Three county townships will have more time to decide whether or not to accept empty school buildings, the Warsaw School Board decided Monday.

In response to a request from attorney Richard K. Helm, who represents all three townships, the board voted to give the townships six months from the date of the offer, Aug. 17, to either accept or reject the former Claypool, Atwood and Silver Lake elementary schools.

The original offer gave the townships 60 days in which to make a decision, a time period the township trustees said was not long enough to investigate grants and other forms of financing for maintenance and upkeep of the school buildings.

Superintendent Dr. Dave McGuire recommended the extension with the provision that the townships pay for winterizing the buildings. He said the cost of winterizing would be approximately $2,200 for Atwood and Silver Lake schools, and about $4,400 for Claypool.

But several board members disagreed with asking the townships to assume winterizing expenses.

Board member Larry Chamberlain said the townships' budgets are already set, and "the likelihood that we would have to winterize anyway is pretty high."

Craig Allebach, board president, went one step further, saying he thought six months might not be enough time, and that Warsaw Community Schools should assume the cost.

"The amount of money is insignificant," he said. "I believe we might have to do it anyway."

Gene England, the board member representing Silver Lake and Claypool, said, "The townships do not have the money, and grants take time, and if the townships had money to winterize, what would people in those townships say about paying that money to Warsaw Community Schools after we closed their schools?"

The board approved the six-month extension with the understanding that at the end of the six months, the townships furnish at least letters of intent to keep or not to keep the buildings. Cathy Folk was the lone vote against the extension.

In a related matter, the board also voted to give any sports items, trophy cases, trophies or other similar items in those three buildings to the township trustees for safekeeping. The trustees will give the board a written inventory of everything they take.

The board also approved John Snyder, Warsaw Community High School social studies teacher, as the girls varsity basketball coach.

Snyder, who has 17 years experience as an assistant boys basketball coach, replaces Will Wienhorst, whose contract as girls coach was not renewed by the board in August following an investigation into charges he made inappropriate comments to players. Wienhorst previously resigned his teaching position at WCHS.

The board also:

• Heard a report that 71 percent of WCHS seniors took the SAT this year, compared to 64 percent of seniors in Indiana and 48 percent nationwide. The average math score at WCHS was 499, compared to the Indiana average of 506 and the national average of 518. Verbal score at WCHS was an average of 502, compared to Indiana at 501 and the national average of 508.

Hess also said 70 percent of WCHS seniors go on to four-year colleges, 11 percent go to vocational/technical schools and 19 percent go on to full-time employment or the military.

• Heard an update from Construction Control Inc. that the auditorium foundation work and new student parking and bus entry at WCHS are 90 percent complete; site grading is 50 percent done and utilities are 75 completed.

Structural steel work will begin this week for the auditorium; foundation work for the physical education building, ticket building and public restroom/concession building, as well as the football field grandstands, will begin this month and should be completed in October.

• Approved three re-bids for the WCHS project: $908,420 to Janson Industries for stage equipment; $151,971 to SECOA Inc. for auditorium seating; and $427,700 to Gaylor Group Inc. for technology.

• Heard that total enrollment in Warsaw schools is 6,658 students, compared to this time last year at 6,553.

• Heard the annual report of the building and grounds department.

• Recognized Atwood Elementary for being a Four-Star School. McGuire said Eisenhower and Washington elementaries, Edgewood Middle School and WCHS also qualified for the honor academically, but their attendance rate was not high enough. [[In-content Ad]]