Dennis Coffey
Interview with Barbra Spike
September 29, 2011
Me: What was your path to the Academy?
Barbra: My daughter applied to the Academy in 1994 and since she was my last
child at home, I decided to look for a job and I found out there was a
temporary opening at the Academy, and I applied for it, got it, and I’ve been
here ever since.
Me: So you’ve been here 17 years?
Barbra: Yep.
Me: So what is your job as the Administrative coordinator?
Barbra: It is basically the lead support staff person; I do not directly supervise
the support staff people and all the other branches, but I do keep track of what
they do and make sure it’s coordinated. I do all the contracts for faculty and
SLC’s and make sure that everyone gets paid on time. I also do some purchase
orders and help out with college counseling. I do one third of each class’s
students and meet with them regularly and try to help them get into the
colleges of their choice. There are many other little jobs that we do basically
having to do with the bureaucracy of having to work within a high school, a
special high school, which is also a department of a major university.
Me: So how involved is Ball State with the Indiana Academy?
Barbra: We are a department within teachers college. And our financial budget
is regulated and managed by the financial office at the college. So we are very
closely interwoven. Our teachers are actually Ball State employees and any
teacher that has a doctorates degree is an assistant professor at Ball State as
well. So the relationship is very close.
Me: Which aspects of your work at the Academy have had the greatest meaning
for you?
Barbra: Well that’s easy, any time that I can have an association through the
students, and right now that is through college counseling. Unfortunately its
only one third of the class that I get to be that close to, but it is still one third
of each class. That is the most satisfying part. I’ll also say that working closely
with Dr. Barton through student life [has been one of the best things]. Working
closely with the student services committee with some of the psychiatric
counselors and some of the SLC’s, Dr. Smith, Mr. McClure, Ms. Tuit in
admissions; we meet to discuss any students that may be having trouble either
psychologically or academically, and try to intervene so that they do well and
are successful here.
Me: So what all are you responsible for in college counseling?
Barbra: Well we basically help students decide where they want to go to college,
by now we hope they already have that figured out. But I help them find
scholarship money and set their sights on good schools. Sometimes we have to
point them in the right direction if they don’t have the right grade point average
and they don’t have the right SAT’s we have to provide other options that they
should go and look at.
Me: What do you wish you had known about the Academy before you began
your work here?
Barbra: Wow, it’s going to sound very mundane, but I wish that I had known
that the opportunities for advancement were so tightly regulated. Especially for
non-exempt employees, or an hourly employee which is what I am. The
amount increase in salary is predetermined. Unless I had applied for a
professional position or faculty position or something of that nature I am
limited as to the increments of my salary. But on a positive note I wish I had
known a lot more about the Academy before I had started working here so that
I could’ve promoted it better among my colleagues and neighbors and friends
of my husband who worked for Eli Lilly who had some pretty good
associations there. Most of them in the mid 90’s didn’t really know what the
Academy was, and they had students who definitely would’ve done well here.
Me: How well would you say that the Academy is recognized today?
Barbra: It has gotten much better in terms of publicity. We have a much larger
alumni base, and those people are also helping to get our name out there. I
think that we can still do better; I think that we need to have more publicity,
and recognition and think admissions is working towards that goal and we’re
getting closer and closer every year.
Me: Do you think that publicity for a school like this is a good thing? Would
you ever want to get a billboard advertising this school, or do you think that it’s
better to have kids find out about this school through letters in the mail? How
much publicity is too much publicity?
Barbra: I don’t think there is too much publicity unless something negative
should occur. We did at one time investigate billboards, they are extremely
expensive and we simply to not have budget for it. Not only that the University
discouraged us having billboards for whatever reason. I know that one of the
early presidents, not president Gora but Dr. Worthen was a little reluctant to
have our name out there and I’m not sure why. With the amount of positive
contributions that our Alumni have made I think it would’ve been a very good
thing. The billboards we looked into cost about $6,000 a month. And as far as
too much publicity we provide many opportunities for students that are from
poorer communities. I think that those are things that we should really do more
of and promote more, because we cant do enough of that. People who have
sent us children from underprivileged areas want to send us more and that’s a
good thing. And we are living up to our mission, which is to represent the
demographic of Indiana, while recognizing that there are gifted students within
every segment of the population and we should try to get them here together
so they can intermingle. It’s good for their understanding of diversity.
Me: I have heard different things, but the thing that amazes me the most is that
it costs every student about $21,000 dollars a year to go here and the parents
only actually pay a fraction of that. Is that true?
Barbra: Well we have two sources of funds. We have an allocation from the
state of Indiana. It is a legislative document support, which is based just on
who we are. And that brings in over four million dollars a year to our budget.
And we have an A.D.M., which is based on the average daily attendance at the
Academy. This means that the tax dollars that are spent on the students who
went to different schools and now come here follow the students here. That is
the other half of our budget and unfortunately it is not adequate enough to
support the residential program we have going on here. So we had to start
charging the students a little bit of the room and board, which is still only a
fraction of what it costs to go here. The amount that we make the students pay
was determined by Ball State when they said; “This is what you have to have to
balance your budget” we had to comply and that is why this year the amount
per student is $2,150 per student. The students are not usually aware of how
much it costs to go here and as long as the families can meet the financial
obligations I would much rather have them not know.
Me: How does the social dynamic of the Academy workplace compare to that
of your previous workplace?
Barbra: Well my previous workplace was Fresno Pacific College where I was
director of professional development, and it was a much more college oriented
atmosphere and I was still involved with some distance learning programs and
some tours and classes that teachers would take to keep their credentials
current. So I wasn’t really interacting with students unless you want to call
those teachers students. I would say that the social dynamic here is; a little
university within the university. We have all aspects of a university within our
high school. The community is very close knit where everyone knows everyone
with the exception of when we hire new Ball State student workers. The
dynamic here is very healthy I can think of very few conflicts here, there have
been some in the past but at the moment everyone works very hard together
and tries to help everyone out. If one office is without personnel other offices
will pick up and try to help.
Me: So you would call it a family aspect?
Barbra: It really is, and I know the faculty thinks of the students that way.
Me: How do you think having worked at the Academy will affect your future?
Whether you think you are going to take another job after you leave here or
whether you are going to retire.
Barbra: I am of retirement age and I could’ve retired last year. So as far as
coming to work every day where my pay is hourly, that is probably not going to
happen. What this job has done for me is just inspire me that there is just a
great future for the young ones of our country, because I see the best of them
at this school. What I will probably do is work with my husband with some of
the business’s he has started. I think this job has made me set my standards
much higher for the people I meet and especially my grandchildren, poor kids;
they are going to have to work hard. There are a lot of places where students
have apparently lost hope and they are acting out according to that
hopelessness that they feel and it takes an institution like this to let them know
that there is hope out there and it will be ongoing.