Wawasee Community Looks At Middle School Merger
October 26, 2022 at 10:17 p.m.
Wawasee Community Looks At Middle School Merger
By Jackie [email protected]
Superintendent Dr. Stephen Troyer presented his findings at a special school board meeting. He said he has been researching the topic of possibly combining Milford and Wawasee middle schools.
He said the Wawasee School Board would not take any action Tuesday, but if necessary, the board would take “some action later on this year.”
The viability of maintaining two middle schools has been discussed several times over the past 30-plus years “and we think it’s an important topic to take care of, take a look at here as we move forward,” he said.
Wawasee Middle School opened in 1990 between Syracuse and North Webster as the two communities decided to combine their middle schools. From that point on, Troyer said there has been countless conversations, including one formal conservation, about combining the two middle schools.
There’s a growing inequity of learning experiences between the two middle schools and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to staff and meet the needs of students at Milford Middle School, he said.
Official enrollment as of Sept. 15 was 139 students at Milford Middle School, he said. Wawasee Middle School has 508 students and is designed to hold approximately 800 students. There are 11 middle school teachers at Milford and 28 at Wawasee, which gives a student to teacher ratio of 13 to 1 at Milford and 18 to 1 at Wawasee.
Enrollment has caused difficulties in programming and staffing at the middle schools. Staffing the buildings equitability has become more difficult as enrollment declines.
Milford used to provide Project Lead the Way programming, but not now. Milford Middle School also doesn’t offer an alternate learning program and any student who needs that program goes to Wawasee Middle School. Family and Consumer Sciences classes aren’t available to every student at Milford. Athletics aren’t offered at Milford, and students would have to be transported to Wawasee for sports. Troyer said it’s not possible to dedicate staff to those programs at Milford.
WCSC spends $1,206 more per student at Milford than at Wawasee and has 22% more in teacher costs at Milford. Prospective savings would be $250,000 to $400,000 if the two middle schools merged, Troyer said.
The two middle schools do offer the same core programs.
The high-ability student population at Milford is small, so creating high-ability classes for two or four students doesn’t make sense, he said. What ends up happing is an advanced class is run at Milford and some of the students that are brought in to the class are not ready for an advanced class, but we “can’t run a class with six kids with one teacher so we bring in another six or eight kids to help build a class up and we end up disadvantaging a group of kids that shouldn’t be in an advanced class.”
Troyer did address the two topic concerns he’s heard of in regards to combining the middle schools.
Milford Elementary School, regardless of what happens to the middle schools, will remain open and in Milford. There has been rumors about the elementary school moving to a different location, closing the elementary school, etc. He said those rumors are not true.
Troyer said a transportation scenario was run with all the current students. If the two middle schools were combined, none of the bus routes in Milford would be over an hour. When asked how that would happen, Troyer said instead of picking up just middle school students, the bus route would pick up middle and high school students in a particular area and drop them off at each school.
Troyer said if the two middle schools were combined, the transportation times would be relatively the same. It’s natural for people to speculate the transportation times would go up since the middle school students would be transported across the district if the schools are combined, but he said most of the transportation times are going to be shorter given a plan the school corporation put together.
In 2016, there was a climate audit that was done that suggested combining the two middle schools for financial reasons, he said.
Of the two-hour meeting Tuesday, 1-1/2 hours was dedicated to public comments, which was mostly saying people wanted to keep Milford Middle School open or at least delay the decision.
Greg Fitzloff said he lives in the Wawasee School Corporation, but was at the meeting on behalf of the Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation.
KEDCO presented a housing program to the Milford Town Council KEDCO has been working on for a couple years. Eastville Developments will include 51 single-family residential units, which will start construction in 2023. Fitzloff said KEDCO expects those units to attract younger, working families and may add new students to the mix.
There are also other possibilities in increased student enrollment with the Southshore Development in Syracuse. The concerns KEDCO has, he said, is if the school corporation does combine the two middle schools, down the road five or 10 years, the school corporation may see a less desirable capacity situation.
He asked the Board to wait on making a decision on combining the two schools for a couple years and see how the housing developments pan out in brining more students to the corporation.
There were several people that questioned if it was proper or ethical for any outgoing Board members who are not seeking re-election to vote on the combining of the two middle schools.
Ken Long, Wawasee High School teacher and Milford Town Council member, asked if there were any complaints about programming at Milford. Principal William Demers said in past years, yes.
Long said he was reached out to by a reporter about his thoughts on the possible combination of the middle schools. The main part of what he said was “this school is the heart of this community. In any small town, the school is the heart of the community.” He knows what the school means to the community.
For any outgoing member of the School Board, he said he doesn’t think it proper to make “a decision like this on the way out.”
“The decisions we make affect the people of this town,” he said. It’s important to hear what people have to say and for the Board to take the information and do the best they can based upon that.
There were also several people that talked about the community and atmosphere at Milford Middle School.
Corinna Wilkinson has had a Milford School student for the last 13 years. Even when they lived in Syracuse, she made the point in bringing her children to Milford.
“You have all inherited this situation. However, we have lacked transparency and now there is an issue of trust,” she said.
“I am a parent in this school system for 13 years. My voice has not been heard. We value Milford. We want our middle school part of our community,” she said.
Fiscally, it makes sense, but she said she doesn’t believe it’s what’s best for the students or community.
“We people of Milford, we’re not arrogant, but we take a lot of pride in our community and we heard a lot of information about why the middle school would be better and I know this group is driven in education and I’m sure you have a lot of data there, and I respect that. But this group right here, I doubt they’re buying it,” said Sam Beer. “There’s a special atmosphere at this school and this community is really a special place.”
He said he’s a big believer in education, but Milford really respects its community “and a lot of us went to school here and you know what, it turned out pretty good. I appreciate you giving us the evening, but bigger isn’t always better. We like the way it is. And I know there’s really a lot of smart kids that need special classes and I understand that and I respect that.”
Wilkinson said she heard from other community members, as well staff members, who said they weren’t coming to the meeting because they felt the Board already made up their minds about combining the schools.
“You represent us. We are taxpayers. We are invested in our community,” she said. The issue is sending students out “of our community.”
A lot of the decisions the school corporation has made has led to this point, she said, and she believes the corporation has skewed the numbers.
Deputy marshal RJ Plummer of the Milford Police Department said he grew up in Warsaw and didn’t know half of his classmates. When he moved to Milford, he liked the small-town atmosphere.
Plummer also touched upon the choice Wawasee students have in which middle school they can go to, no matter where they live in the school corporation.
He said, “You all ready made up your mind to close the school. So why not take all the programs from Milford and put them in Wawasee Middle School?”
He said if kids want to play sports, it’s easier to go to Wawasee Middle School. He said the corporation is sweetening the deal by taking the all the programs and putting them at Wawasee. It’s also an easier choice for teachers to teach 20 students at Wawasee.
Troyer assured those attending the meeting the Board had not made up its mind. Board President Don Bokhart said the Board has not made its mind and the decision weighs heavy on the members’ minds.
Superintendent Dr. Stephen Troyer presented his findings at a special school board meeting. He said he has been researching the topic of possibly combining Milford and Wawasee middle schools.
He said the Wawasee School Board would not take any action Tuesday, but if necessary, the board would take “some action later on this year.”
The viability of maintaining two middle schools has been discussed several times over the past 30-plus years “and we think it’s an important topic to take care of, take a look at here as we move forward,” he said.
Wawasee Middle School opened in 1990 between Syracuse and North Webster as the two communities decided to combine their middle schools. From that point on, Troyer said there has been countless conversations, including one formal conservation, about combining the two middle schools.
There’s a growing inequity of learning experiences between the two middle schools and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to staff and meet the needs of students at Milford Middle School, he said.
Official enrollment as of Sept. 15 was 139 students at Milford Middle School, he said. Wawasee Middle School has 508 students and is designed to hold approximately 800 students. There are 11 middle school teachers at Milford and 28 at Wawasee, which gives a student to teacher ratio of 13 to 1 at Milford and 18 to 1 at Wawasee.
Enrollment has caused difficulties in programming and staffing at the middle schools. Staffing the buildings equitability has become more difficult as enrollment declines.
Milford used to provide Project Lead the Way programming, but not now. Milford Middle School also doesn’t offer an alternate learning program and any student who needs that program goes to Wawasee Middle School. Family and Consumer Sciences classes aren’t available to every student at Milford. Athletics aren’t offered at Milford, and students would have to be transported to Wawasee for sports. Troyer said it’s not possible to dedicate staff to those programs at Milford.
WCSC spends $1,206 more per student at Milford than at Wawasee and has 22% more in teacher costs at Milford. Prospective savings would be $250,000 to $400,000 if the two middle schools merged, Troyer said.
The two middle schools do offer the same core programs.
The high-ability student population at Milford is small, so creating high-ability classes for two or four students doesn’t make sense, he said. What ends up happing is an advanced class is run at Milford and some of the students that are brought in to the class are not ready for an advanced class, but we “can’t run a class with six kids with one teacher so we bring in another six or eight kids to help build a class up and we end up disadvantaging a group of kids that shouldn’t be in an advanced class.”
Troyer did address the two topic concerns he’s heard of in regards to combining the middle schools.
Milford Elementary School, regardless of what happens to the middle schools, will remain open and in Milford. There has been rumors about the elementary school moving to a different location, closing the elementary school, etc. He said those rumors are not true.
Troyer said a transportation scenario was run with all the current students. If the two middle schools were combined, none of the bus routes in Milford would be over an hour. When asked how that would happen, Troyer said instead of picking up just middle school students, the bus route would pick up middle and high school students in a particular area and drop them off at each school.
Troyer said if the two middle schools were combined, the transportation times would be relatively the same. It’s natural for people to speculate the transportation times would go up since the middle school students would be transported across the district if the schools are combined, but he said most of the transportation times are going to be shorter given a plan the school corporation put together.
In 2016, there was a climate audit that was done that suggested combining the two middle schools for financial reasons, he said.
Of the two-hour meeting Tuesday, 1-1/2 hours was dedicated to public comments, which was mostly saying people wanted to keep Milford Middle School open or at least delay the decision.
Greg Fitzloff said he lives in the Wawasee School Corporation, but was at the meeting on behalf of the Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation.
KEDCO presented a housing program to the Milford Town Council KEDCO has been working on for a couple years. Eastville Developments will include 51 single-family residential units, which will start construction in 2023. Fitzloff said KEDCO expects those units to attract younger, working families and may add new students to the mix.
There are also other possibilities in increased student enrollment with the Southshore Development in Syracuse. The concerns KEDCO has, he said, is if the school corporation does combine the two middle schools, down the road five or 10 years, the school corporation may see a less desirable capacity situation.
He asked the Board to wait on making a decision on combining the two schools for a couple years and see how the housing developments pan out in brining more students to the corporation.
There were several people that questioned if it was proper or ethical for any outgoing Board members who are not seeking re-election to vote on the combining of the two middle schools.
Ken Long, Wawasee High School teacher and Milford Town Council member, asked if there were any complaints about programming at Milford. Principal William Demers said in past years, yes.
Long said he was reached out to by a reporter about his thoughts on the possible combination of the middle schools. The main part of what he said was “this school is the heart of this community. In any small town, the school is the heart of the community.” He knows what the school means to the community.
For any outgoing member of the School Board, he said he doesn’t think it proper to make “a decision like this on the way out.”
“The decisions we make affect the people of this town,” he said. It’s important to hear what people have to say and for the Board to take the information and do the best they can based upon that.
There were also several people that talked about the community and atmosphere at Milford Middle School.
Corinna Wilkinson has had a Milford School student for the last 13 years. Even when they lived in Syracuse, she made the point in bringing her children to Milford.
“You have all inherited this situation. However, we have lacked transparency and now there is an issue of trust,” she said.
“I am a parent in this school system for 13 years. My voice has not been heard. We value Milford. We want our middle school part of our community,” she said.
Fiscally, it makes sense, but she said she doesn’t believe it’s what’s best for the students or community.
“We people of Milford, we’re not arrogant, but we take a lot of pride in our community and we heard a lot of information about why the middle school would be better and I know this group is driven in education and I’m sure you have a lot of data there, and I respect that. But this group right here, I doubt they’re buying it,” said Sam Beer. “There’s a special atmosphere at this school and this community is really a special place.”
He said he’s a big believer in education, but Milford really respects its community “and a lot of us went to school here and you know what, it turned out pretty good. I appreciate you giving us the evening, but bigger isn’t always better. We like the way it is. And I know there’s really a lot of smart kids that need special classes and I understand that and I respect that.”
Wilkinson said she heard from other community members, as well staff members, who said they weren’t coming to the meeting because they felt the Board already made up their minds about combining the schools.
“You represent us. We are taxpayers. We are invested in our community,” she said. The issue is sending students out “of our community.”
A lot of the decisions the school corporation has made has led to this point, she said, and she believes the corporation has skewed the numbers.
Deputy marshal RJ Plummer of the Milford Police Department said he grew up in Warsaw and didn’t know half of his classmates. When he moved to Milford, he liked the small-town atmosphere.
Plummer also touched upon the choice Wawasee students have in which middle school they can go to, no matter where they live in the school corporation.
He said, “You all ready made up your mind to close the school. So why not take all the programs from Milford and put them in Wawasee Middle School?”
He said if kids want to play sports, it’s easier to go to Wawasee Middle School. He said the corporation is sweetening the deal by taking the all the programs and putting them at Wawasee. It’s also an easier choice for teachers to teach 20 students at Wawasee.
Troyer assured those attending the meeting the Board had not made up its mind. Board President Don Bokhart said the Board has not made its mind and the decision weighs heavy on the members’ minds.
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