This is the most complacent community I have ever seen. What happened to community spirit? Without sports, that is. Oops, asked and answered.

Let's look at what's going on here. The school board hired an architectural firm from Indianapolis - Odle, McGuire & Shook - to study Silver Lake, Jefferson, Claypool and Atwood schools. They also asked for estimates on an auditorium and performing arts center, football stadium and track (or outdoor PE facility, depending on your preference) at Warsaw Community High School, and a new elementary school building.

School superintendent Dr. Lee Harman came out with his recommendations based on the OMS report. He said the board should:

¥ Close Silver Lake Elementary and renovate Claypool Elementary (at a cost of $9.03 million), then bus the Silver Lake students to Claypool, which also could take the overflow students from Jefferson and Eisenhower.

¥ At the high school, build: an auditorium ($7.5 million), football stadium and track ($5.28 million) and weight and wrestling room ($1.91 million), plus move the softball and soccer fields ($1.82 million) and build football practice fields ($480,000), a band practice area ($590,000) and a concession stand ($375,000) as well as a connecting drive ($185,000). Optional was a performing arts center for $6.35 million that he suggested be financed by community contributions.

¥ Build a new school in Prairie Township (for $13.165 million) to replace Atwood Elementary and handle the overflow from Leesburg and Harrison elementaries.

The total for all the projects listed above, including the performing arts center, is $46.7 million.

Just to put that $46.7 million in perspective, it will take approximately $28 million to run all of Kosciusko County in 2002 (which is higher this year because of the jail expansion). That $47.6 million also is almost four times the city of Warsaw's 2002 budget, which this year is approximately $12.7 million.

Whose numbers?

I've written about this before, and I'll keep banging the drum. All of the above numbers are based on one report by OMS and on their recommendations and estimates. Their numbers have never been questioned by the school board, who prefers to use OMS because they designed Harrison, Eisenhower and the high school and have worked with the administration in the past.

Their projected construction costs for all the projects are high (did you notice the $375,000 concession stand?). The board says it is intentional because it's better to overestimate in these matters.

I have never understood why it is the OMS price or nothing. Either it's OMS designs and decisions or nothing. Are they the only architectural firm in the state?

Which brings us to the Silver Lake issue.

Silver Lake - all or nothing?

In its Jan. 21 meeting, the board came out with a tentative plan - build the football stadium, track, auditorium, weight and wrestling room, performing arts center and all the other changes to the high school; build the Prairie Township school; and keep Silver Lake Elementary open.

That's it. Just keep it open. No repairs, no renovations, no remodeling.

Suddenly, a school that was supposedly so substandard and dilapidated that the board wanted to close it and bus the kids to Claypool is in fine shape and needs no renovations, other than regular annual maintenance as scheduled.

Kind of a childish, "you oppose us, fine, we'll show you" attitude by the school board.

The board said it will take care of Silver Lake Elementary as part of its sudden emphasis on "educational equity" (the new buzz phrase), which would require them to save a certain amount of money each year in the Capital Projects Fund to spend on keeping all Warsaw schools up to standard and in good repair.

That begs the question: Hasn't it always been the board's job to ensure educational equity in all of its schools? Why is this a new concept? Where's the educational equity between a kid who goes to Eisenhower Elementary and one who goes to Silver Lake? Or Claypool, for that matter? If Silver Lake is left open and not improved, where will they put the overflow kids from Jefferson and Eisenhower? (In the early meetings, Harman stated this possibility as a reason to enlarge Claypool. Lately he has been saying that was not an option.)

Don't the students at Silver Lake deserve to have as nice a school as all the other elementary students? The board is saying the high school can have a new football stadium, oops, sorry, a new outdoor PE center, a new auditorium and performing arts center and a nearly $2-million weight and wrestling center. But the kids at Silver Lake, who, according to the board. are studying in a building that apparently is falling down around them, must be content with their lot in life because the board would rather spend more on high school athletic facilities than on a small-town elementary school?

Seems kind of spiteful, don't you think? Kind of an I-didn't-get-my-way-so-you're-going-to-suffer attitude, hardly what you would expect from a school board.

But I digress.

Yes, the high school should have a football stadium and an auditorium and a performing arts center. It's way past time for these additions. (I'm still not sold on a $2-million weight and wrestling room.)

But the Silver Lake kids also should be able to have a school that is up to standards - an architect from South Bend showed the board how they could save money on renovations and they all but dismissed him. Makes you wonder - if that architect could have saved the board millions on one school, how much could other architects save them on the other projects? (By the way, did anyone notice Grace College is planning on spending $2.1 million on renovating the former Danek building to make a recreation center. That center will include a basketball court, two practice courts, a jogging track, classroom, aerobics room, locker room, laundry facilities and a 25,000-square-foot fitness center with a weight training and fitness room. All of this for only $200,000 more than Warsaw is planning on spending on just the weight and wrestling room.)

And - this especially - the board should look at other architectural firms and see what they would come up with and how much they would charge. The school board is made up of elected members who are charged with the wise stewardship of millions of taxpayer dollars. Are you really confident they are making wise, impartial decisions? Maybe other architects would come up with something innovative, resourceful and less expensive.

This isn't an issue just for parents or students - it's for every single person in the corporation area. Speak up! And if that doesn't work, vote! [[In-content Ad]]