance that they're taking a look at and they're practicing.

They're doing getting their phlebotomy certifications. So they are getting all sorts of things. That being a Rushville grad, I would have never imagined our school being able to do.

And it's just it's really cool to be able to provide those experiences for students. So what does does it is that a a block every day? Is that a couple blocks every other day?

Like what's that look like. And then is that for juniors and seniors only. What how are some of them program structured. So some of the programs are dependent on age. So for example with the EMT you have to be a certain age to take that EMT certification. So we really like to see seniors in that program. And it is an every day either in the PM or Am.

Okay. So right now we have in the EMT program, we have juniors in our Aim sessions. So they go to the rest of the work center every morning for two blocks a day. So their morning until lunch is over there in that, in that building. And then for seniors in that building, there they are in the afternoon every day.

So it's kind of like a whitewater situation where they're gone for half the day. And then with our criminal justice, it is in the mornings. That whole chunk of time, they see them every day. And then for Fire and Rescue, it's in the afternoon. So it just kind of all depends. Our counselors are amazing. And looking at, okay, how can we make the schedules work?

Right. They have the big boards and we have to take a look there. With the construction and the digital design pathways, those are a little bit different. They're able to be sprinkled in throughout the day. So students aren't having to be gone for an entire half a day. But for those, those bigger ones, the fire and rescue, criminal justice and EMT, it is a whole block kind of an entire half of a day.

So what does I mean? Are them all teachers teaching that? Is there anybody, you know, out in the community teaching any of them? How does that work? So with the with the CTE classes, it's a little bit different. The career technical education classes, teachers are able to get a workplace specialist license. So for example, we have Richard Tracy who was our fire and rescue teacher, and he is a current active firefighter.

And he comes in and he's able to teach those. And because of the hours of experience, he was able to get that work, pay workplace specialist license to teach. Okay. Our criminal justice teacher, he just came on this year. It's Brian Sherwood. He's actually an active police officer in Connersville, okay. And then he comes over here to teach those classes.

And then Bill Hufford is our EMT teacher. And again, he's a paramedic. So he got that workplace specialist license and he's able to teach that way. So it's a little bit different when it different requirements when you're looking at CTE classes versus like a math or an English class. 

So one thing that I we kind of taught like what my college looked like, and one thing that I always appreciated, and I went to Cincinnati State, gave them, an associates degree, but my dad was like, take as many night classes as you can because he's like them or teachers that are out in the real world.

And, like, it's kind of cool because I genuinely felt like most of the time I enjoyed them classes, maybe better just because, like, they would kind of sprinkle in like especially, you know, it's 20 years ago to so, you know, they would also sprinkle in like, how do you make a better, a better employee one day. You know, where now I do feel like, the high school, like every time that we talked to somebody inside the high school, they're always like, hey, tell these kids what they need to do to, you know, to be the best employee.

And so now I feel like there's a little bit of a shift that a way of like making sure we're teaching that at high school. But that's cool to hear that. You know, there's a lot of community members that are coming in to pour into the kids because then kids are going to see them, business owners or police officers or whatever out in the public.

And I just really feel like the kids are probably going to resonate, with them, with them people outside, you know, not that full time teachers aren't awesome. Like saying thank you for that. Like the people called to be teachers. Please do that because we've all been positively affected by an awesome teacher, you know? So, but yeah, and that's one thing we're just trying to get.

And Mr. Orme, he is our career coach now, and he has started career corners. So when students have SRT he is trying to bring in different community members. So even those students that are in those specific programs talking to the different community members, different businesses to talk about those things, because that's something that we're really trying to teach students.

Yes, you need to make sure that when you're talking to someone, you are looking at them, make sure that you have these skills, because it's really hard for some students to be able to get up and talk or I, you know, because they get scared. But my main thing is you got to do what scared you gotta you got to get up there and make it happen.

Well, and that's why I like I enjoy like FFA and and organizations like that because you had to go like if you were part of that, you had to go do a leadership contest, you know, and you know, and phones are great and technology is amazing. But then again, we've still got to be able to sit here and have a conversation without doing this.

Like, yeah, I mean, I had some I worked here that there was a problem of what they did. I sent them a video and just like, hey, let me show you why I ask you to do it this way. I was like, let's talk about this tomorrow morning. And I responded back, can we just text about this? Like you couldn't even, like, look you in the eye and you know, like I said, technology's great, but there's still a human element.

And I've even heard some statistics with now that Covid is kind of behind us completely, hopefully, like, people are wanting more one on one connection. They're wanting they're, they're they're not liking Amazon as much, like they're enjoying walking into the hardware store and talking to that guy to pick up that piece because they they crave that. You know, just talking to people and seeing people.

And, so, yeah, and that's one of those things, you know, the high school, when we're looking at making sure students are coming to school and just trying to make as many connections as possible with them, making sure that they feel seen, having as many touch points, because if they they know that someone at the high school is wondering where they are and not there, or just that that connection piece is is so important than anything.

Yeah, they're wanting their loved and unfortunately there's some kids that don't feel that at home. So you know you may think you're being disciplinary. And it actually may be helping them because they're like, oh, well, miss me actually cares enough to say, why wasn't I here yesterday? You know, you know or miss me, here's that my mom's sick or, you know, something like that.

So, for sure. So Rushville grad, we were just talking about your dad used to go to church with you guys. 20 years ago. Once again, I'm getting old. Yes. So. But I start hiring people that their birthday, their birth year is when I graduated high school. It's like, holy cow. Like, so, But no.

Yeah, it's kind of. This is my 12th year in education because I was a middle school teacher first, okay. For seven years. And then it's it's just I always kind of takes them like, wait, how have I been out of college that long? How how is this how is this possible? So where'd you go to college? Franklin College.

Okay. And you went for education? Yes. Okay. Yes. I started off as a secondary math major. Okay. And it was one of those things that the math I was, I was like, why am I doing this to myself? I love math. And so I wound up I had a math minor, elementary, because I wanted to teach middle schools what I wanted to do, and I could I could achieve that with the elementary degree, with the middle school math endorsement.

So I did that, and I graduated, and then I taught at Center Grove Middle School North, and I taught sixth grade for a couple of years and went to seventh grade for a couple years and went to eighth grade. And then I decided I wanted to make the change to administration. And now that I've been in high school, I never want to go back.

I love working with high school and being able to. When we talking about, you can see them walk across that stage with those skills and setting them up for their future. I love being able to be a part of that.

So did you always think you would get out, get on the administrative side or not? No, I, I had Mrs. Brasch for as my math teacher and it was, you know, dress up day like homecoming.

One of the days at Rushville. And I asked her for her calculator belt. And I'm sure Mrs. Brashear probably still has that calculator bell. And because I was wanting to be a math teacher, and that's what I was going to do, and I wore that calculator belt around with my calculator in there. And, and that was just one of those I that's what I wanted to do.

And the more that I got in there, I love that. But I wanted to see what else I could do, what kind of bigger change I could help. And honestly, I you know, when you fill out your Rush County Community Foundation scholarship applications plug for that, make sure that you felt those scholarship applications, you know, one of the questions was why something about why?

How would this be benefit you? And and I wanted to give back to my community, but I never thought realistically, how would I be able to do that and come back. So then when the position opened up, I'm like, this is kind of a full circle. And then walking into the high school where I graduated and being able to make real change for the high school in the community, that was something I never thought was even possible.

But now that it's able to happen, it just it's it's really exciting. You know? And I mean, I think people feel I mean, the older I get, the more I thoroughly enjoy talking, being around people that are sold out for the mission that they're on like that actually enjoy. I don't care if it's cleaning. I don't care if it's being an electrician, a doctor, but an educator, an administrator.

Like it's when you hear, when you talk to somebody that, like, lights up when they talk about what they do, like, that's that's the kind of people that I want to be around. And that's the kind of people I want my team around. My kids around, you know, we, a bunch of us here in the office worked with a nurse, with work with a nurse practitioner.

And she, like, the same way it's like she gets giddy talking about stuff, and she's like, I'm sorry. I'm kind of nerdy about this. Like, no, I, I enjoy that, you know? So that's that's fun. And, and what I really like to see is I feel like the high school is showing a path where these kids can go out and get a job.

And I hope that the kids understand, like, there's businesses in Rushville that are looking to hire good quality people, like, forks in it. To have, you know, Adam, he went to school in Rushville. Jonathan went graduated from Rushville. We love Ellie. She went to Connersville. We still love her, you know? But it's it's cool to see, you know, Adam's talent of videography and that kind of stuff to be able to be used in a business in Rushville, you know, to me, that that's fun.

And that's why I like I'm always trying to talk to the high school of, like, what do you have? Is there any kids that need mentors and kids that need jobs like, you know, how can we show them away? And it even if it's just a stepping stone, like, you know, yeah, I mean, if I could hire a kid that worked half days, you know, their senior year and they came in on full time the day they graduated, like, I'd be more than happy for that.

But also, I'm completely fine with just helping them and teaching them like, hey, you know, here's what you're doing. Well, here's what you need to work on. Like, because when you go to the real world, you're in the real world right now. But when you make that next step, like, that's what that's what is going to set you apart.

You know, some people have that with their parents, some people don't, you know, and some people just need reassured. Because I get it. I didn't listen to my dad really that much when I was 18. But if Doctor Robb would have said was said something, he could say the same thing my dad said, yeah. And it's like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, and it's just as important, you know, we have students that are able to intern at the hospital right now and they're able to go on the different rotations and see different things. And there are some sections that the student thought, yes, this is really what I want to do. And they're like, no, that is not at all what I thought it was, because you can be in high school and you can hear about the different things that are going on.

You're like, yeah, I think I do want to do that job or but until you see it and live it, you don't know, right? So make those being able to do that in high school where it's kind of a low risk. Yep. You're not spending years doing something and getting a degree in something that when you actually go to the job, you're like, man, I did not think that was going to be.

And it's just it is a really exciting time at Rushville because, you know, we're we're making sure that we're helping those kids on the workforce end. But also, you know, we're starting to try and be this early college program and helping students figure out and have the support so they can be successful in college. So we are really trying to make sure that every single student, no matter what they want to do, we're going to be able to ride the supports and the tools for them to be successful when they graduate.

So. So what does that early college thing look? Because, I'm not anti college. It's just I feel like we were put my my generation we were pushed so hard to go to college like without even knowing what you want to do. So me and my wife Emily get a lot of opportunity to go talk to kids, especially in the personal finance class that we sponsor.

I think we're up to 7 or 8 schools this year. And we try to go and see every classroom, and try to talk to kids. And, you know, one thing we always say is like, don't be afraid to go get a job for a year. If before you do decide to go to college, you know, but if somebody knows exactly what they want, like, what is that college prep?

What's that looking like? Now, because, like, when I was in school, you could take, like, advanced placement or CV college prep classes. But I think that's developed quite a bit. Yeah. We do not have AP or CP classes anymore.

We have dual credit classes. So those are college credits that can transfer to college. And we have Chris Bottomley.

He is our Ivy tech academic advisor. And he is in the building on Mondays to help with students to figure out what classes they need to take. We offer the Indiana College court that is a block of 30 credit hours, that if they get that set block, it is guaranteed to transfer to any public Indiana University. And there's also some, private colleges that are taking that as well, like UMD and, I believe there's a couple others that I just can't remember right now.

But before when you would have kind of sprinkling of dual credit here and there, colleges were able to say, you know what? No, that doesn't count when you took it in high school. You have to take our class. Right. But now with it's that chunk in Indiana past that says that schools have to take that. So that is a benefit.

If the students know they want to go to a college, they want to do that. They actually get to walk across the Ivy tech stage. And we've done that for the last two years. We had, I believe, 21 or 24 last year, walk across the Ivy tech stage with their Indiana college core. It's a ceremony up in Richmond, and we go there.

They have the Ivy tech gowns. It is really cool. But they're able to get those dual credits and they could potentially graduate early from college. So it's saving them a year of college. They could. Some students are double majoring. They wouldn't have been able to double major without those classes. So looking at that and then the early college program, we're looking to start that next year.

It's through SEL and UMD. And there's different schools around that have early college programs, but they look at a set of core principles, you know, college going culture and being able to support students that maybe they're a first generation college students. So their parents didn't go to college, and students that maybe could be successful, but maybe they just don't know about it.

They don't know the lingo because there is a lot of vocabulary and a lot of words that people just don't know. What is the Fafsa, what what are these different things that you have to do? What is a bachelor's degree versus an associate's versus? It's just things that students are aware of. So it's how can we provide those supports for students to be successful in the college classes there?

And we have dual credit teachers. There's some schools that don't have the teachers qualified to teach school credit. We are very lucky. We have amazing teachers that have those certificates, and they have the master's degree in the amount of hours in the classes. So we have teachers that are teaching dual credit, math, English, science. We're working on getting some.

And we all have social studies and we're working on getting some other areas as well. And then Spanish, we have that.

So we have lots of dual credit teachers and lots of options that we're able to provide and has tons of dual credit. And I know I'm probably missing some subjects, but the main thing is we have lots of dual credit options for for students to get that.

And if they decide to go on to Ivy tech and get a two year degree from there, a lot of those classes are transferring. So they're saving money that way. So it's not just if they want to go to a four year college, it's any type of post-secondary schooling that could be beneficial for. Well, and I mean, anybody that's been around me long enough knows that we're we're huge Dave Ramsey fans and you know, like like I love to see because it was what felt like it wasn't that many years ago.

People are like, oh, I got to get all these student loans. I've got to go to this school. And Emily always tells a good story. Like she went to Ivy tech. She kind of felt left out. You know, some of her friends went to IU, and she kind of felt shamed for not going to a university. Now how her life has unfolded, it was probably one of the best things for her.

And I always say this when we're in classrooms, like, I genuinely wish that girls that were getting ready to go off to college would, like, know what that feeling of motherhood is. Because, like, I feel like we're we're in a phase where stay at home moms is more popular thing these days. And like, I've witnessed a lot of people that went out of state or went private and couldn't, couldn't afford to be a stay at home mom and like, and working mom, stay at home mom.

They're they're all amazing, like, I don't some people want to shame. Oh, you work like you're a horrible mom or oh, you're lazy. You stay at home like everybody's full of crap on that, you know? 

But now, don't get me wrong. As a, high school administrator, I don't want a bunch of high school pregnant seniors. I'm not saying that for you guys, but I'm just saying, like, I like I love to hear as much as this is being pushed because it's just way more economical to go to Ivy tech or, you know, they think to make sure that they look at all the different options, you know, and not just say, you know,

I want to go to this college because I know what it is, or I've heard the name, but actually look at that and, you know, how much does it cost you? It's not just the tuition, the room and board. If that's something you want to do, maybe you can save money this way. So it's just trying to figure out what we can provide at the high school to make sure that they're making an informed decision about what they want to do and what's best for them.

And one thing I always try to tell kids, like, I don't care where your degree came from, I know Adam's got a degree from Ball State because Adam's told us that. Okay, I don't know what it is about these Ball State, these Ball State grads, but you know,

I know Jonathan has a degree. I don't know where it's from.

You know, if you ask half of our team, if me and Emily have a degree, they they probably wouldn't even know the answer, you know? So, and, I know one of my sales guy. He finished his degree because both of his parents were attorneys, and I think he just wanted. And he finished it at night, you know, and one thing I always tell kids is like, go find something you're passionate about.

And, like, if somebody came to me and was like, I want to do accounting, is there any way I could come and work for you and you help pay? Like, yeah, if you would agree to work for me for so long, absolutely like it, then they could be getting, you know, on the job training and not have any, you know, college debt, you know, like, and.

Yeah, like, they may have aspirations to go work for a big corporate company in downtown Indy when they're 25 or 30. Okay. Like I'm not going to hold anybody back. So I guess that's a that's the one thing that I like to see. Like I like to see the choices. And especially as a, as a business owner because I've got an environmental engineering degree, my wife has a medical assistant degree.

Like, how does that have anything to do with running your roofing company? And, you know, another statistic I always point out is that it used to be 80% of people were not in or their chosen or their whatever their degree is in an in professional field in five years. So like that's kind of crazy. Yeah. That's right. Now I also always say this too, if you want to be a doctor, you want to be a nurse, please go to college.

Because if you work on me or you need to help treat me, please know what you're doing. You know. So I'm not completely anti college. Don't get me wrong. You know, it's like I guess I'm pro education and that education could be hands on. It could be a technical school. It could be a trade school, it could be university.

There's just so lots of different paths for everybody, you know, and we're just trying to make sure that students understand there are different skills that they need to learn and see what we can figure out as a high school. What can we do to make sure they're successful and be good people and good humans? And we are just wanting to make sure that we have the best experience for them.

And what so is there any we are kind of talking, like you said, business math now considers a math credit because I kind of ask you off camera, like for those for those ninth graders, for that new the new diploma, okay. For the new diploma. Okay. Because I kind of ask you off camera, like, is there anything is there any shifting?

Because I felt looking back, there was some classes that we had to take in high school that especially as a, a boy, especially as a junior and senior, you're like, what the hell am I taking this for? I'm never going to use this ever again, you know? But you did mention that there's some class, there's some shift in some of that where.

Yeah, especially with the new diplomas coming up. So to me that that's good to hear. Because I feel like we're preparing these people, we're preparing these kids for the real world that way. Yeah. And they're able to, you

know, so there's different that enroll, enlist, employ and looking at because each of those, each of those columns, when you're looking at the employee requirements, the analyst requirements and the enrollment requirements, you know, with enrollment you need to have, you know, at least four credits of world language and different classroom requirements that way.

And then when you have the employer, you're looking at, you know, an increased number of work based learning hours, looking at the it still has, you know, and the number of math credits, the number of science credits. But the restrictions on the types of classes are not as, not as it's not as restricted as when you're looking at the enrollment, because they still want to make sure if a student wants to do that four year college because they have different requirements for admissions there.

So making sure that students are getting what they need to be admitted into those classes. So then the employer, you know, you have your your credits of math that are needed, but the algebra one is the requirement. And then you can use some different classes to satisfy those other math credits. So a little bit more flexibility in that high school experience for students who are like I don't need to take precalculus, I don't need to take quantitative reasoning, okay, how can we help you and be successful in the classes that could be beneficial for you?

So what what does the list, process look like? I guess so that would be so some high schools have a JROTC program. There's some different classes, some public safety classes that are required. Right now we don't have an a JROTC program. Okay. So if a student now, if a student said, I want to do this now, that also doesn't mean that a student can't graduate with an employee degree and still do the enlistment.

You know, they can always still interact, right? So it just has different requirements, different types of service hours, different community service. It has some specific classes that they have to take for that enlistment seal. But any student is able to graduate with the diploma. And then, you know, they take the Asvab to take a look at that.

They meet with the recruiter. They're still able to do that even if they don't get the enlistment diploma, they could still enlist if that's what they want it to do. Awesome. Yeah. Well, there's I just want to thank you for your time coming in here. It's, it's been a joy. And just, you know, as a local business owner, like, we're here to support you guys.

Mr. Cook knows that, several of the teachers know that. But, thank you for sharing your talents with our community. You know, like, one thing we talk around here a lot is, like, legacy and, like, what's your legacy going to look like? And like your legacy is going to live through so many kids, you know, that you're you're you're most likely never going to know their kids names, but, you know, you're you're going to affect that in a positive way.

So we just want to thank you for your time today. Thank you. I'm always excited to talk about the things we're doing at Rushville. Sometimes I feel like we have lots of different things going on, but it is it is really exciting and I love being able to talk about it. And I'm just excited for, this is my third year going in to this school year, and from day one to now, what we've been able to provide and is exciting.

So I can't wait to see the things that three years from now, looking back, what what what are we going to change there? So it's just it's an exciting time in education and I'm excited to be here with my team being able to do it this way. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you for tuning in!