Questions have been raised about whether a recently elected Warsaw School Board member lives in the district she was voted to represent.
Mallika Klingaman won the Nov. 5 school board race unopposed to represent District 3. She will replace current member Elle Turley who chose not to seek re-election. .
Attorney Timothy Shelly, with Warrick and Boyn LLP, said school corporations are required to have an elected school board with a plan that’s approved by the secretary of state and Department of Education and the board is required to follow that plan.
He said a school board candidate is required to live in the district that they file for, on the day of the election and when the person starts their term. He said once the person starts their term, they can move to anywhere within the boundaries of Warsaw Community Schools. However, if they run for election again, that person has to file for election within the district that they then live in.
Shelly said when Klingaman filed for the position, she filed out a form stating she lived within District 3. Affidavits are currently being reviewed by Shelly and Klingaman’s lawyer.
“Hopefully, we’ll get something back to satisfy eligibility requirements” to satisfy questions on Klingaman’s eligibility to be on the school board, Shelly said.
Klingaman did not address the board Monday. The address she filed with the county clerk’s office in May was 828 Lydia Drive, Warsaw.
Earlier in the meeting, Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert talked about the possible future of Lakeview Middle School (LMS).
Hoffert said WCS has a 10-year ongoing facility plan. The school corporation always has to talk about what’s the next step with maintaining or updating its schools.
Lakeview is the next school on the school corporation’s list to look at. The building itself was built in 1962.
Currently, there are four options on the table for what the school corporation is looking at doing with LMS. The options are to renovate Lakeview, build a new middle school at another location and combine the two middle schools at either Lakeview or Edgewood.
School administrators have looked at other area middle schools to see what they have done, including Goshen Intermediate, Laporte and Plainfield Middle School. Hoffert said the school that resinated the most with WCS staff was Plainfield since that building was built in 1958. He said whether or not WCS follows what Plainfield did with their middle school, he said he believes Plainfield make the right decision with their middle school.
Some of the considerations WCS has to take look at includes the fact birth rates are down 25%, as well as maintaining academic and programing needs for Lakeview students.
Hoffert said no decisions have been made and there are still investigations going on regarding what will be done with Lakeview.
Chief Financial Officer April Fitterling also said what the Legislature does may impact any decision WCS may make. She mentioned Governor-elect Mike Braun’s proposal to reform the state’s property taxes, which would impact the schools and what building projects WCS would be able to afford.
In other business, the board:
• Heard about Together We Feed Them All, a corporationwide food drive.
Edgewood Middle School Principal JoElla Hauselman said the purpose of the food drive is to feed 350 families in need for the two weeks during winter vacation. WCS is working in partnership with the community, churches and service organizations for the food drive. People can donate food from Dec. 2-13.
Food that can be dropped off at Edgewood includes cereal, jam/jelly (plastic containers only), granola bars, pancake mix, syrup, rice, Ramen noodles, soup, instant oatmeal, peanut butter, Pop-Tarts, drink mixes, canned meat and pasta helper, canned pasta, pasta sauce and canned fruit and vegetables.
With any questions, call 574-317-5096.
• Recognized Warsaw’s Dunkin’ Donuts for partnering with WCS during Student of the Month recognitions and staff appreciation days.
• Learned there have been five new applications for bus driver positions. Hoffert said the $2,000 sign-up and referral bonus still applies.