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NILES — The Brandywine Adult Education program could be ending at the end of the school year if Brandywine Board of Education members follow a recommendation from Superintendent Travis Walker.

Walker outlined the reasons for his recommendation at Monday night’s Brandywine School Board meeting. The item was a discussion item on the agenda and will likely be brought back for action at a future board meeting. The board’s next meeting is Jan. 6 at the Brandywine Middle/High School media center.

“It’s been an ongoing discussion for several months,” Walker said. “We’re at a point where it could be advantageous to close the adult education portion of it, not all alternative education.”

“If Niles schools didn’t have adult ed, I wouldn’t suggest this,” he added. “We’re a smaller district and the program takes a lot of time away from Mrs. (Elise) Sorensen and Mr. (Ray) Wilburn and their other responsibilities. Giving it up isn’t going to hurt the district, keeping it won’t help.”

Walker noted that Sorenson’s role as director of adult and alternative education has been increasingly challenging as the district gets more students with IEPs (individualized education program) and more students requiring help. “That needs to be our focus,” he said.

He said the Brandywine adult education program has eight students enrolled now with four of the eight likely to graduate this year. He said he has talked to Niles officials and they say that they have no intention of ending their program. He added that he believes the Niles program could handle the Brandywine adult students.

Monday’s meeting was held at Merritt Elementary School and featured a performance by Merritt students.

In addition to the report about adult education, Walker highlighted Substitute Educator Day which was Nov. 22, a recognition of Leader Publications Sports Editor Scott Novak at Friday’s basketball game with Dowagiac, and his three-day visit to Arizona last month as part of the Next Generation Education Workforce Initiative.

He said the Dec. 13 basketball games with Dowagiac will recognize Novak’s efforts to promote Brandywine and other local sports teams. Novak died after an illness last month. “We will take a moment to recognize Scott, he was a big part of Brandywine sports,” he said. “He was a big proponent of our coaches and a big supporter of our athletes.”

With the Next Generation Education Workforce Initiative, Walker said he was able to attend a conference in Arizona, visit schools and classrooms and participate in panel discussions. He said the experience also gave him the chance to network with other Michigan and Indiana educators in attendance.

He said the schools they visited and the educators they talked with were working on concepts such as project based learning, standards based grading and student centered teaching that he would like to bring to Brandywine. He said the educators he talked to were excited about instituting these new types of programs.

“I was able to pick their brains,” he said. “They really reinforced the idea of teachers working together and collaborating,” he said. “One classroom had 90 students and four teachers all in the same room and you couldn’t tell who was teaching which subject.”

“It’s something I see a lot of value in, now it’s about how we bring it back to Brandywine,” he added. “We’ve done a lot in a short time and it’s a matter of where we can integrate these ideas. It’s not something I can come back and mandate, we have to see where we can dip our toes in this.”

Walker also took time to highlight the district’s community giving efforts. He said that the district has been able to step up and provide foot and gifts for 60 families this holiday season through a combination of fundraising as well as donations from community organizations, businesses and staff. He specifically thanked Sturgis Bank, Peerless Electric and Custom Computer Company.