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Warsaw Community Schools won't change its calendar for next year to avoid hot days in schools without air conditioning. Instead, WCS proposed to the school board Monday installing air conditioning in those schools within two years.
The administration based its recommendation on responses to a survey it sent last month to approximately 4,000 households after some parents objected to the proposed 1997-98 start date. Students are scheduled to start next year on Aug. 19, with staff beginning Aug. 18.
Parents had objected to starting school before Labor Day because students and teachers in buildings without air conditioning sometimes must put up with classroom temperatures between 90 and 100 degrees.
Eight of the 10 elementary schools in the district have no or partial air conditioning. Lakeview Middle School also is not fully air conditioned.
"We need to recognize that there is one best solution to this problem, and that is to air condition our schools," WCS superintendent Dr. Lee Harman said Monday.
Harman said the school board could install air conditioning gradually without raising the district's property tax rate. The installation could be done over the next two years by "simply realigning some of the projects" in the WCS capital projects fund, he said.
Until that is accomplished, excessive heat in the schools in spring and fall could be addressed through such programs as early dismissal, though that will not solve the problem, he said.
Early dismissal leads to inequity with the schools that have air conditioning, Harman said.
What schools receive air conditioning first and the criteria used to determine that have yet to be decided. The school board will discuss the issue further at its May meeting.
The board also:
• Agreed to vote in May on establishing a local testing program for Warsaw students. Assistant superintendent Dr. Tony Etienne proposed using the Northwest Evaluation Association to devise tests tailored to more accurately assess WCS curriculum.
• Approved six release days for the 1997-98 school year to allow for staff development. The six days could be early release or late start days, and the administration need not use all six, Etienne said.
• Approved the summer school curriculum of remedial and enrichment courses.
• Heard a report from Jefferson Elementary students and teachers on the historical walk that fourth-graders and kindergartners took last fall.
• Heard from Harman that enrollment in WCS is 6,292 students - up from 6,255 last year at this time.
The school board meets at 7 p.m. the second Monday of each month in the administration building.
