Warsaw School Board heard three presentations Monday night, including one involving an $18,187 grant from the K21 Health Foundation.

After hearing the presentation on the tower gardens that the grant money will be used for from K21 Executive Director Rich Haddad and Krista Polston, Warsaw Community School grants and special projects coordinator, the board unanimously approved the funding.

The tower garden system is a vertical tower structure that allows you to grow plants such as fruits, vegetables, spices, or flowers, using the one unit.

“This is round No. 2 for the tower gardens because of the successful nature that we’ve had along STEM education in every single building that we have,” WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said in introducing the item to the board.

Polston said WCS has one tower garden in each building, with some schools having more than one because they purchased them on their own.

“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback. A lot of kids that look really forward to salad parties and getting to try some healthy eating. We’re real excited about it,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of teachers say ‘we really want to try this but we only have one in our building and it stays in one hallway and we really want to expand on it.’”



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So Polston approached Haddad about writing another grant and getting an additional tower garden per building and she said he was really supportive.

“We came up with a plan to be able to put both tower gardens together for at least one of the growing seasons so that every kid will have the opportunity to experience it at least once while they’re at elementary school or secondary. So that’s our plan moving forward,” Polston said.

She said they’ve worked with WCS science instructional coach Taylor Bean in coming up “with a plan for how to implement that and get it integrated in the curriculum map. We’re really excited to move forward with that, we just received that this past month.”

Haddad said he knows WCS has put it in its strategic plan to help all students with their health, not just mental and emotional health but also physical health both in activity and nutrition.

“It’s a challenge. I think as a health foundation we’ve found a lot of challenges. How do you penetrate the nutritional side? Eating better, understanding food and making healthier choices,”?he said. “We certainly were thrilled to support the school system in the original tower garden grant request. The idea was to expose these kids to not only how fresh food was grown, but then how it is consumed and used in meals.

“So this next round certainly, the idea that by increasing the capacity in each school, that every student will be able to experience this versus a single teacher who has taken that first tower and said I’m going to utilize it in my curriculum with my kids. The idea that every student in Warsaw Community Schools over the course of their career here, of which you are overseeing, will get to experience and learn how to use and grow fresh food.”

Haddad said the K21 Board of Directors was thrilled that WCS came to it and wanted to expand the tower garden experience for the students.

Another presentation to the board Monday was from Eisenhower Elementary Principal Chris Gensinger, who talked about his school’s Adventures After School program.

The program offers classes to students one day a week after school for an hour on a variety of topics from printmaking and pottery to tae kwon do, ballet and advanced violin. Most of the teachers for the extra classes are teachers at Eisenhower, but some are community members, who get paid $20 an hour.

“We offer 20 classes after school for a month,” Gensinger said, and class size is limited.

Because not every family can afford to pay the class fee, he said scholarships are available. Of the 450 Eisenhower students, 360 take part in the classes every week.

“It’s the most popular thing we offer,” he said. “Every penny we make goes back to the kids. It’s ran through our extracurricular account.”

The classes run from 4 to 5 p.m. and parents pick up their child afterward.

“This is what I like about it: There are no cuts. No awards. No trophies. It’s just for fun and it brings kids in more than any other program.”

Randy Polston, school board member, told Gensinger the program is “phenomenal.” Asked how long he’s been running the program, Gensinger said since about 2000.

Polston asked if transportation was an issue for the kids to participate. Gensinger said socio-economics were a factor for some, but most of the time a parent could pick their child up if a scholarship helped pay for the class fee.

The program is so popular, Gensinger said nine classes usually close on the first day of sign-up because they fill up. In four days, all the classes are filled up and closed.

Hoffert said being a parent whose children have participated in the program, “This is absolutely phenomenal. Thank you for the extra time and effort that goes into this.”

The last presentation to the board was made by Steve Ferber, director of alternative services, who gave a review of the Gateway Educational Center.

Gateway has 125 students currently enrolled. It offers programs like adult basic education, adult functional skills, Alternative Instructional Methods School (AIMS), alternatives to expulsion and suspension and more.

“We have a lot of different programs. We have great teachers who care about the kids,” Ferber said.

Board member Dan Metzger said he was familiar with a family who had a student in and out of different schools. Metzger sent the family to Ferber who was able to sit down with the student and work out the details of his schooling. When the student was able to get his high school equivalency, Metzger said that was the best day of the student’s life, and that was due to Ferber.