Silver Lake School Could Become Landmark
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Molly Bradford, Lake Township trustee, told the school board that the township's attorney, Rick Helm, told the township they can't take possession of the former Silver Lake Elementary School building and pass it on to Dr. Mark Baur. The township would have to complete two legal processes and doesn't have the money to do it.[[In-content Ad]]However, the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana may be interested in taking ownership of the building and selling it immediately to Baur.
At a Sept. 2 meeting, Baur told the board he was interested in purchasing the building and renovating it for profit. Bradford asked the school board to give the town, township and Baur a month to look into the matter.
In a letter from Todd A. Zeiger, director, Northern Regional Office of the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, Zeiger requests a stay of demolition for the Silver Lake School building and a donation of the building to the foundation.
At the foundation's meeting Sept. 13, the board of directors approved for the Foundation to take ownership with the express interest of immediately selling the property to Baur for $1 and other consideration. Historic preservation covenants would be placed on the building to ensure its preservation and upkeep. Indiana law allows for a governmental entity to transfer a surplus property to a qualified non-profit for the purpose of historic preservation, according to the letter.
Zeiger said the foundation would need 30 days to develop the necessary documents and agreements that would allow the transfer to take place. If an agreement can not be reached between the Foundation and Baur, the Foundation will not take ownership of the building and will not take further action to stop the demolition, tentatively scheduled for November.
The board decided that their legal counsel, Max Reed, would get involved in the matter immediately to resolve the issue by the Oct. 20 school board meeting.
There are many changes in ISTEP beginning with the 2008-09 year. Terry Roe, Warsaw Schools director of assessment, reviewed the ISTEP for this year.
Last spring, Roe said, the state decided to make major changes to its testing program. The changes include diagnostic testing, moving testing to the spring but having it twice during the 2008-09 school year, adding social studies, graduation requirements and Adequate Yearly Progress issues.
ISTEP testing this fall for grades 3-8 is Sept. 15-26, while the Graduation Qualifying Exam is Sept. 16-18. High school students must pass the GQE to graduate.
Spring testing is March 10-12 for GQE retesting; open ended testing is March 2-11 for grades 3-8, with multi-choice testing for grades 3-8 April 27 to May 6.
Fall ISTEP will include science for fifth and seventh grades. In the spring testing, there will be science for fourth and sixth grades and social studies for fifth and seventh grades. Spring testing also will include end of course assessments for biology I and is required of any high school student enrolled in biology regardless of age level. The students don't have to pass the biology ECA, but must participate. U.S. history ECA will be required in 2009-10.
The class of 2012 have new graduation requirements. Students must pass Algebra I ECA and English 10 ECA. They also must participate in Biology I ECA and future ECAs depending on their class schedule.
Roe said both this year's fall and spring ISTEP test results will count toward Warsaw's AYP.
Joe Santa, athletic director, presented the process the athletic department plans to use to evaluate the 21 sport coaches.
"It's basically a year-long process," Santa said.
The process begins with an evaluation at the end of the prior year. Santa will sit down with coaches and review their performance. Meetings with the coaches will be held during the off-season, with goals and objectives formalized.
During the sports season, Santa said he will observe coaches at games and in practices. At the conclusion of each season, Santa will evaluate the coaches, meet with them and see how they progressed.
"I'm going to start this real quick," Santa said. "Golf season is about over."
The evaluation process was approved by the school board.
Todd Samuelson, with Umbaugh & Associates, Plymouth, gave the school board an update on the building project.
At the end of the 2003-04 school year, Atwood, Silver Lake and Claypool elementary schools were closed. Since then, students at those schools have been transported to other schools, contributing to overcrowding problems.
On May 21, 2007, the school board approved moving forward with Step 1 of Option A. Step 1 includes building new Leesburg and Madison elementary schools, and expanding and renovating Jefferson and Claypool schools. The total bond issue will be $59.16 million.
Samuelson said the tentative timeline for the building project begins Nov. 3 with the release for bidding for the Leesburg and Madison projects. Bidding will be released Nov. 17 for Jefferson and Claypool. Construction will begin in February, with Jefferson and Claypool opened Aug. 1, 2010, and Leesburg and Madison opened Aug. 1, 2011.
Samuelson also gave the board a presentation on cash advisory services that Umbaugh & Associates offers. The financial firm would work with the school corporation to develop cash flows and investment expectations for construction accounts, create a proposed investment strategy, competitively bid investments, provide quarterly reporting of investment activity and look for reinvestment opportunities.
Chief Financial Officer Kevin Scott told the board that at the Oct. 20 board meeting, he'll ask for permission to contract with Umbaugh & Associates for the services.
The board approved the 2009 budget, capital projects fund, transportation school bus replacement plan and several related resolutions. The 2009 budget totals $69,382,666.
Claypool Elementary School will not change its name. The school board voted unanimously keep it as Claypool. At the Sept. 2 meeting, board member Gene England suggested changing its name to Clay Lake. But, after an online poll's results were in, the board decided to not change the name.
The board also approved a resolution supporting a plan to provide laptop computers to each Warsaw School Corp. student. Depending on the finances the school corporation is able to receive from community donors, the laptops could be provided to students in grades 6-12.
With the resolution, Warsaw's technology department will be able to seek funds from the community, foundations and grantors to pay for the expense of the laptops.
Warsaw School Board members are President Ron Yeiter, Vice President Dan Robinson, Secretary Gene England, Deb Wiggins, Tammy Dalton, Delores Hearn and Chuck Sauders.
Molly Bradford, Lake Township trustee, told the school board that the township's attorney, Rick Helm, told the township they can't take possession of the former Silver Lake Elementary School building and pass it on to Dr. Mark Baur. The township would have to complete two legal processes and doesn't have the money to do it.[[In-content Ad]]However, the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana may be interested in taking ownership of the building and selling it immediately to Baur.
At a Sept. 2 meeting, Baur told the board he was interested in purchasing the building and renovating it for profit. Bradford asked the school board to give the town, township and Baur a month to look into the matter.
In a letter from Todd A. Zeiger, director, Northern Regional Office of the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, Zeiger requests a stay of demolition for the Silver Lake School building and a donation of the building to the foundation.
At the foundation's meeting Sept. 13, the board of directors approved for the Foundation to take ownership with the express interest of immediately selling the property to Baur for $1 and other consideration. Historic preservation covenants would be placed on the building to ensure its preservation and upkeep. Indiana law allows for a governmental entity to transfer a surplus property to a qualified non-profit for the purpose of historic preservation, according to the letter.
Zeiger said the foundation would need 30 days to develop the necessary documents and agreements that would allow the transfer to take place. If an agreement can not be reached between the Foundation and Baur, the Foundation will not take ownership of the building and will not take further action to stop the demolition, tentatively scheduled for November.
The board decided that their legal counsel, Max Reed, would get involved in the matter immediately to resolve the issue by the Oct. 20 school board meeting.
There are many changes in ISTEP beginning with the 2008-09 year. Terry Roe, Warsaw Schools director of assessment, reviewed the ISTEP for this year.
Last spring, Roe said, the state decided to make major changes to its testing program. The changes include diagnostic testing, moving testing to the spring but having it twice during the 2008-09 school year, adding social studies, graduation requirements and Adequate Yearly Progress issues.
ISTEP testing this fall for grades 3-8 is Sept. 15-26, while the Graduation Qualifying Exam is Sept. 16-18. High school students must pass the GQE to graduate.
Spring testing is March 10-12 for GQE retesting; open ended testing is March 2-11 for grades 3-8, with multi-choice testing for grades 3-8 April 27 to May 6.
Fall ISTEP will include science for fifth and seventh grades. In the spring testing, there will be science for fourth and sixth grades and social studies for fifth and seventh grades. Spring testing also will include end of course assessments for biology I and is required of any high school student enrolled in biology regardless of age level. The students don't have to pass the biology ECA, but must participate. U.S. history ECA will be required in 2009-10.
The class of 2012 have new graduation requirements. Students must pass Algebra I ECA and English 10 ECA. They also must participate in Biology I ECA and future ECAs depending on their class schedule.
Roe said both this year's fall and spring ISTEP test results will count toward Warsaw's AYP.
Joe Santa, athletic director, presented the process the athletic department plans to use to evaluate the 21 sport coaches.
"It's basically a year-long process," Santa said.
The process begins with an evaluation at the end of the prior year. Santa will sit down with coaches and review their performance. Meetings with the coaches will be held during the off-season, with goals and objectives formalized.
During the sports season, Santa said he will observe coaches at games and in practices. At the conclusion of each season, Santa will evaluate the coaches, meet with them and see how they progressed.
"I'm going to start this real quick," Santa said. "Golf season is about over."
The evaluation process was approved by the school board.
Todd Samuelson, with Umbaugh & Associates, Plymouth, gave the school board an update on the building project.
At the end of the 2003-04 school year, Atwood, Silver Lake and Claypool elementary schools were closed. Since then, students at those schools have been transported to other schools, contributing to overcrowding problems.
On May 21, 2007, the school board approved moving forward with Step 1 of Option A. Step 1 includes building new Leesburg and Madison elementary schools, and expanding and renovating Jefferson and Claypool schools. The total bond issue will be $59.16 million.
Samuelson said the tentative timeline for the building project begins Nov. 3 with the release for bidding for the Leesburg and Madison projects. Bidding will be released Nov. 17 for Jefferson and Claypool. Construction will begin in February, with Jefferson and Claypool opened Aug. 1, 2010, and Leesburg and Madison opened Aug. 1, 2011.
Samuelson also gave the board a presentation on cash advisory services that Umbaugh & Associates offers. The financial firm would work with the school corporation to develop cash flows and investment expectations for construction accounts, create a proposed investment strategy, competitively bid investments, provide quarterly reporting of investment activity and look for reinvestment opportunities.
Chief Financial Officer Kevin Scott told the board that at the Oct. 20 board meeting, he'll ask for permission to contract with Umbaugh & Associates for the services.
The board approved the 2009 budget, capital projects fund, transportation school bus replacement plan and several related resolutions. The 2009 budget totals $69,382,666.
Claypool Elementary School will not change its name. The school board voted unanimously keep it as Claypool. At the Sept. 2 meeting, board member Gene England suggested changing its name to Clay Lake. But, after an online poll's results were in, the board decided to not change the name.
The board also approved a resolution supporting a plan to provide laptop computers to each Warsaw School Corp. student. Depending on the finances the school corporation is able to receive from community donors, the laptops could be provided to students in grades 6-12.
With the resolution, Warsaw's technology department will be able to seek funds from the community, foundations and grantors to pay for the expense of the laptops.
Warsaw School Board members are President Ron Yeiter, Vice President Dan Robinson, Secretary Gene England, Deb Wiggins, Tammy Dalton, Delores Hearn and Chuck Sauders.
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092